"THE MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY OF EUROBAN: OUR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE PROBLEMS AROUND THE BANANA INDUSTRY"

by EUROBAN Secretariat

We, the organizations that integrate the European network EUROBAN, wish to express the following to the public opinion: Articles and paid advertisements have been divulged in the mass means of communication which reproduce opinions about a supposed international campaign to malign Costa Rica, and whose aim it is to damage the banana industry economy of Costa Rica, and consequently, the country’s sovereignty and the well being of its people. On occasions it is insinuated or openly stated that EUROBAN or its member organizations are accomplices to this supposed international conspiracy. We would like to point out that the non-gover-mental organizations members of EUROBAN, even before forming part of this network, have been involved in international cooperation and solidarity, either with sister organizations or with other counterparts of civil society. This work is based on the principles of human rights, participative democracy, the right to development and social well being, and the self determination of all peoples. We see that the current world order does not permit the realization of these rights in equitable fashion in the North and South, despite their being proclaimed in international conventions. Our cooperation is not compatible with the logic of placing our own economic benefit over the concepts of solidarity with those less favored, or over concepts of economic and political self determination. The network of organizations EUROBAN takes on the same spirit of cooperation and solidarity to propose and coordinate actions geared to make the international banana market, currently monopolized by a few consortia, more accessible to national producers; substitute production techniques that destroy the environment, for others that are more ecologically acceptable, and guarantee appropriate and stable working conditions on the plantations, thus contributing to the well being and economic and environmental sustainability of banana production. *** A large part of our work is directed to the consumers in the countries of the European Union, because the aforementioned goals can only be achieved if certain unconscious attitudes of consumption change, i.e. the preference for "cosmetic bananas" produced by an excess of agrochemicals in order to achieve the banana "prototype", or the demand for ever-cheaper bananas, without considering the economic stability, and the income or health of the workers. That is, we honor our own responsibility and we begin our work "at home", because we consumers are the indispen-sable complement to the production and commercialization of bananas in the international banana economy. Another responsibility of the consumers and our organizations is to influence the modification of the Single Internal Banana Market that the European Union implemented in 1993. EUROBAN, in general terms salutes the regulation of the banana market in order to counter the growing oversupply of bananas which cause a double disaster: first, the deforestation that results from increasing the area dedicated to bananas, especially when current factors promise greater volumes for sale; and second, when the companies are forced to close down the banana plantations and sources of employment, when the markets contract unexpectedly. Likewise, we support conventions such as the Mark Accord, signed between Costa Rica and other banana producing countries with the European Union, because we consider it is important that countries and producers know how many bananas they may be guaranteed to sell. For this reason, we have positions contrary to those represented by the USA and Chiquita in the Mark Accord and the regime of the Single Banana Market in Europe. These two parts were appealed before the World Trade Organization, and obtained a resolution in our favor requiring the European Union to modify its regulations in 1999 regarding the importation of bananas. We should take advantage of this situation in order to introduce changes that truly promote the social-economic and environmental sustainability of production, and equity in commercialization. We would have liked to include in the quotas of the Mark Accord, and above all in the regime of the Single European Market, the individual and associated producers who are currently marginalized from the world market, and those who introduce improvements in the social, labor and environmental aspects of their plantations, by establishing preferential quotas for the most advanced in these areas. With this aim we are carrying out monumental efforts before the European Union. In this context we are organi-zing and calling for participation in the First International Banana Conference, to be celebrated in May of 1998, in Brussels, Belgium, headquarters of the authorities of the European Union.

