"NEW SOCIAL FUND RENDERS FRUITS: QUALITY OF LIFE FOR THE BANANA PLAN-TATION ZONES"

by Omar Salazar Alvarado of the Social Fund of the Costa Rican Fund for Microprojects (FOMIC)

The Social Fund of the Costa Rican Banana Plantation Sector (FOSBAS) is an economic organism that has been functioning since January, 1995, offering cre-dits and donations in support of productive, social and ecological initiatives of social groups and grass roots organizations related to the banana industry and its consequences. During 1995, the Fund worked only in the Atlantic Zone of the country (from Sarapiqui to Sixaola), but since January of 1996, it expanded into the Southern Zone of the country, with a pre-sence from Palmar Sur to Rio Claro. FOSBAS emerged as a result of the efforts of NGOs, Unions, and communal organizations, who intered in the impact zones of the banana industry, wrote up an agreement of institutional collaboration between the Costa Rican Fund for Microprojects (FOMIC) and the Swiss Cooperation Agency, Helvetas. The economic funds came from the sales of bananas of the small Costa Rican producers to European (Swiss and German) markets, by the mediation carried out by Gebana, a Swiss organization that promotes and commercia-lizes the Fair banana. Gebana hands over part of the profits for the finan-cing of small projects. The beneficiary population of FOSBAS is made up of the salaried men and women banana plantation workers and ex-workers, small far-mers and landless peasants, women, youth groups, indigenous groups and migrant banana workers. But likewise, those benefitted were grass roots organizations (Unions, peasant organizations, cooperatives, women’s asso-ciations, Churches, cultural, ecological and indigenous organizations) and organizations of promotion and popular education that work in these zones. Support is directed to those activities that are executed by new groups, social organizations and NGOs. These projects tend to allevia-te or resolve social problems derived from the banana industry, and that considerably affect the human populations that are directly or indirectly inserted in the banana industry.Financing is divided in two parts:1) Credits directed to productive projects of grass roots organizations, be they of rural or urban areas linked to the banana sector (with an adequate interest rate). The maximum ceiling to be approved for a project during 1996 was of 350,000 colones. The following activities were given first priority: traditional agriculture for internal or external markets, agroindustry, commercialization, small scale commerce and services, microbusinesses related to tourism, crafts, natu-ral medicine, reforestation and protection of watersheds at a low cost and with community management, communal or family reforestation by way of forest tree nurseries of native species, small scale animal husbandry by communities or families, the use of alternative technology, the invention and production of substitutes for agrochemicals, and the validation of alternative instruments for production. 2) Donations for projects of a social character in such areas as health, informal education, organization, human rights, ecology and environmental protection, culture, support of community infrastructure and communication. The approximate amount donated per project is 150,000 colones.Results in two years of work During the period of 1995-1996, the FOSBAS program has financed a total of 121 projects, of which 112 are social projects and 9 are productive projects. The amount financed by FOSBAS for this period was a total of 11,657,501 colones in donations (social projects) and 2,880,000 colones in credits (productive projects), which reveals the social vocation of the project. By county of incidence, we find that the support has been concentrated in those places where there is a greater presence of the banana industry in the zone. Pococi is the exception; it is one of the counties with the greatest banana production where the Fund has had particular difficulty in entering, maybe for not having emissaries, maybe for an inadequate promotion, or maybe because this sector is where there has been the greatest demobilization of the banana workers movement because of the proliferation of the Solidarista Associations. The truth is that for 1997, FOSBAS made an enormous effort to enter the zone, partially achieving its aim in the first semester, with the reception of six projects, this being the same number of projects supported in the last two years. Two areas need to be analyzed with special care: the areas of ecology and communication, both of which are considered to be of high impact in the zone. The first, because it points to concrete and delicate problems in the banana plantation zones; the second, because it is considered a means with great impact for the development of organizational initiatives and for the dissemination of information regarding the problems of the Zone. In 1997, we began a program of identification and promotion of grass roots organizations in such areas. This effort has had positive results already in the first semester of 1997. The evolution of the Fund in two years reveals an increase in the placement of funds, both in the amounts (from 5.75 million in 1995 to 8.78 million in 1996), and in the number of projects approved which grew by 68.1 percent. Nevertheless, the potential of the Fund is not used in its totality. The financial movements in 1995 left an unused amount of 1.6 million colones, and in 1996 the amount left unused was of 1.5 million. However, it is important to note that in 1995, the total available amount was approximately 5.6 million colones, and in 1996, it was nearly 11.9 million colones. It is interesting to analyze the biannual evolution of the Fund, in three areas of priority: the first being credit or production; the second is the social area of organization, one of the most solicited; and the third is the fight for justice, where we support a movement that fights for the rights of the inhabitants of the zones of incidence.General conclusions* FOSBAS has become a work tool for the organized inhabitants in the zones of impact of the banana industry in Costa Rica.