If we want radical change, our message to one another must be “Take it to the streets!” We must do as the people of Puerto Rico have done. With a general strike, the Puerto Rican people ousted a woman-hating, homophobic, racist, capitalist governor who is owned by the international banks. We need to follow in the radical, militant footsteps of the Puerto Rican people, instead of thinking the Democratic Party, or individuals, will do it for us.
Cancel Puerto Rico’s Bank Debt
By Ashlee Pintos
The United States has had its imperialist boot on the neck of Puerto Rico for well over 100 years. Both on the island and throughout the diaspora, all Puerto Ricans have been treated as second class citizens under colonial rule. As we look through the windows of the past, we see clearly how the is-land and the blood of Puerto Ricans have meant nothing but a dollar sign to U.S. Capitalists (both Democrats and Republicans).
Donald Trump’s recent racist comments on Puerto Rico’s “debt” crisis is nothing out of character for a U.S. capitalist. The U.S. Congress passed the Promesa Act under the Obama Administration which aims to force Boricuas to pay an illegitimate debt (accrued by massive tax breaks and corpo-rate ventures) of $74 billion. Since the U.S. illegally invaded and seized the island as a colony in 1898, the island’s veins have been open to the bloodthirsty U.S. capitalists. This illegitimate debt is a disas-ter that the U.S. created to keep air out of Puerto Rico’s lungs.
Let us not forget that in the early 1900s Puerto Rico suffered a hurricane similar to Maria. Then as now the US response was horrific: they deemed the Puerto Rican peso to be worth 60% of a US dollar. In the blink of an eye every Puerto Rican’s holdings dropped 40% in value.
Moreover, Puerto Rico is restricted in its ability to trade with any country other than the US while simultaneously being forced to pay one of the highest sales taxes (20%).
We know that the U.S. government is a government by and for the Wall Street banks. So—by no choice of the Puerto Rican people—it’s Wall Street banks that Boricuas are beholden to (with ever increasing interest) to cover basic expenses. To top it all off, the U.S. has made it illegal for Puerto Rico to declare bankruptcy.
Now, almost two years since hurricane Maria killed over 4,000 and left thousands without elec-tricity or basic necessities for months, Trump and U.S. officials are demanding that the island pay its debt. This seemingly hopeless situation is exactly how U.S. capitalists want it. They would prefer that Puerto Ricans cease to exist so that they can continue to build their corporate tourist play-ground. Both the debt and the United States rule are illegitimate.
Despite all that Puerto Ricans have been subjected to, we have never stopped resisting and fighting for our liberation. Most recently, many university students have been organizing against austerity measures put in place by Obama’s PROMESA board. Since Maria, there have been massive demonstrations in San Juan and other regions of the island to militantly protest austerity measures such as a 50% hike in tuition prices, privatization of the electrical grid and schools, and job and pen-sion cuts. Militant pro-independence groups such as the Ejército Popular Boricua (EPB-Macheteros) have been calling all Boricuas out into the streets to demand justice. Through hundreds of years of colonial rule Boricuas know one thing to be true: La Vida es Lucha Toda (all life is struggle).
Puerto Rico Teachers Fight Against Privatization and Low Wages
The people of Puerto Rico (or Borinquén, in the indigenous Taíno language) are in a situation all too familiar to New Orleans. The island is still in a state of crisis nearly a year after Hurricane Maria made landfall, thanks to the criminal negligence of the U.S. colonial government. On top of that, the working class is under intense attack in the form of budget cuts imposed by the federally-appointed Fiscal Control Board.
As with other spheres of life in Puerto Rico, the education system is threatened by the budget cuts. If the Fiscal Control Board has its way, the public educational system will be completely gutted and replaced by private schools.
Educators are resisting, however. They are demanding an end to the school closures as well as increased pay and an overall better allocation of resources to education. On August 15, the Puerto Rican Federation of Teachers carried out a work stoppage and marched through old San Juan. The march started at the Plaza Colón and went to the governor’s office.
According to the union president Mercedes Martinez Padilla, “The public education system,… the students and their teachers, have suffered the most brutal attack in history. Secretary of Education Julia Keleher has decreed the closure of some 450 schools in two years and has reduced the number of educators from 31,000 in 2016 to around 22,500 today. The government is poised to push the creation of dozens of private charter schools, subsidized with public funds.”
So far, over 250 schools have already been closed, including many that were in perfectly functional condition. Instead of keeping these schools open, Keleher is having them spend millions on FEMA trailers for classes that each cost over $42,000. Many special-needs children have not been given assignments. Many children are meeting in gazebos and buildings/trailers without AC and have not been provided with transportation for their new school assignments.
Given these extreme attacks, the educators have much to fight for.
