Bananas, page 19
The truth is that even the good Corporate Social Responsibility companies are acting like United Fruit. While their intentions may be honourable they follow in a long tradition laid down by none other than United Fruit itself. From the Mayan ruins of Quiriguá to the rubble of Managua, the company acted as a philanthropist. It gave endowments for the advancement of women at university, the protection of children and facilities for the higher education of Central American agriculturalists. After providing relief to victims of the 1972 Nicaraguan earthquake, it was Eli Black who referred to ‘Our Social Responsibility’. He almost coined the very term that is so popular today.
United Fruit also made a point of engaging the services of the best people. These included some of Boston’s finest families, ambassadors to the United Nations, heads of the intelligence services, high-ranking churchmen and secretaries of state. John Foster Dulles, to name but one, was one of the most esteemed international statesmen of his age and would not have allied himself with an entity so readily dismissed as a nasty trust. In its time United Fruit embodied Corporate Social Responsibility and by its actions might reasonably have claimed to have invented it. None of that was a guarantee against its abuses.
We continually put ourselves in a position to be surprised. We assume the best, elevate people to pedestals and celebrate their friendship with presidents. We are shocked when it is revealed that we have been ‘sold’ a lie. Then we get embarrassed and try to forget, as we did with United Fruit.
Those that argue the case for the unleashed multi-national may not intend to but would have us ‘say uncle’ to huge global forces over whom we’d have no control, except through our minimal influence as individuals in the market place. We would have to trust those forces to behave in line with vague notions of Corporate Social Responsibility, of which United Fruit always claimed to be a principled practitioner. Today’s advocates of multi-national power would have us all as banana republics.
Costa Rica is the case of one that knows. Other Central American neighbours who had fallen into banana republicanism and tried to escape it have been violently prevented from doing so. Guatemala and Nicaragua are two such examples. Costa Rica successfully fled banana republicanism by establishing its welfare state only to find it is being pulled back by the forces of globalisation.
Since the 1950s Costa Rica has transformed itself into a haven from the rigours of life elsewhere in Central America. It has reduced the number of people living in poverty from a half to a fifth of its population of four million. It has introduced better schools, health care and laws to aid the security of workers. The number of people able to read and write rose to 96 per cent, a rate that compares favourably with that of richer countries. Life expectancy is seventy-eight years, one higher than in the US.
Pressures to compete in the global market have brought change over recent years. The state has had to reduce its expenditure on facilities like public hospitals. Costa Rica’s emphasis on social equality is breaking down, with incomes of the richest people doubling since the late 1980s and those of the poorest rising by less than a tenth. Begging is common in Central America but has not been so in Costa Rica. Lately, the number of beggars on the streets has been noticeably increasing, as has that of prostitutes. Gambling is on the rise. Costa Rica is perhaps best known for its eco-paradise of forests, national parks and wildlife refuges. Such protected areas amount to about a quarter of national territory. Environmentalists are concerned about the extent to which these may yet be subjected to ‘rational’ economic development.
Costa Ricans worry especially about one pivotal aspect of civic life they had come to take for granted, the incorruptibility of their politicians. There have been a number of cases of alleged corruption of late involving leading figures. One left the country rapidly for Switzerland and others have faced charges of embezzlement and accepting bribes from a multi-national.
This is not the Costa Rica of recent generations and the prospects for the country that took on the leviathan of United Fruit and won look daunting. As one local commentator put it, ‘we are returning to Central America.’
The fate of the product that United Fruit gave the world is the final testament to the company’s work and ways. As a clone, the banana suffers its extreme genetic weakness. Mass production and monoculture have proved too much of an added burden. The huge plantations of the past century have enabled disease to take hold over wide areas and sweep on. With only one variety to chew through, the banana’s pathogenic enemies have been able to get on with their work without having to adapt to new and different challenges.
The banana companies gave up experimenting to find new types of banana some twenty years ago. They concentrated on fighting the banana’s adversaries with intensified chemical warfare. It was too difficult and expensive to find enough decent seeds in bananas to engender new ones, they argued, because they had to compete in the world and keep their prices down. The ailing banana had itself become a welfare issue too far.
Private enterprise pushed the fruit’s fate back onto the resources of impoverished states. The scientists skilled in genetic modification were summoned and only too pleased to be invited. More recently the companies have resumed the quest for seeds and new breeds in the collective hope that a truly disease-resistant variety can be found this time. No word has emerged of a banana breakthrough.
The issue with the fruit is not whether it should be sold ‘Free Trade’ or ‘Fair Trade’ but how much longer it will be sold at all. In our case, the world’s progress indicates that those in charge of the unseen mechanism have mapped out our path. Strangely, it is similar to that of the banana. As it heads back to its origins in the forest, so we are bound for Banana Land and our United Fruit world of jungle capitalism.
