This is the story of a fruit a simple fridge available all year round all around the world. This is the story of a fruit on which an empire was built one of the 1st multinational its the united Fruit Company. In the morning i get the movie. But when i eat a banana found a. Job this is the story of a free each that changed the destiny of Central America and gave its name to republics it be time notorious it became the symbol of all whats wrong with american capitalism. This is a tale of economics and politics a story about globalization. This is the story of a fruit a simple print the but. Her. It all began in 1871 when the government in costa rica asked assassin Minor Cooper Keith from new york to build a railway. It was to link the caribbean coast to the hype not change through the jungle. But nothing went as planned. The jungle was merciless. That one accident scorpions malaria 4000 men died and just 40 kilometers of Railway Track were completed. And after a stock market crash their own dried up. Costa rica could no longer pay its debts the railway remained on finished myna faced financial ruin. He didnt know then that fortune was right there at his feet in the human soil of the jungle in this simple fruit that fed his workers lebannon. First the simple food of work and the banana appeared at the turn of the century as markets in the United States it was a prize delicacy expensive because it was rare perishable. Anyone who managed to transport it quickly enough before it got ripe and wrought could turn it into gold. Miner recognize that very soon he was exporting bananas and he was saved from bankruptcy. He struck an agreement with the government in costa rica he would finish work on the railway in return he asked for the right to use the line and receive ownership of large plots of land. Land to grow bananas. Trains for transporting them quickly and cheaply. The foundation of his fortune. In 899 mine i entered a partnership with 2 men from boston he had the plantations and railways his associates provided a fleet of ships and a Distribution Network across the u. S. On march the 30 year 899. 00 they founded the united Fruit Company. By working to finish a Multinational Force a company which owns and controls assets in more than one country i would say its among the 1st of the multinationals in this kind of like primary commodity type of of of business and its really taking the process of little integration to quite quite an extreme x. Extent including you know constructing whats going to become one of the biggest shipping fleets in actually in in the world and integrating right down through to distribution in the United States so its really quite quite extraordinary. At this time but theyre pioneering in a more fundamental way because this company is actually creating a market for going on us as well as pioneering how to deliver the product to the consumer so in 890 nobody in the United States really knew what a banana was basically. By the 1914 you can buy been on as in virtually all big american towns. Tasty nourishing full of the. United Fruit Company had a flair for promoting bananas. Mothers with families were the targets the Company Published recipes and paid pediatricians to praise the bananas nutritional values. Very soon americans could no longer do without them. 2 imported in huge quantities they were low in price and widely accessible. At melbourne and i. Asked my advice that is a delicate storms floods and heatwaves regularly destroyed crops bananas threatened to become scarce. That was. That my. Dad. Mine and his associates knew they needed to grow ever more bananas over a much larger area right across Central America and. Former spanish colonies these countries had won their independence of the beginning of the 19th century but the United States regarded them as a natural extension of its own market. For the united Fruit Company this was one single territory completely given over to growing by nonas. The united Fruit Company itself kept on growing. It needed more and more that. Its still in panama and costa rica local farmers but i think that. This is the supply slashing the prices the nanos it grows small producers who refused to give up their banana plantations to get into financial ruin step by step they took over hundreds of thousands of hectares of Central Americas biggest plan. For making it all good with the region because its exactly what happened during the land reforms in britain from the 16th until the 18th century so. The british farmers were expropriated in the same way there is no other word for it. Because immediately you the lands which they cultivated started to have fences put up around it. And by the 18th century they were forced to give up their workforce to the new factories. This was the origin of industry and economy as we know them today it was the beginning of modern day capitalism pour. Out of life. Did the united Fruit Company introduce capitalism to Central America. It certainly had a specific vision of development and progress from a start. Ive the railway laid the foundation for mine a cooper kids huge wealth. For the young bank sions of Central America it was synonymous with modernity. Guatemala wanted it sound railway but the country was in debt and when the price of coffee its primary resource. Collapsed it became insolvent plans to build a railway were put on ice. In 1003 quarter mile approach the one person who could help miner cooper keep. He agreed to build a railway in return as usual he demanded land for banana plantations