Disaster Capitalism Keeps Puerto Rico Suffering
By Marie Torres
When we read mainstream bourgeois media, it is easy to feel that there is heartache after heartache. What we see are the patterns in the way that the rich ruling class moves through the world — how the rich profit off of the suffering of the working class, and how the rich profit off of disasters. Borinquen (Puerto Rico) after hurricane Maria is looking a lot like New Orleans after Katrina. Thousands are left without necessities and are dying while wealthy corporations are vultures waiting to feast. A little over 6 months since the storm, people on the island are still without electricity or proper roofing, The U.S.-imposed government is closing schools and has begun privatization (charter schools). Jobs are few.
The island is a U.S. colony that pays U.S. taxes, follows U.S. law, and every Boricua is technically a U.S. citizen. Between 1990 and 2009, when it went into severe economic crisis, the island paid $73 billion in taxes– more than several U.S. states. Additionally, Congress passed the Promesa Act under the Obama Administration that aims to force Boricuas to pay an illegitimate debt of $74 billion. As you can see, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are equally responsible for this mess. Boricuas can’t vote for the president and have no congressional representation, but they can die fighting in U.S. wars.
The history of the U.S. government’s treatment of Boricuas is not pretty. Like in New Orleans, the richest get tax breaks and are free to conduct their business for massive profit by exploiting workers. Wealthy (white) stateside businesses treat the island like a corporate playground, leaving scraps for the natives.
Hurricane Maria hit on September 20 2017, and it was the worst storm in over 100 years. The storm passed through the entirety of the island and left utter destruction behind. Maria caused the second-worst blackout recorded in world history. Many were left without clean water, food, medicine or gasoline. Government negligence has killed over 1,000 Boricuas not far off from the devastating number of 1,800 in New Orleans from Katrina. Since Maria, there have been extreme increases in deaths from diseases such as sepsis, pneumonia, emphysema and diabetes. Many of these deaths were preventable if food, clean water, electricity and medicine were available and if hospitals were fully functioning.
Like during Katrina, the government increased military occupation of the island and brokered deals for private corporations to profit off of disaster. The president visited only to bring up how the island’s debt was screwing up the U.S. budget. The government gave a Montana electricity company, WhiteFish Energy Holdings, a company that had only one truck, a $300 million contract. On April 18th, the island went into another complete blackout. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been as disappointing as it was from Katrina.– a hideously delayed response, FEMA employees are seen partying in San Juan casinos while Boricuas die in the mountains, and large shipments of supplies are not distributed to those who need it most. All the while, ads call for white tourists to swarm the island’s beaches and buy up real estate from right under poor Boricuas.
The impact on the Boricua’s mind and spirit has been heartbreaking. A forgotten people abandoned by the white supremacist U.S. government during their highest time of need, Boricuas are suffering from the daily struggle of living in 90-degree temperatures without electricity, clean water, enough food and with death all around. The suicide rate has spiked 30% since the storm. Since January, there have been over 3,000 calls of suicide attempts to the Puerto Rican crisis hotline, a 246% increase from last year. This is a tragedy that those who survived Katrina know well: following the 2005 storm, mental illness rates more than doubled, with disease rates increasing as well. However, to the rich ruling class, depression of poor and working-class people is of no concern.
Huge waves of Boricuas were forced to leave their homeland since 2009, and again after the storm, with those left behind facing a blow to the children. The government has proposed shutting 283 schools. The plan of the rich is to impose charter schools and private school vouchers and we know what that means–issues of transportation, special needs students, and limited access to quality education for working class and poor families.
However, Boricuas are fighting back. The Puerto Rico Teachers Association (Asociación de Maestros de Puerto Rico) composed of 30,000 teachers, has filed a lawsuit against a bill to implement a charter schools program and offer private school vouchers to 3 percent of students starting in 2019-2020. Teachers, students and parents throughout the island are demonstrating, calling for public education funds to be used for children, not to profit private companies!
On May Day, Boricuas took to the streets in mass to protest austerity measures. They were met with heavily militarized police (U.S. trained), were tear gassed, shot with rubber bullets and arrested without warrants. We must stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Borinquen. This attack on Latinxs’ poor and working-class people is unacceptable, and we cannot take it sitting down. The time for the people to unite to fight back against the rich ruling class is long overdue. As many Boricuas say, “Pa’lante por siempre!” (Always forward!)
Puerto Ricans Still Left in the Dark
By Ashlee Pintos
Beginning on September 22nd, 2017, a modern colony of the “greatest country in the world” went into complete darkness. The small island of Puerto Rico with its 3.4 million citizens suffered in isolation while Hurricane Maria ravaged the entire country. It was not until day 4 or 5 that the millions of anxious Puerto Ricans living in the states were able to hear any information about their loved ones.
The government has declared only 48 deaths as direct results of the hurricane. However, The U.S. is only counting deaths directly related to the storm itself and does not address the hundreds of deaths caused by the failure of the U.S. government to help the island during Maria’s aftermath. There have actually been reports of over 450 deaths, island wide, with 69 people reported missing. Many of the island’s hospitals are not functioning at full capacity: they are running out of medications and fuel for their generators. This has resulted in hundreds of deaths from a lack of medication, oxygen tanks, and the sanitation that electricity provides to prevent the spread of disease. Relief resources are not being distributed to the island’s remote villages. Instead, the U.S. immediately began the militarization of the island, sending in hundreds of police and military officials.
