What lies behind rebellion of Latin American workers?

Editor’s note: Workers World has begun its 50th year of publication. Throughout the year, we intend to share with our readers some of the paper’s content over the past half century. This article was originally published in Volume 1, on Aug. 1, 1959.

Our fellow workers in Latin America are angry.

They have reason to be.

See how you’d like this general picture of a Latin American worker’s life:

If you’re lucky enough to have a union it’s under attack or being smashed. The best you can afford in housing is a crowded hut without the simplest conveniences. You have enough money only for the cheapest foods—like beans and corn. Milk is too expensive for even the kids, since a Rockefeller company forced out local dairies and then raised the price. (Venezuela)

Around you, American companies (Rockefeller, Morgan, Mellon, Dupont) own the wealth and the best of everything. They own the sugar lands, the oil wells, the factories, the mines. If you work for them, they pay pennies. If you buy from them, they charge high. They know you’ve no place else to go. They get you both ways. And on top of this, prices keep going up.

“Book value” of Wall Street investments in Latin America at the end of 1956 was $7 billion. The U.S. Department of Commerce booklet which gives that information rushes on to assure us that it’s really much more.

Yearly profits of American companies in Latin America, officially given as something over one-half billion, are actually several billions, extracted in a variety of concealed ways.

Forty years ago American capitalists saw, and hungered for, the wealth of Nicaragua. They moved in and started gobbling it up in the following way:

A liberal Nicaraguan president had attempted to cut off the concession of an American-owned mining company. The principal stockholder of this company was an ex-U.S. secretary of state. U.S. Marines were sent in and a clerk of this same mining company was installed as president.

The puppet president then “accepted” a loan from Wall Street with ruinous conditions. The Wall Street banking center acquired, among other things, controlling interest in the Bank of Nicaragua—so that Yankee capital could handle the money after it was loaned to Nicaragua! They also got a controlling interest in the main railroad.

The banking group then named themselves as directors of the bank at high salaries. Instead of paying interest, they charged for taking care of Nicaraguan government money. They charged again for paying it out. Nearly half the gross income of the railroad was paid out in dividends and profits. Marines shot rebelling Nicaraguans as the country was reduced to bankruptcy.

The same basic pattern of exploitation continues today. Only the methods are more sophisticated. Marines are no longer in Nicaragua but an ex-U.S. officer trains Nicaraguan troops to protect U.S. property. You hear about “U.S. aid,” but this means loans with loan shark conditions.

The International Monetary Fund supposedly makes loans to help undeveloped countries. Actually, under the sheep’s clothing of this high-sounding “Fund” are the oil company wolves.

The Monetary Fund sends experts to the needy country. These experts never advise loans to build basic industry so the country could really get on its feet. They advise “austerity.” This means, in short, raising the prices of food so that the workers won’t be able to eat so much.

These experts also advise signing over the oil rights to the American oil monopoly—at the same type of ruinous conditions used 40 years ago in Nicaragua.

But now our brother workers in Latin America have begun to organize. They’ve thrown out some of the worst of the Wall Street puppets. Others are going to follow.

It should be recognized that this is only a beginning. Throwing out a Batista—or a Trujillo—is a first step. Next must be the seizure of the sugar lands, the oil wells, and the factories by the workers. If this step is not taken, Wall Street will retain and reinforce its grip.

We North American workers must realize that the struggle of our fellow workers in Latin America is our fight, too. Only by joining with them and with all the workers of the world can we drive the full power of our fist into the fat belly of the American capitalist class.