have the right to operate the railway for his own needs he also acquired control over the countrys main ports and the telegraph network. In other words guatemala gave a wage and the united Fruit Company its infrastructure its economy and its future in exchange for a railway. The companys empire grew to the judgment of the young nations in search of progress but with no resources and indicates. That the pool the dirt of the poor helps line the pockets of the rich privatizing the entire Public Sector through the debt mechanism is the act of expropriation of Common Property that typically land for the profit of a limited few could mean to be one of. The banana growing nations in the caribbean also bound themselves one after the other to the company. Each time the Company Managed to pay little or no chances in the countries in which is operated draining their resources even more and assuring their dependence. Case of the united fruit. Had these wonderful tax free concessions and things but honestly practically every western company all over latin america and asia had the same at the same conditions basically they had the Bargaining Power they had the technological advantage and the money these places wanted done and the deal was very little taxes. In our age tax avoidance or tax planning as it has its called in Business Schools has become a central feature of business globally and thats a quite different situation from when you know developing fragile states in the one 900. 00 centuries were offering low tax low taxes now its the core of business. A multinational can easily avoid fiscal legislation in the sovereign states where it operates by using a method which is well known today transfer prices where profits show up in the countries with the lowest tax levels of. Proof this is a political issue do we want this money to be given back to the public authorities to be used for the common good. Or do we continue to allow our states fiscal revenue to be siphoned off by multinationals so its a global issue to society but also on the left and. Has been known ahead come a long way a simple fruit had led to an economic empire which became the full run out of a modern day multinational. In his 1904 novel cabbages and kings the American Writer oh henry. Described a fictional state controlled by a Fruit Company and creative expression republic. Fruit plantations formed worlds of their own. By the laws of the company. Segregated societies. On the one side the manager graduates from the best universities but the foreman from the south of the United States who brought with them their knowledge of slave culture. The banana plantation. And american and clay in the tropics. An isolated social entity with its own way of life. A telegram dated 29th of may 919 to the united Fruit Company head office. Lot of labor. Mostly criminal. Useless laborers from costa rica panama and nicaragua. Continue sending jamaican laborers. The laborers on the plantations constituted the work force an entity which required organizing. The jamaicans well prize for their strength and enjoyment they were imported sent to speak in their tens of flowers from the island of jamaica and herded around from plantation to plantation. Can no coals when relegated to domestic chores. The hispanics viewed with suspicion in. The Company Preferred uprooted isolated and dos our workers unions were forbidden. Entire towns had to be built by the company to ours theirs workers sometimes large ones had to be drained. The company avoided taxes but prided itself on creating entire villages in the jungle. Entires the workers and their families. Build clinics and hospitals. Open schools for the laborous children. Wages were often paid in vouchers which laborers could use only in the. Shops to buy food clothing fun ature and tools. But although the Company Controlled every moment in its employees lives to months started to be made for a 6 day week and an 8 hour working day Unemployment Benefits and salaries paid in cash. On rest was spreading and banana land. In october 1928 was the son time mobster plantation in colombia went on strike. After negotiations failed workers occupied Company Buildings on the plantation. The colombian government sent in the army over a 1000 people died. The suppression of the santa marta strike became known as the banana massacre an important historical event for colombia and Central America the symbol of state submission with use of its public forces in the interests of a Foreign Company i was. From then on throughout the caribbean the united Fruit Company was simply referred to as the octopus. In june 1929 miner cooper keyes died in costa rica. He left behind a huge jump. With 100000 employees and over a 1000000 hectares of plantations. In 1910 he had bought up the British Health ala fifes and gained access to the European Market the time of mine a. United Fruit Company controlled 75 percent of the global banana trade. A few competitors existed but the united Fruit Company tolerated them in order to avoid the us north on monopolies. The core young male Fruit Company was the companys main rival actually ted was samuels the marry. A tall and gruff man with a strong russian accent he was seen as a visionary capable of making bananas grow on the most hostile that. 8 in 1910 he had overturned the government of honduras which had tried to get his way and he didnt hide the fact he became a legend. His rags to riches story began on ellis island in 892. The money started out of the docks of mobile alabama ports on the gulf of mexico. He saw the united fruit ships on loading bananas and watch the traders thats where. He learned to spot the fruit no one else wanted the right bananas which once suitable for distant markets. He made a bulk purchase for next to nothing. But he hired a wagon and over the following 3 days journey through this. Southern states he sold his entire stock at the railway stations them asked for his 1st trip he had 40. 