After almost 2 weeks, Trump finally visited the capital of San Juan, the epicenter of the tourism industry and site of his own personal investments. He has not addressed the villages where dead bodies of humans and livestock have yet to be moved, there is no running water or electricity, and people are desperate for food, clean water, cash, and gasoline. One of his first responses to this catastrophic event was to acknowledge the island’s illegitimate debt of $74 billion and remark that the island is throwing the “budget out of whack.” But that debt has been caused by over 100 years of abuse by the U.S., and compared to state debts such as New York at $143 billion, Puerto Rico’s debt is manageable. Not to mention, the U.S. military budget is well over $800 billion, a figure that could pay PR’s debt 10 times over. Puerto Rico’s debt should be pardoned and the island should be granted liberation!
“La Vida es Lucha Toda”: Revolutionaries in the fight for Puerto Rican Independence
by A.M.P.
Pedro Albizu Campos, Oscar López Rivera, Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Miranda, and Andrés Cordero: these are a few names of Puerto Ricans who have taken up the struggle for Puerto Rican Independence. Many discount their valiant efforts because of their use of violence; however, we must evaluate the violence that the U.S. has committed against the Puerto Rican people for over a century.
When your country has been deemed “Rich Port” by colonial conquest, when your native people were murdered, raped and enslaved, when your country experienced independence for only 8 days before the U.S. invaded and seized control, deeming your currency worth only 60% of the U.S. dollar and sending your population into poverty: you and your ancestors have been victims of continuous violence.
In 1937, policemen with tommy guns massacred 19 people while hundreds more were shot in the back while attending a peaceful march in Ponce. The U.S. conducted sterilization surgeries on over 33% of Puerto Rican women between 1936 and the 1970s as an attempt to control population growth. For over 60 years, the U.S. Navy used the eastern half of Vieques, an island off the coast of P.R., to test billions of tons of bombs and chemical weapons. This resulted in alarmingly high rates of cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and infant mortality among Vieques. In addition to these atrocities, the U.S. holds P.R. under its thumb as a de-facto colony. They are not allowed to have representation in the U.S. government, therefore having no control over their own destiny. When the U.S. executes these actions, your people are the victims of incessant violence.
This is the most malicious type of violence; an abusive relationship in which your people are helpless against the deviant acts of an imperialist state that feeds you propaganda to make you believe they are helping you. Unless your people recognize their power. Unless your people accept a call to action and unite in the struggle for independence by any means necessary. The only relief from egregious violence is self-determination.
¡Que viva Puerto Rico libre!
“¡Viva Puerto Rico!” Part 1 of 2
by A.M.P.
With a debt of over $74 billion dollars, Puerto Rico has been in financial trouble for decades. Over half of Puerto Rico’s children live in poverty, and the unemployment rate is over 12%. Since 2010, the island has experienced the greatest migration since WWII, with a 10% population decrease. Thousands have fled the debt-ridden country in hopes of a better life on the US mainland.
The origins of this crisis can be attributed to the abuse that the U.S. has inflicted upon the island over the past century. Currently, the island’s commonwealth status stymies any hopes of recovery. The only answer is liberation for Puerto Rico.
The beautiful island has only known 8 days of independence since the Spanish invaded the Caribbean. Although Spain granted the island a Charter of Autonomy in 1897, 16,000 U.S. soldiers invaded the southwestern portion of Puerto Rico in 1898 as part of the Spanish-American War. This was only a little over a week after PR had begun its first autonomous government. The U.S. annexed P.R. after the signing of the Treaty of Paris without any elections, even though it was no longer a Spanish Territory. As a result, the people of Puerto Rico have been subjected to over 100 years of suffering under the weight of U.S. imperialist violence. Since the very beginning, US-Puerto Rico relations have been drenched in oppression and violations of civil rights. This comes as no surprise as the U.S. has a colorful history of committing atrocities against nations to satisfy imperialist interests.
Following WWII, the US developed several economic programs that would boost the financial gain of corporations and the rich ruling class. Among these initiatives were federal tax breaks given to US companies, such as Section 936, which was implemented in 1976. This brought in a wave of companies (largely pharmaceutical companies) seeking immense profits, turning what was once a majority rural society into a manufacturing powerhouse. Fast forward 20 years and the greedy U.S. realizes that the tax break incentives were costing them money, Congress repeals Section 936, companies no longer have interest in profiting off the backs of Puerto Ricans, and the result was the plummeting of Puerto Rico’s economy. Left in the dust, the bourgeois government began to borrow large sums of money to sustain life for its citizens.
Currently, the major issue lies within the search for a solution. Puerto Rico is de facto an American colony and in effect has no input in U.S. Congress. The island is not protected by U.S. bankruptcy codes and is therefore unable to declare bankruptcy in order to restructure its crippling debt. The only hope for Puerto Rico is independence.