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Puerto Rico: Fight for Freedom & Independence

By VVAW

The nation of Puerto Rico has been a colony of the United States for more than 75 years, and the people of Puerto Rico have been fighting back against this domination for just as long. A call has gone out to all who support this struggle for independence to show their support around the national demonstration which has been called for Madison Square Garden in New York City on October 27th. The demands of the demonstrations are "INDEPENDENCE FOR PUERTO RICO!" and "A BI-CENTENNIAL WITHOUT COLONIES!"

Puerto Rico is located several hundred miles off the southeast coast of the US in the Caribbean. It is a classic colony of the United States: a country under the full political and economic control of the US government. Eighty-five percent of all industry on the island is directly controlled by US corporations. Although Puerto Ricans have their own "government" and a constitution, all political decisions are subject to approval from Washington. It is this reality that molds and dictates the lives of Puerto Ricans.

In response to this colonial exploitation, the people of Puerto Rico have begun, as they have many times in the past, to build a massive movement for independence...a movement to free their country. In 1897, they won a large degree of autonomy from Spain in their war for independence. However, in 1898, the island was invaded by armed forces of the United States, which placed the territory under military occupation, dissolved the Parliament and established United States rule by force of arms. Since that time, the US government has done everything in its power to crush the aspirations of the Puerto Rican people for independence.

Today, the US has exclusive jurisdiction over all questions of citizenship, foreign affairs, defense, immigration, emigration, foreign trade, currency, postal service, radio and television, air and maritime transport. Decisions of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico can be overturned by federal courts of the US, and all laws adopted by the US Congress automatically apply to Puerto Rico.

The US also has absolute control over the economy of Puerto Rico. Investments total over $1 billion, and now the big oil companies are planning to build a gigantic super port to handle their oil, something the people there strongly oppose. What makes things even more attractive for US corporations is that all of their profits are exempt from all corporate and personal income taxes for up to 17 years!

What does this domination mean for the Puerto Rican people?

It means that their economy will remain stagnant forever. The enormous profits made by US corporations do not get plowed back into the Puerto Rican economy; they get plowed into the bank accounts of corporations like Union Carbide, Exxon, American Metal Climax, Gulf Oul and Sheraton Hotels. For Puerto Rican workers, it has meant wages that are 50% lower that in the US, unemployment that is 30% and prices 25% higher than in New York City.

The constant drive to squeeze more out of the Puerto Rican worker has meant the implementing of such extensive schemes as Operation Bootstrap, the infamous plan to industrialize Puerto Rico. What this scheme has done instead is to create massive unemployment as the agriculture industry was destroyed and the developing industries did not provide enough jobs. The standard of living of the present industrial worker, rather than improving, is constantly deteriorating.

Historically, this has led to militant labor struggles, and today is no exception. In the last year-and-a-half. Strikes have been called by such unions as the Electrical Workers Union, the Firemen's Union and Sanitation workers in San Juan. The government responded by calling out the National Guard. Early this year the government responded to a Teachers Union strike by occupying the schools with police and arresting teachers. For US corporations and the Puerto Rican government, this rising militancy calls for only one response: more repression.

The repression has come in the form of everything from political arrests to using the Taft-Hartley law against militant workers. It has also taken the form of bombings of offices like the pro independence newspaper CLARIDAD and the physical assault of Puerto Rican leaders. And the government is now making plans to revamp the penal code to legalize many new forms of repression.

The domination of Puerto Rico has also meant mass migrations to the US. With the economic situation so bad and the containing repression, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans have been forced to migrate to the US. Today, at least two million Puerto Ricans reside in the US, more than 40% of the Puerto Rican nation. New York City alone has 1.2 million Puerto Ricans. But this migration has meant little improvement-for many it has only made matters worse. Unemployment in some cities is as high as 50% for Puerto Ricans; for Puerto Rican Vietnam veterans in New York City, the unemployment rate is 60%.

These conditions, however, have not deterred the Puerto Rican people. With the same spirit that continues to guide the heroic struggle of the Vietnamese people, their struggle for independence is growing everyday, gaining momentum in workers unions and popular organizations, as well as here in the US. The call for independence for Puerto Rico is a call that deserves the support of all Americans. It is a call that represents not only international solidarity, but a movement to end the cultural genocide and economic pillage of the Puerto Rican nation by Us imperialism.

INDEPENDENCE FOR PUERTO RICO!

VICTORY TO THE PUERTO RICAN PEOPLE!

(For more information, contact: Committee for Puerto Rican Decolonization, Box 1240, Peter Stuyvesant Station, New York, NY 10009).