EUROBAN is an alliance of organizations from different countries, with different cultures and languages. We came together because we have common objectives. Due to the nature of our alliance and to the reason of our work, we respect the self determination of individuals and nations. It is well known that a constant factor in the emergence of long lasting humanist ideals is the confluence of different cultures and ideologies. With astonishment we read in newspaper publications, that defenders and follo-wers of an ideological current in Costa Rica, who consider themselves a "national and international model", violently reproach the Foro Emaus and the Social Pastorate of the Diocese of Limon, along with other international coopera-ting organizations, among them the NGOs of EUROBAN, for being carriers of "un-Costa Rican" thoughts. With equal astonishment, we read that we are supposed puppets who defend the interests of dubious forces, for which we need to be "investigated". When we learned through the press that a Costa Rican delegation went to Belgium and Germany, apparently to "investigate" a local NGO, EUROBAN took the initiative to meet with this delegation, to which the Embassy of Costa Rica in Bonn can testify, only to learn that there was no space for that meeting in the agenda of the delegation. We invited those who criticize us to meet and converse with us. We suggested that belligerent scenarios should not be drawn based on supposed conspiracies against the national inte-rests, when such conspiracies do not exist. In the Foro Emaus, the Social Pastorate and the labor unions, we have found authentic interlocutors and national counterparts who are concerned with the social, labor and environmental conditions in the banana regions. Our interest in jointly finding alternatives, derives from experiences we have had in similar areas in our own countries. In these times of globalization and electronic intercommunications, in which commercial exchange no longer recognizes frontiers, and where information travels the world over in seconds, it is not possible to ignore realities or resolve problems independently. If highly toxic substances are produced in our countries, and are then employed as pesticides in the banana zones, exceeding the levels acceptable in our countries, then it is a moral duty to ask ourselves who is responsible, what are the damages caused, and to look for alternatives. If we are inhabitants of the region with the highest levels of banana consumption in the world, and we know that those who work to produce these bananas cannot satisfy their basic needs, and suffer employment instability and poor working conditions, it is equally our moral duty to look for alternatives. The higher the level of development and technical capacity of the professionals in a particular country, the easier it will be to find alternatives. We recognize that there may be conflicting interests, but we would like to call on intellectual honesty in the debates and on the disposition to dialogue. This document is signed by the following non-governmental organizations, members of EUROBAN: Banana Link, International Center for Trade Union Rights (ICTUR), World Development Movement (WDM), England; Irish Fair Trade Network (IFTN), Ireland; Confederation General du Travail (CGT), France; Centro Nuovo Modellodi Svilupp (CNMS), Italy; Union Internacional de Trabajadores de la Alimentación, Agrícolas, Hoteles, Restaurantes, Tabaco y Afines (IUF/UITA/IUL), GEBANA -Association for Fair Trade, Switzerland; Oxfam Wereldwinkels, Belgium; Plataforma Rural, Spain; International Movement of Reconciliation, Banana Campaign, Austria; BanaFair/Banana Campaign, FIAN -Food First Information and Action Network, BUKO Agrar Koordination- Congress of Development Action Groups, Pro Regen wald, Development Services of the Lutheran Evangelical Church of Bavaria, Germany; Naturskyddsforeningen - Swedish Society for the Conservation of Nature, Sweden.

EUROBAN Secretariat, c/o IFTN, 17 Lower Camden Street, Dublin 2, Ireland. Tel/Fax: +353-1-4753515. E-Mail: iftn@connect.ie

 

THE STRUGGLES ON THE BANANA PLANTATIONS IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE AS SEEN BY "CALUFA" Carlos Luis Fallas, Mamita Yunai.

The duties of "cutting" were obligatory for all the workers on the banana plantations; on the days of "cutting" all those laborers the boss needed had to work on the different duties required. And because the ships of United Fruit "could not wait at the port", those duties had to be carried out at any time and under any condition. Sometimes workers had to carry out the "cutting" duties while sick and under furious storms; at times they had to finish loading the bananas at night, under the rain, shining themselves with kerosine lamps, working with bucking mules, running along poorly built lines, crossing over improvised and dangerous bridges. For these reasons, accidents occurred with such frequency. And all those "cutting" duties were paid by the plantation owners at so many cents per banana bunch received (take note, friends, re-ceived). This means that the workers of that small plantation of Ramal de la Linea Vieja, who sweated and forwent sleep in order to be able to place 1,500 bunches of bananas on the platform, only received payment for the 225 received by United Fruit on that occasion. The "cutting" and carrying of the other 1,275 bunches ended up being useless effort for these workers, wasted labor and sweat. And if on top of this we add mistreatment, exploitation at the commissaries, lack of medical services, the slums where the workers have to live, etc., we can then imagine how much human desperation there was, and how much just anger accumulated day after day, during those terrible times on the banana plantations of the Atlantic Zone.