To coincide with Banana Link’s thirtieth anniversary, we are pleased to publish an e-book by Latin American trade unionist and long-time Banana Link collaborator, Gilbert Bermúdez – Thirty years of banana workers’ struggles in Latin America: Trade Unions, Solidarity and Banana Link – which is available to download below in English or Spanish.
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Gilbert began working as a child and teenager on the oil palm plantations at the Roncador estate in Quepos, Costa Rica at the age of eighteen. Motivated by the labour injustices he witnessed and the encouragement of fellow workers, he has dedicated over fifty years of his life to fighting for the rights of banana and agro-industrial workers, not only in Costa Rica, but also across Latin America, becoming the founding coordinator of the Coordinating Body of Latin American Banana and Agro-industrial Unions (COLSIBA) in 1993.
As Gilbert explains in the in this book, it is not his intention to provide an account of the presence of the large transnational corporations that have dominated banana production and marketing, nor a review or analysis of the literature on bananas. Rather, it is intended as a brief overview of some episodes and struggles of banana workers in various Latin American countries.
The book also seeks to acknowledge the solidarity and support that they, many banana workers’ unions in Latin America and the Caribbean, have received from colleagues in various organisations across Europe and the United States. One of these, which he says, “has stood by us most steadfastly in our struggles” being Banana Link, “whom I thank for not leaving us alone, even during the most difficult times we have faced”.
As a former trade union leader, Gilbert says “it is not a text written with the academic rigour of someone who has spent time in university lecture halls. It has been written by someone who spent many years of his life on the plantations, where, on many occasions, the mud kissed my knees and the rain washed away my sweat”.
Gilbert has dedicated the book to the memory of St Vincentian journalist, trade unionist and social activist, Renwick Rose, passed away on 27 May this year aged 78 in his native St Vincent.