Select Bibliography
Adams, Frederick Upham. Conquest of the Tropics: The Story of the Creative Enterprises Conducted by the United Fruit Company. Doubleday, Page & Company, New York, 1914
Amory, Cleveland. The Proper Bostonians. E.P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1947
Anderson, Jon Lee. Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life. Bantam Press, 1997
Asturias Miguel Ángel. The Green Pope. Delacorte, New York, 1971. Originally published 1954
Bakan, Joel. The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power. Constable & Robinson, 2004
Baker, Ernest H. ‘United Fruit’. Fortune, March 1933
Bernays, Edward L. Biography of an Idea. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1965
Bernays, Edward L. Propaganda. Liveright, New York, 1928
Bobbit, Philip. The Shield of Achilles; War, Peace and the Course of History. Penguin, 2003
Bourgois, Philippe. Ethicity at Work: Divided Labour on a Central American Banana Plantation. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 1989
Bucheli, Marcelo. United Fruit Company and Local Politics in Colombia 1900–1970. Draft for Comments: Department of History, Stanford University, 1997
Butler, Smedley D. War is a Racket. Feral House, Los Angeles, 2003. Originally published in 1935
Cabot, Thomas. Beggar on Horseback. David R. Godine, Boston, 1979
Crowther, Samuel. The Romance and Rise of the Tropics. Doubleday and Duran, New York, 1929
Cullather, Nick. Secret History: The CIA’s Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952–54. With afterword by Piero Gleijeses. Stanford University, 1999
Deutsch, Hermann B. The Incredible Yanqui: The Career of Lee Christmas. Longmans, Green and Co, London, New York,1931
Dosal, Paul J. Doing Business with the Dictators: A Political History of United Fruit in Guatemala, 1899–1944. Scholarly Resources, Wilmington, Delaware, 1993
García Márquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude. Penguin, 1972. Originally published in 1967
Halberstam, David. The Fifties. Fawcett, New York, 1994
Henry, O. Cabbages and Kings. Penguin, 1993. Originally published in 1904
Hunt, E. Howard. Undercover: Memoirs of an American Secret Agent. Berkley Publishing, 1974
Immerman, Richard H. The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of Intervention. University of Texas Press, 1982
Jenkins, Virginia Scott. Bananas: An American History. Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000
Karnes, Stanley. Tropical Enterprise: The Standard Fruit and Steamship Company in Latin America. Louisiana State University, 1938
Kepner, Charles, and Soothill, Jay. The Banana Empire: A Case Study of Banana Imperialism. Russell & Russell, New York, 1963. Originally published in 1935
Kinzer, Stephen. ‘The Trouble with Costa Rica’. The New York Review, June 8, 2006
Kobler, John. ‘Sam the Banana Man’. Life, February, 1951
Litvin, Daniel. Empires of Profit: Commerce, Conquest and Corporate Responsibility. TEXERE, London, New York, 2003
McCann, Thomas. An American Company: The Tragedy of United Fruit. Crown Publishers, 1976
McCullough, David. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal. Simon and Schuster, 1977
McQueen, Humphrey. The Essence of Capitalism. Profile, 2001
Melville, John H. The Great White Fleet. Vantage, New York, 1979
Munro, Dana. Intervention and Dollar Diplomacy in the Caribbean, 1900–1921. Princeton University, 1964
Niedergang, Marcel. The Twenty Latin Americas (Volume 1). Penguin, 1971
Pearce, Fred. ‘Going Bananas’. New Scientist, January 18, 2003
Pringle, Henry. ‘A Jonah Who Swallowed the Whale’. American Magazine, September 1933
Schlesinger, Stephen, and Kinzer, Stephen. Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala. Harvard University, 1999
Solow, Herbert. ‘The Ripe Problems of United Fruit’. Fortune, March 1959
Soluri, John. Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption & Environmental Change in Honduras and the United States. University of Texas Press, 2005
United Fruit Historical Society. www.unitedfruit.org
Warner, Marina. No Go the Bogeyman: Scaring, Lulling and Making Mock. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1998
Whitfield, Stephen. ‘Strange Fruit: The Career of Samuel Zemurray’. American Jewish History, March 1984
Wilson, Charles Morrow. Empire in Green and Gold: The Story of the American Banana Trade. Greenwood, New York, 1968. Originally published in 1947
Index
Adams, Frederick Upham 1, 2
Afro-American workers 1
agricultural workers 1, 2
see also workers/plantations
Algonquin Club, Boston 1
Allende, Salvador 1, 2
Almirante Bay (Panama) 1, 2, 3
American Banana Company 1
American Company, An 1
American Indians 1
American Tobacco Company 1
anarchists 1, 2
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company 1
anti-Semitism 1, 2, 3, 4
anti-trust offensives see trusts
‘Apple’ (banana variety) 1
Aracataca (Colombia) 1
Arbenz, Colonel Jacobo, president, Guatemala 1, 2, 3, 4
land reforms 1
