As an avid and long-time reader of NACLA, I have followed your polemics with Castle and Cooke with great interest. I lived in Honduras from 1975 to 1977, and followed very closely the sad events that led to the destruction of SUFTRASCO (the union that represents workers on Castle & Cooke plantations) and the peasant cooperatives at Isle- tas. The leaders of SUFTRASCO (one of the most well organized unions in Honduras) were expelled from their offices at gunpoint by soldiers under the command of Colonel Gustavo Alvarez. The same thing happened to leaders of the Isletas cooperative, although this case was even more serious since several peasants were tor- tured and unjustly imprisoned for nearly two years. In Honduras, it was common knowledge that money from Standard (as Castle & Cooke is known in Honduras) was involved, and that the soldiers who attacked the cooperative and invaded the plantations at Olanchito and la Ceiba to preempt a general strike decreed by the workers in protest against the illegal detention of their leaders were transported in trucks owned by Standard Fruit. Standard’s “off the record” justification–“making payments to military officers and local of- ficials is the only way that business can be conducted in a country like Honduras”–is both cynical and false. At the time of the assault on SUFTRASCO’s headquarters, the workers were in the midst of con- tract negotiations. Instead of dis- cussing their demands with union leaders, Castle & Cooke opted for bribery and violating the rights of workers. These are methods that the multinational has practiced for decades in Honduras; hence, it is not unreasonable to conclude that for Castle & Cooke, the expres- sions “conducting business” and “ripping the workers off” are prob- ably synonymous. Witnessing this type of cor- porate behavior, one doesn’t have to be very Marxist to erupt in shouts of “Yankee go Home.” It is enough to have been a worker at Standard, or the relative of a peas- ant at Isletas, tortured and impris- oned by soldiers in the pay of Standard Fruit. For the inhabitants of the Valley of Aguan, Standard is the only visible symbol of the United States presence there. Congratulations to NACLA for its fine work of informing others and denouncing injustices throughout Latin America.
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