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Honduras The Lower Class
Traditionally, the poor in Honduras have lived
predominantly in
rural areas. The lack of economic opportunity in rural
areas and
the subsequent migration to the cities have led to an
increasing
number of urban poor.
During the colonial period, the low population density
in the
country made land readily available for small subsistence
farmers.
When the concentration of land for cotton and cattle
export began
in the 1950s, the situation in the rural areas changed. By
the
1960s, poor rural families were struggling for survival on
smaller
parcels of land that had ever-decreasing rates of
fertility and
productivity. By 1965 landlessness had become a problem.
The increase in the number of landless peasants led to
even
greater numbers migrating to cities in search of
employment and in
the emergence of a peasant movement in national politics.
The
majority of those unable to practice subsistence farming
remained
in rural areas, however, and sought work as farm workers;
62
percent of the labor force in 1993 was in agriculture.
Other
displaced peasants migrated to the cities in search of
employment
in the service sector (20 percent of the total labor force
in
1993), manufacturing (9 percent of the total labor force),
and
construction (3 percent of the total labor force). Still
others
joined the peasant movement and migrated to areas where
cooperative
enterprises were being established or to areas where
members of
militant peasant groups were appropriating land.
The poorest peasants still practice subsistence farming
in plots
of five hectares or less. Many others work as
sharecroppers or rent
land for cash. The majority of peasants are forced to seek
work as
full-time or part-time laborers, depending on the season
and the
size of the farms on which they are employed. At best,
this work
provides income to supplement the meager earnings from
their own
small parcels of land. At worst, this work represents
their sole
source of income.
Although official unemployment figures are not very
high,
underemployment is widespread in the countryside and is
increasingly a problem in urban centers as well.
Underemployment
(ranging between 15 and 75 percent) is usually a result of
the
seasonal nature of most of the available agricultural
work. During
the 1980s, the level of underemployment also rose in areas
of the
Caribbean coast where banana and sugarcane plantations are
located.
Although work in sugarcane fields is seasonal, banana
plantations
are a source of long-term contracts or even permanent
employment.
The labor surplus in the interior highlands is evidence of
the
severe economic plight of most Hondurans.
In the 1980s, land pressures, an increasing number of
landless
peasants, and the declining standard of living of the
peasantry and
working class galvanized the ranks of peasant
organizations and
labor unions. The first national peasant group to
organize, in the
1950s, was the National Federation of Honduran Peasants
(Federación
Nacional de Campesinos de Honduras--Fenach). The National
Association of Honduran Peasants (Asociación Nacional de
Campesinos
de Honduras--Anach) was established in 1962 as a competing
association. By the time of the economic crisis of the
1980s, both
associations had become equally militant and
confrontational. The
National Union of Peasants (Unión Nacional de
Campesinos--UNC) was
formed in the 1960s. It began as a militant organization
with roots
in the international Christian socialist movement, but by
1993 it
was a less combative association. Many other politically
active
peasant organizations operated in Honduras. Their roles
and
strategies have varied from alienating the government and
military
with land takeovers and other militant tactics to a joint
agricultural project with the military in 1989.
Since the 1954 banana workers' strike, the labor
movement in
Honduras has been the strongest in Central America; in
1992, 40
percent of urban labor and 20 percent of rural labor were
unionized. Unions are strongest in the public sector, the
agricultural sector, and the manufacturing sector.
Strategies used
by the labor movement range from providing crucial support
to
sympathetic administrations to adopting more combative
positions
during general strikes.
Although the labor and peasant movements represent
interest
groups that cannot be politically ignored, their influence
has
varied considerably since the 1950s. The two movements
were
weakened somewhat by repeated government attempts to
divide the
organizations. They were also weakened by internal
divisions and
the presence of opportunistic individuals in leadership
positions.
The economic crisis of the 1980s and the imposition of the
economic
adjustment policies during that decade have also taken a
toll on
these organizations. Confrontations between these groups
and the
government were frequent in the early 1990s. On more than
one
occasion, strikes in key sectors of the economy led to the
government's calling in the army.
Data as of December 1993
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