This paper seeks to contribute to the theoretical understanding of labor movements by exploring the strategic thinking and positioning of workers in industrial disputes. It analyzes how the interplay of national institutions, business conditions, and prevailing political ideologies influences shifts in strike strategies. To ground this theoretical approach, the study reconstructs and compares two pivotal strikes within the same industry—the banana sector—occurring under distinct institutional and strategic conditions shaped by the influence of socialist and communist ideologies on Colombia’s labor movement during the 1920s and 1930s.
The first case revisits the 1928 strike against the United Fruit Company UFC, marked by a violent outcome known as the Banana Massacre, characterized by confrontational tactics and limited state and labor policy institutions. The second focuses on the 1934 “Retaliation Strike,” orchestrated by UFC workers during a period when the Communist Party of Colombia (PCC) began exerting a significant influence on labor mobilization, aligning workers’ strategies with evolving political ideologies and adaptive responses to a changing institutional landscape under the Liberal Republic.
By analyzing the comparative strategic development of these and other strikes during the second half of XX century, this paper highlights how labor movements navigated and adapted to external pressures, including political and economic shifts, to reposition themselves effectively. This historical lens not only enriches the narrative of labour history in Latin America but also informs the broader business history discourse by examining how ideological shifts and state-labour dynamics impact the strategic agency of worker movements and their interplay with corporate strategies.