meeting with Ambassador Peurifoy 1
overthrow 1, 2, 3, 4
Arbenz, Señora María Vilanova de 1, 2, 3, 4
Argentina 1
Argueta, Manuel Colom 1
Armas, Colonel Carlos Castillo 1, 2
Asturias, Miguel Ángel 1, 2
Atlántida (Honduras) 1
Attlee, Clement 1, 2
‘backers’ 1
bagasse 1
Baker, Captain Lorenzo 1, 2, 3
‘Banana Boat Song, The’ 1, 2
banana boats 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
passengers 1, 2, 3, 4
Banana Buyers Protective Association 1, 2
‘banana heads’ 1
Banana Land 1
Banana Man see Zemurray, Sam(uel)
banana plantations 1, 2, 3, 4
Canary Islands 1
Caribbean 1, 2
Colombia 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Costa Rica 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Cuba 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Ecuador 1, 2, 3
Grenada 1
Guatemala 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Honduras 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Iceland 1
Israel 1, 2
Jamaica 1, 2, 3, 4
Nicaragua 1, 2
Panama 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
workers see workers/plantations
Banana Republic clothes chain 1
banana republics 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Banana Six (jazz band) 1, 2
banana war 1, 2
bananas
advertising 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
and health 1, 2, 3, 4
as drug 1, 2
botany 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
comedy of/jokes 1, 2, 3
diseases 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
see also Panama disease; sigatoka
etymology 1
‘fair trade’ 1, 2, 3
fertilisers 1, 2
for children (1945) 1
‘free trade’ 1, 2, 3
future threatened 1
genetics 1, 2
going bananas 1
hallucinogenic 1, 2, 3
harvesting 1
how to eat 1, 2
in literature 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
in popular culture 1, 2, 3
labelling 1
leaves for clothing 1
markets
Europe 1, 2, 3
UK 1
USA 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
nutritional qualities 1, 2, 3, 4
producers’ cartel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
product diversification 1
production costs 1
recipes 1, 2
ripening 1
sales 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
sayings/idioms 1, 2, 3
sexual innuendo 1
symbol of the West 1
trade wars 1, 2, 3
varieties 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
‘Big Mikes’ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Bananera (Guatemala) 1
Batista, Fulgencio, president Cuba 1
Bay of Pigs (1961) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Beard, Dita (lobbyist) 1
Belafonte, Harry 1, 2
Belize 1
Berlanga, Tomás de 1
Bernays, Edward 1, 2, 3, 4
propagandist for UFC 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
‘Big Mikes’ (banana variety) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Biography of an Idea, The 1
Bishop, Maurice, leader Grenada 1
black rights 1, 2
Black sigatoka see sigatoka
Black, Eli 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
illicit activities 1, 2, 3, 4
social responsibility 1, 2, 3
suicide 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Bluefields (Nicaragua) 1, 2
Bobbitt, Philip 1
Bocas del Toro (Panama) 1, 2, 3
Bolsheviks 1, 2, 3
Bonilla, General Manuel, president Honduras 1, 2, 3, 4
Bordeaux Mixture 1, 2, 3
Boston 1, 2
banana imports 1, 2, 3
‘Brahmins/Wasps’ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Boston Fruit Company 1, 2
Bragman’s Bluff (Nicaragua) 1, 2
Brahmins 1, 2, 3, 4
Brazil coffee trade 1
bribery see United Fruit Company/bribery
British East India Company 1
British Honduras 1
Bryan, William Jennings 1
Bump, Almyr (UFC engineer) 1, 2, 3
Bush, George, president USA 1
Butler, Brigadier General Smedley D 1, 2
Cabbages and Kings 1, 2
Cabot family Boston 1, 2
Cabot Lodge, Henry 1, 2, 3, 4
Cabot, John Moors 1
Cabot, Thomas 1, 2, 3
Cabrera, General Manuel Estrada 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
California 1
Cameroon 1
canals see Panama Canal
Canary Islands 1
Canto General (Neruda) 1
capitalism 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
see also free trade
Caribbean 1, 2, 3
workers 1
cartels 1, 2, 3, 4
see also OPEC; UPEB; price fixing; trusts
Carter, Jimmy 1, 2, 3, 4
Caruso, Enrico 1
Castillo Armas, Colonel Carlos see Armas
Castro Doña Pacífica Fernández de 1, 2
Castro Fernández, Cristina 1, 2, 3, 4
Castro, Dr José María, president Costa Rica 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Castro, Fidel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Castro, Raúl 1
‘Cavendish’ (banana variety) 1, 2
Cavendish, Lord 1
Central America 1, 2, 3, 4
Central Intelligence Agency see CIA
Chatsworth 1
Chávez, César (union leader) 1
Chicago, University of 1
Chile 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
China 1, 2
Chinese workers 1
Chiquita 1, 2, 3, 4 previously United Brands
Chiquita Banana, Señorita 1, 2, 3, 4
Chiriquí Lagoon (Panama) 1, 2
Christmas, Lee 1, 2, 3, 4
Churchill, Winston 1, 2, 3
CIA 1, 2, 3
and United Fruit Company 1, 2
Chile 1
Cuban invasion 1, 2
