The fruit of neoliberalism: Transnational labor organizing and Ecuador in the global banana industry

Abstract

Abstract This paper takes the 1928 massacre in Colombia as a point of departure, suggesting that it, and the broader popular political challenge it represented to foreign corporations, not only led multinationals to Ecuador (where they would develop the world’s largest banana industry by the early 1950s), but also led multinationals to get out of direct production and develop a system of contract production that defines the industry to the present day. United Fruit turned to Ecuador in the 1930s because land and labor was cheap, available, and unorganized. The same is true today, and the fact that the labor force in the world’s largest banana industry remains essentially unorganized is a huge problem for banana workers throughout Latin America. In a global industry, labor organizing is only as strong as the weakest link. In the case of the banana industry, the weakest link also happens to be the largest one.