First Published: People’s Tribune, Vol. 3, No. 6, March 1, 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The House Interior Committee has recently held hearings on the “Compact of Permanent Union Between the United States and Puerto Rico.” This “compact” is the result of a year and a half of work by an ad-hoc advisory group appointed by President Ford and Governor Rafael Hernandez Colon of Puerto Rico.
Governor Hernandez and the backers of the “Compact” maintain that the document grants Puerto Rico more autonomy with no loss of much needed federal aid. 60% of the island’s population lives below poverty level, on less than $2000 per year. 70% are dependent on food stamps. Unemployment tops 40%, inflation 20%. While retaining the benefits of federal aid programs, the so-called autonomy which Gov. Hernandez refers to would “free” the Puerto Ricans from minimum wage requirements and from federal environmental regulations; in short, would “free” the bourgeoisie to pollute the island and plunder the workers.
Regarding charges raised in the UN that Puerto Rico is a colony of the US, Hernandez stated, “We Puerto Ricans know this is not true, but it is important that there not be even the appearance of colonialism in our relationship.” Hence, the compact of “permanent union” which, if accepted by Congress and the voters of Puerto Rico, would replace the current ’commonwealth” status of Puerto Rico with “voluntary” union. Hernandez also remarked, “the manner in which the United States, through Congress, reacts to Puerto Rico’s proposals is probably more important than the nuts and bolts of the proposals themselves.” Hernandez clearly is only seeking to disguise naked imperialist oppression behind a fig leaf of voluntary union!
The Mayor of San Juan, Carlos Romero Barcelo, is Hernandez’ main opponent in the race for Governor of Puerto Rico this November. Romero, campaigning on the slogan of “statehood” for Puerto Rico, maintains that the compact could result in the “possible loss of tens of millions of hard-won federal assistance for Puerto Rico.”
There is opposition to the compact from the organized labor movement in the US, vehemently opposed to scrapping of the minimum wage. But the greatest opposition is on the part of the Puerto Rican people themselves, who continue their valiant and historic struggle for freedom from US imperialism.
The “Compact” is a response to the island’s economic depression, and to renewed local and international pressure for independence. The USNA state is moving to consolidate its grip on Puerto Rico. A recent editorial of syndicated columnist Tom Braden, expresses the depths of cynicism and chauvinism to which the bourgeoisie sinks in support of its latest proposal:
“Obviously Puerto Rico can’t be a state. Not unless the other 50 want to adopt it as a sick sister. Nor can Puerto Rico be independent. Not unless the Soviet Union or the Red Cross promises to pay the bills. So the best course for Puerto Rico is what Hernandez is proposing, sharp attention to attacting labor-intensive industries, reduction of borrowing and of public works, austerity in wages and taxes. If, in addition, he wants Puerto Rico to an ’an associated state’, why not? The slogan lends pride to an otherwise gloomy prospect.”
In short, let them call it what they will– the best solution is continued colonial oppression!
But why is maintaining Puerto Rico as a colony so important to the US imperialists? Clearly the advantages are not primarily economic. The island is small, with a population of only 3 million, half rural. After two decades of industrialization, Puerto Rico is barely competitive with the majority of neo-colonies for the investment of capital, due to the US imperialists’ stranglehold on the island’s economic life. The island’s GNP is a fraction of the sales of any of the top 10 US industrial corporations.
But Puerto Rico is indispensable as a military and political reserve of imperialism. With 15% of its arable land devoted to US military bases, the island is a stepping stone to all of Latin America, especially Cuba.
Equally important is the Puerto Rican national minority. A population equal to half the people on the island is concentrated in the New York and Chicago areas. Forced to emigrate from Puerto Rico in search of jobs and a better life, these national minority workers labor among the vanguard of the Anglo-American working class. Because of the colonial oppression of their homeland, and the white chauvinism projected into the working class by the US bourgeoisie, the national minority worker is forced to accept a “second class” citizenship. They are denied equal rights, and are forced to take the worst jobs at the lowest pay, live in the worst housing and attend the’ worst, segregated schools.
The colonial enslavement of Puerto Rico, the Philippines and the Negro Nation is the indispensable means by which the US imperialists split the Anglo-American working class. The turning of workers against each other on the basis of their nationality is “the secret,” Marx wrote a century ago, “by which the capitalist class maintains its power.”
For this reason the working class must repudiate all forms of chauvinism! Regardless of where they are born or the color of their skin, all workers are united by the fraternal bonds of their class and have only one common enemy–the bourgeoisie, the capitalist class which oppresses them. The working class cannot accept any “compact” of permanent oppression or any scheme of the bourgeoisie to continue their imperialist aggression. Workers must unite as a class behind the banner of independence for Puerto Rico, the Philippines and the Negro Nation, and thus strike a crippling blow at the bourgeoisie.