Sigurno ste makar jednom čuli da ljudi nezadovoljni stanjem u zemlji (bilo kojoj zemlji) za nju koriste termin “banana država”,
čak i ako ta zemlja nema nikakve veze sa uzgojem ovog tropskog voća.
Evo kako je termin zapravo nastao i šta označava…
Da je
“banana-država” pogrdan naziv za politički nestabilne zemlje i da termin ima negativnu konotaciju, jasno vam je već i
iz samom konteksta u kom se izraz upotrebljava.
Ipak, priča o tome kako je on nastao, daleko je zanimljivija!
KNJIŽEVNIK VILIJAM SIDNI PORTER
Termin se prvobitno odnosio na države zavisne od poljoprivrednog izvoza samo jedne kulture u kojoj vlast drži korumpirana
grupa političara ili vojna hunta pod uticajem stranih kompanija koje zapravo imaju moć.
Ovo je početkom 20. veka najviše važilo za srednjoameričke zemlje poput Hondurasa, Nikaragve ili Paname, koje su uzgajale
i izvozile mahom banane, pa je tako i nastao izraz - “banana država” ili “banana republika”.
U ovim zemljama političari i privreda decenijama su bili pod uticajem velikih američkih kompanija čija je moć bila daleko veća
nego politička moć vlade ili stanovništva.
Vladale su
velike socijalne razlike, infrastruktura je bila slaba, privreda primitivna, a ljudi uglavnom neobrazovani, jer se u
školstvo nije ulagalo.
Ovakve države oslanjale su se na spoljašnji kapital, a obično je vladala i
velike inflacije.
Zanimljivo je da je izraz zapravo književni.
Termin “banana republika” verovatno je prvi upotrebio američki pisac Vilijam Sidni Porter koji je pisao pod pseudonimom O. Henri.
On je 1904. objavio roman “Kupus i kraljevi” i pišući o fiktivnoj Republici Anhuriji, a verovatno aludirajući na Honduras, napisao:
“U to vreme smo imali sporazum sa svakom stranom zemljom, osim Belgije, i te banana-republike, Anhurije”.
Tokom godina, termin je prvo bio prihvaćen među drugim umetnicima, pa tek onda i u političkoj teoriji.
Čileanski pesnik i Nobelovac Pablo Neruda u knjizi “Opšta pesma” (“Canto general”) iz 1950. ima pesmu pod nazivom
“La United Fruit Co”.
U drugoj strofi kaže:
“Rezervisana za najsočnije,
Centralna obala moje zemlje,
Nežni pojas Amerike.
Preimenovala je svoje teritorije
U “banana državu”
I preko usnulih mrtvih,
Preko neumornih heroja
Koju su doneli velika dela,
Slobodu i zastave,
Napravila komičnu operu.”
Danas se izraz koristi da opiše države u kojima strane firme imaju značajan uticaj na donošenje odluka vlasti
što dovodi do nastanka korupcije, kriminala, nepotizma…
U ovakvim zemljama, bogati se šačica moćnika dok ostatak stanovništva živi teško.
Vlast je nestabilna, a izbori obično sa sumnjivim rezultatima.
United Fruit Company sa svojim feudalnim posedima i kolonijalnim manirima. Imali su i svoju pomorsku zastavu i suvereno gospodarili nesamostalnim južnoameričkim državama koje je američka štampa pežoratovno nazivala “Banana republike”.
Štrajkovi protiv dotične korporacije su se suzbijali metodama iz doba verskih ratova:
The
Banana Massacre (
Spanish:
Matanza/Masacre de las bananeras[1]) was a
massacre of
United Fruit Company workers that occurred between December 5 and 6, 1928 in the town of
Ciénaga near
Santa Marta,
Colombia. A
strike began on November 12, 1928, when the workers ceased to work until the company would reach an agreement with them to grant them dignified working conditions.
[2] After several weeks with no agreement, in which the United Fruit Company refused to negotiate with the workers, the
conservative government of
Miguel Abadía Méndez sent the
Colombian Army in against the strikers, resulting in the massacre of 47 to 2,000 people.
U.S. officials in Colombia and United Fruit representatives portrayed the workers' strike as "
communist" with a "subversive tendency" in telegrams to
Frank B. Kellogg, the
United States Secretary of State.
[3] The Colombian government was also compelled to work for the interests of the company, considering they could cut off trade of Colombian bananas with significant markets such as the United States and Europe.
[4]
Gabriel García Márquez depicted a fictional version of the massacre in his novel
One Hundred Years of Solitude, as did
Álvaro Cepeda Samudio in his
La Casa Grande. Although García Márquez references the number of dead as around three thousand, the actual number of dead workers is unknown.
Strike
The workers of the banana plantations in Colombia went on strike on November 12, 1928. The workers made nine demands from the United Fruit Company:
- Stop their practice of hiring through sub-contractors
- Mandatory collective insurance
- Compensation for work accidents
- Hygienic dormitories and 6-day work weeks
- Increase in daily pay for workers who earned less than 100 pesos per month
- Weekly wage
- Abolition of office stores
- Abolition of payment through coupons rather than money
- Improvement of hospital services[2]
The strike turned into the largest labor movement ever witnessed in the country until then. Radical members of the
Liberal Party, as well as members of the Socialist and
Communist Parties, participated.
[5]
The workers wanted to be recognized as employees, and demanded the implementation of the Colombian legal framework of the 1920s.
[6]
Massacre
An army regiment from
Bogotá was dispatched by the government to deal with the strikers, which it deemed to be subversive. Whether these troops were sent in at the behest of the
United Fruit Company did not at first clearly emerge.
Three hundred soldiers were sent from
Antioquia to
Magdalena. There were no soldiers from Magdalena involved because General Cortés Vargas, the army-appointed military chief of the banana zone in charge of controlling the situation, did not believe they would be able to take effective actions, as they might be related to the plantation workers.
[2]
The troops set up their machine guns on the roofs of the low buildings at the corners of the main square, closed off the access streets,
[7]and, after issuing a five-minute warning that people should leave,
[1] opened fire into a dense Sunday crowd of workers and their families including children. The people had gathered after Sunday Mass
[7] to wait for an anticipated address from the governor.
[8]
Number of people dead
General
Cortés Vargas, who commanded the troops during the massacre, took responsibility for 47 casualties. In reality, the exact number of casualties has never been confirmed. Herrera Soto, co-author of a comprehensive and detailed study of the 1928 strike, has put together various estimates given by contemporaries and historians, ranging from 47 to as high as 2,000.
[1] According to Congressman
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, the killed strikers were thrown into the sea.
[1] Other sources claim that the bodies were buried in mass graves.
[2]
Among the survivors was Luis Vicente Gámez, later a famous local figure, who survived by hiding under a bridge for three days. Every year after the massacre he delivered a memorial service over the radio.
The press has reported different numbers of deaths and different opinions about the events that took place that night. The conclusion is that there is no agreed-on story, but rather diverse variations depending on the source they come from. The American press provided biased information on the strike.
[2] The Colombian press was also biased depending on the political alignment of the publication. For example, the Bogotá-based newspaper
El Tiempo stated that the workers were within their rights in wanting to improve their conditions. However, since the newspaper was politically conservative, they also noted that they did not agree with the strike.
[2]