00. Salmon of anonyma and had arrived. Samuels a merry challenge the united Fruit Company until finally his competition became too troublesome for them. In november 1029. 00 he accepted a merger united fruit bought out his Company KoreaMerrill Samuel received 30000000. 00 worth of united Fruit Company shares. If this made him one of the richest men in the United States and also united fruit biggest shareholder. In 933 he dismissed the companys board of directors and took singlehanded control as one magazine headline put it a journal who swallowed the whale. A true 56 years of age samuel summary was the uncontested king of bananas. Was an empire cannot stand still if it doesnt grow it fails. In. The 2nd world war froze international trade. Not the postwar era brought the promise of reconstruction Economic Growth and new markets for united fruits bananas summary found just the man to conquer these markets Edward Bernays a pioneer of his own kind and a master. Public relations and advertising. About who could shape reality according to his clients wishes. In the 1920 s. Edward bernays had persuaded american women to start smoking convincing them that the cigarette was a torch of liberty the instrument of their emancipation. Back then he was for the powerful American Tobacco company. In his book entitled propaganda Edward Bernays defended in his own words the conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses by an enlightened minority. Could it have been his uncle Sigmund Freud who helped him understand so well yawn that in a Consumer Society advertising was the key to creating consumer wishes which could be nurtured stimulated ad in for nice and. So samuels the memory he made of a nano the fruit of the american dream. You know youre right but i am a. Crime to keep it open and that and ive found that they can and they have a right and theyre certain way when theyre playing when brown and i have a golden new financial state the best and other theres. Chiquita banana became a household name through you know when i get my hair greenish way are looking means that you are ripe for cooking and to keep the man i am come a rarely generated way and keep the men and i am a. Better relation treat a fair old man its ways if you like to leave refined and. Eating habits really are to blame. Bananas ideal world every but none are looks the same and tasted the same the company produced only one variety the core mission. Tasty and hearty are there for exportable demand kept on growing. But it is not a moment to have the right ambition for the one im most curious. It is also necessary to write because im pretty sure this is a boring old foundation. On the plantations weakened by intensive monoculture to very much parasites were spreading panama disease and yellow sea. Chiquita banana swaying hips couldnt hide the reality the empire was rotting probably inside. Samuels or barry had tons of pesticide sprayed over the banana plots up to 30 times a year. They see volunteered for the job received extra pay they were known as their vision and arrows the poison us. Very soon their skin took on a polluted they fell ill doesnt start. The lifetime of a plantation fell from 10 to 3 years those infected by parasites were abandoned. More jungle was cut down to create new plantations. It was as if united fruit had taken over the whole of Central America. The oppressor not as criticism for slim but its remarkable because it is a parable of the perverse effects of capitalism and the logic of accumulation after all the logic intrinsic to capitalism is the accumulation of capital of which there is no foreseeable end with the idea that the resources being used are endless. Based on how many think that this example shows that the company should have realized that doing this was not in its interests if you get at the top of the corporate mocking that you get people die in a bid to maintain a machine which harms the environment and in regard to sustainability in the economic sense is pointless if they couldnt make this happen or. If you havent security in the end its not a selfperpetuating logic required someone who is in charge to step in and say stop this remasters we need to do this differently or that it cant even fix what hamas is going to. Be offering the free flow of the religious impulse what in very workable in 1944 a revolution in guatemala put an end to the 14 year rule of the dictator jorge will be calling. The ones i dont know ive got your forum on the what if you want a dictator was a good friend of the united Fruit Company. To be close saw himself as the reincarnation of napoleon. Fearing a loss of power had to bend to the use of the words strike petition and union. He believed in forced labor for the poorest and the lowest wages possible. The contracts each signed with united fruit one highly favorable for the company. Large nationals like you noted for stuart stability for its for its investments democracy is can be very unstable i mean theres a reason why multinational investment is very low in india and the reason is its democracy where there are multiple parties is always sort of