* The numbers presented do not reflect the real impact that can be seen among the communities: the true sense of the program is crystallized in the strengthening of the organizations; in the support given to the revindication of lands, and to the struggles for the rights of workers; in the funding for environmental reco-very; and in the help for the repair of communal infrastructures such as schools and health centers.* Hundreds of meters of canals, dozens of school buildings and health centers, hundreds of families helped with food during unjust evictions, new labor union branches, new forms of communication, the establishment of community tree nurseries, studies for the establishment of organic farming, etc. This is the real impact of FOSBAS.* Only in 1996, in social projects alone, more than ten thousand families in the banana zones were directly be-nefitted; this benefit, without being financial, has allowed these families to opt for better living conditions and has contributed to a better quality of life for the inhabitants.*The Fund is just beginning. There are aspects that still need fine tuning. The new process was begun in 1997 by means of a strategic planning, and we expect that for the next year, with the help of cooperation agencies, the Fund may grow in quantity, and above all, in quality so that it may attend the needs of the organized men and women inhabitants.AREAS OF SUPPORT (AREAS TO BE FINANCED)HEALTH. Education, information about eating habits, labor health, support to mobile and temporary health services, promotion of worker committees of occupational health, programs for the building of latrines, health clinic for sterilized wor-kers, dissemination of information, education on the effects of pesticides, education and promotion of natural medicine, research of current problems of environmental health and labor health, campaign for the prevention of health problems.INFORMAL EDUCATION. Seminars, workshops, talks, courses, etc. of basic education for direct beneficiaries, training of leaders, of instructors, of adults, technical training for productive projects, support to educational activities and training for the social and grass roots organizations.ORGANIZATION. Promotion of the organization of each beneficiary sector, promotion of the capacity to defend the interests and empowerment of every beneficiary sector, institutional support for the consolidation of the organization of each beneficiary sector, partial support for the acquisition of equipment and work instruments of the organizations of each beneficiary sector, support to pay temporary technicians for specific activities programmed by the organizations.HUMAN RIGHTS. Defense of violated human rights, promotion for the defense of rights, legal support, research into violations of these rights.ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION. Environmental education, support of education exchanges in the areas of ecology and organic farming, communal or family reforestation projects with the creation of forestry nurseries of native species, economic support of incidence in environmental struggles, audiovisual material about the environmental and ecological problems of the zone, legal advice to actions of protection, denunciations and popular mobilizations for the protection of the environment, support for environmental impact studies, support for lobbying in national and international ecological institutions.CULTURE. Support for programs of cultural protection of ethnic minorities linked to the banana industry, cultural workshops for the workers of the banana sector, events for the reaffirmation of cultural identities of the beneficiary sectors, historical research and salvage of oral traditions among workers of the banana sector.FIGHT FOR JUSTICE. Support for social struggles, support for struggles of revindication of the social organizations of the sector, support to the labor sector in the resolution of patron-worker conflicts, diagnosis of the problems affecting the social sectors that have something to do with the banana sector, travel support for lobbying efforts, support for legal efforts. Studies and dissemination of information regarding the problems affec-ting migrant banana workers, defense of the labor rights of migrant workers.COMMUNICATION. Support for communication materials of organizations or groups, training of grass roots communicators, support to radio programs and grass roots newspapers.SUPPORT FOR ORGANIZED COMMUNITY WORK. Partial support for community infrastructure I (construction of schools, school cafeterias, health centers, community centers), partial support for community infrastructure II (bridges, miniaqueducts, streets, others of communal use, etc.).

THE STRUGGLES ON THE BANANA PLANTATIONS IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE AS SEEN BY "CALUFA"

The United Fruit Company, under the protection of a new and onerous concession, moved its banana activities to our Pacific coast, ending up completely ruining the banana farmers of the Atlantic, and conserving, with miserly greed, the rights over the lands that they abandoned, rights it had obtained in exchange for nothing. The workers in the new banana plantations of the Pacific, immediately organized their labor unions, and later on, they organized the combative Federation of Banana Workers of the Pacific. Some new struggles, new conflicts, and new victories were: better medical services, more decent living quarters, measures to improve conditions in the communities, potable water, sports fields, etc. And the workers, under our direction, also fought to oblige the Company to make effective a greater percentage of Costa Ricans among its employees; and eliminate the superior categories, with a concomitant salary increase. Yes, fellow workers, none of that fell from the sky, none of that was given graciously by the United Fruit. The banana workers, with their firm and sustained struggle, won these improvements, improvements that were also reflected, in part, in the other banana plantations of Central America. (I say in part, because still in 1946 I had the opportunity of visiting the banana plantations of Panama, where the camps seemed more like pig sties).Carlos Luis Fallas, Mamita Yunai