Papers presented by Cory Fischer-Hoffman since 2019

2024 Providence, Rhode Island

"Debates on Foreign Ownership, Development and the Public Interest: A History of the Forfeiture of Bethlehem Steel Corporation’s Latin American Iron Ore Holdings (1938-1975)"

Abstract:

The Bethlehem Steel Corporation (BESCO) was a pioneer among US steelmakers in establishing vertically integrated transnational mining operations. By the 1930s BESCO possessed mining rights and operated iron mines throughout Latin America but emerging political movements questioned whether foreign domination of the mineral sector was in the public or national interest. Between 1936 and 1975 all of BESCO’s Latin American iron mining holdings were nationalized–and while the political conditions of each site was the product of specific contexts–they were fundamentally connected to debates around the public interest, national development, dependency, imperialism, capitalism and socialism. This paper is the first study to construct a historical account of Bethlehem Steel Corporation’s iron mining operations in Latin America and the specific processes that resulted in the forfeitures in Mexico (1936), Cuba (1961), Chile (1971) and Venezuela (1975). I argue that in response to what the company called “resource nationalism,” BESCO was forced to adapt their practices in a variety of ways that included hiring national staff to replace foreign management, downplaying the company’s presence and expanding the political/diplomatic work for personnel based out of Latin American capital cities. The company also reoriented its iron mining operations to Canada and the United States and as a defense against nationalization, BESCO opted for a new model of international joint ventures over wholly owned subsidiary operations in Latin America. Through engaging with the conference’s theme of business and the public interest, this paper provides a concrete multi-sited case study for which to engage with key theoretical debates posed by dependency theory and World-Systems Analysis and furthermore contributes to a study of the history of capitalism, globalization, and US business in Latin America’s extractive sector.

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