The general strike of 1954 was a watershed political and economic event in the history of

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

that ushered in widespread change. When former

United Fruit Company The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 fro ...

lawyer

Juan Manuel Gálvez Juan Manuel Gálvez Durón (10 June 1887 – 20 August 1972) was President of Honduras from 1 January 1949 until 5 December 1954. His election, for the National Party of Honduras (PNH), ended the 16-year dictatorship of Tiburcio Carías Andino ...

became

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

in 1954, following the contested election of 1953, he surprised everyone by adopting a pro-labor stance, introducing, among other things, an

8-hour work day The eight-hour day movement (also known as the 40-hour week movement or the short-time movement) was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses. An eight-hour work day has its origins in the 16 ...

, including extra pay for work on holidays. This has been widely interpreted as an attempt by Gálvez to build a larger electoral base. In April 1954, banana workers employed by United Fruit began a

wildcat strike The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, whil ...

in the northern town of

Tela Tela is a town, with a population of 38,030 (2020 calculation), and a municipality in Honduras on the northern Caribbean coast. It is located in the department of Atlantida. History Colonial era Tela was founded by the Spanish conquistador ...

, primarily over pay issues. In May, dockworkers in

Puerto Cortés Puerto Cortés, originally known as Puerto de Caballos, is a port city and municipality on the north Caribbean coast of Honduras, right on the Laguna de Alvarado, north of San Pedro Sula and east of Omoa, with a natural bay. The present city ...

demanded double pay for holiday work, in accordance with the law. They went out on strike when their leader was dismissed by United Fruit, and subsequently all the United Fruit workers, some 25,000, and also workers for the rival banana exporter Standard Fruit, another 15,000, also joined the strike. In addition to the fruit company workers, industrial workers at the manufacturing town of

San Pedro Sula San Pedro Sula () is the capital of Cortés Department, Honduras. It is located in the northwest corner of the country in the Sula Valley, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean Sea. With a population of 671,46 ...

joined, making the strike a remarkable event in labor mobilization. The strike attracted attention from the role played by the still illegal but increasingly active

Communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...

, which is sometimes blamed for its influence, both now and at the time.

U.S. Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...

John Foster Dulles John Foster Dulles (, ; February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American diplomat, lawyer, and Republican Party politician. He served as United States Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959 and was briefly ...

suggested that

Communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

from

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...

had infiltrated Honduras and were ultimately behind the strike. In fact, modern scholars have presented evidence that the Communist party was as much born of the strike, out of dissident left-wing members of the

Honduran Revolutionary Democratic Party The Revolutionary Democratic Party of Honduras ( es, Partido Democratico Revolucionario de Honduras) was a political party in Honduras. It was formed by members of the short lived Partido Democratico Revolucionario (formed in 1946) and non-Marxis ...

as the cause of it, and that many left-leaning groups, including even the center-right

Liberal party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, were supportive of the strike. Local businessmen, while reluctant to support the strike publicly, did provide undercover financial backing. The United Fruit Company and the government moved to satisfy the strikers in large measure because the United States was concerned with what they thought were Communist leanings by

Jacobo Arbenz Jacobo is both a surname and a given name of Spanish origin. Based on the name Jacob. Notable people with the name include: Surname: * Alfredo Jacobo (born 1982), Olympic breaststroke swimmer from Mexico * Cesar Chavez Jacobo, Dominican professio ...

in neighboring

, and as a result pressured both to resolve the strike. The strike was resolved in July after 69 days, and as a result workers' pay increased substantially and the banana workers

syndicalist Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the left-wing of the labor movement that seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of pr ...

labor union was recognized. The Communist party also gained stature, and the government moved to incorporate some of the demands of the workers into reform programs that continued until the 1970s.Euraque, ''Banana Republic'', pp. 96-98.

References

{{Authority control 1954 in Honduras General strikes in South America Labor in Honduras 1954 labor disputes and strikes