First Published: Party Voice, [publication of the New York State Communist Party, USA] Vol. I, No. 10, January 1954.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The following article is part of a collective study on the Puerto Rican minority, prepared for the New York Communist Party.
It represents the first authoritative statement of policy on the Puerto Rican minority, and is the basis for discussion in every Party committee and club. The full study will appear in printed form very soon.
* * *
In the past, Browder’s theories and policies in relation to the Puerto Rican minority had the effect of obscuring the real historical and political character of the Puerto Rican national minority. This resulted in the acceptance of a concept which had neither historical nor political validity. According to his theories the Puerto Rican minority represented an amorphous conglomeration of Puerto Ricans, identical with those in Puerto Rico and devoid of any class stratification.
Even today no clear differentiation is made between the concepts “nation” and “national minority.” These two concepts are very closely related but they are not identical. Equating these two concepts will result, as in the past, in creating confusion and making it impossible to determine the correct line of struggle in relation to the Puerto Rican national minority.
The Puerto Rican minority represents a specific historical-social phenomenon which emerged as, the result of the concrete relationship between the oppressor imperialist nation– the United States–and the oppressed Puerto Rican nation.
Historically, this phenomenon is an expression of the capitalist process known as the “dispersion of nations.” The theoretical principles which underline this “dispersion of nations” was advanced by Stalin in this fashion:
There is no doubt that in the early stages of capitalism nations became welded together. But there is also no doubt that in the higher stages of capitalism a process of dispersion of nations sets in, a process whereby whole groups separate off from nations in search of a livelihood, subsequently settling finally in other regions of the state; in the course of which these settlers lose their old contacts, acquire new contacts in their new domicile, from generation to generation acquire new habits and new tastes, and possibly a new language. . . . One asks: Is it possible to unite into a single national union groups that have grown so distinct? Where are the magic hoops to unite what cannot be united? (NATIONAL AND COLONIAL QUESTION, Page 31).
It is clear that what we have in a minority is something specific, something with its own particular character.
This does not mean that the minority is unrelated to the “old” nation from whence it emerged and to the “new” nation within which it is developing. On the contrary, real understanding of the national minority presupposes a correct appreciation of that duality of relationships. What’s more this understanding must not only be concrete but, first of all, dialectical, taking note of the changes in these relationships, especially seeking that which is new and developing.
The difference, the specific character of the minority, as distinct from both the “old” and “new” nations, must be established.
First, as to the differences between the national minority and the “old nation.”
The national minority does not exist as a mere reflection or prolongation of the “old” nation. It has its own special phenomenal existence–its own particularity.
The general theoretical principles on the specific character of national minorities were projected by Stalin in this manner:
What is it that particularly agitates a national minority? A minority is discontented, not because there is no national union, but because it does not enjoy the right to use its native language. Permit it to use its native language and the discontent will pass of itself.
A minority is discontented not because there is no artificial union, but because it does not possess its own schools. Give it its own schools and all grounds for discontent will disappear.
A minority is discontented not because there is no national union, but because it does not enjoy liberty of conscience, liberty of movement, etc. Give it these liberties and it will cease to be discontented. (NATIONAL AND COLONIAL QUESTION, Page 58)
Hence the particularity of the Puerto Rican national minority must be found in the concrete problems which arise in the specific conditions and relations within the “new” nation.
The Puerto Rican national minority has a direct and intimate relationship with the people of the United States nation. It represents a distinct, yet component part of all the people of the United States nation.
While the Puerto Rican minority is growing and developing within the United States nation it does not follow that the indistinct term “American” applies to them. Why?
Two factors operate to emphasize the obvious distinction between the members of the Puerto Rican minority and other members of the United States nation.
The first factor is the fact of the relatively recent emergence of the Puerto Rican minority resulting from Puerto Rican immigration to the United States nation, as a result of which there still are prevailing differences between the “old” culture, including language and traditions, and those of the new environment.
The second factor is of a political character. It has its roots deeply imbedded in the economic and political relationships between the oppressor United States nation and the oppressed Puerto Rican nation.
Virulent chauvinism, the basic ideology that conditions all aspects of the life of a minority, does not drop from the sky.
National and white chauvinism, the ideological rationale of the oppression and exploitation of the colonial or semi-colonial nation, also serves the ruling class in connection with the oppression and exploitation of the national minority.
It is precisely this political factor that must be fully grasped, for our general line and program will lack content and our tactics will be ineffective if the basic understanding is missing.
Stalin posed this general political problem from the standpoint of Party tasks in this way:
There finally remains the question of national minorities. Their rights must be specifically protected. The Party therefore demands complete equality of rights in educational, religious and other matters and the removal of all restrictions on national minorities. (NATIONAL AND COLONIAL QUESTION, Page 66)
So, another aspect of the particularity of the Puerto Rican minority is the fact that it exists not only as a component part, but specifically and precisely as a disfranchised segment of the “new” nation–as an oppressed national minority, for which a special approach, involving the demand for its full political rights, is needed.
When we grasp this basic historical and political character of the Puerto Rican national minority, then it will be possible to dispel some prevalent misconceptions in dealing with the Puerto Rican minority.
Too often do we make the mistake of confusing the two concepts “national group” and “national minority.” While it is true that in European Marxist literature these terms were used interchangeably, nevertheless, in the specific conditions of the United States, a qualitative difference must be recognized between the national groups and the national minority. Nor does this difference involve just a “greater degree of discrimination,” but something much more basic.
A national minority in the United States must originate from a nation which is oppressed by United States imperialism.
British imperialism oppresses and exploits the Irish nation. British anti-Irish chauvinism serves as a basis for the oppression of the Irish people in England. The United States imperialists do not oppress or exploit the Irish Nation. Therefore, there is no economic basis for anti-Irish chauvinism in the United States. This does not mean that all national groups are free from the effects of the chauvinism in the United States.
The Jamaican national group for instance, faces problems which are rather similar to those of the Negro, Mexican and Puerto Rican minorities. Why is this so?
Because white chauvinism is the historically concrete essence of the ideology of national oppression in the United States and affects all national groups where the color factor exists. Therefore, neither from the standpoint of direct national oppression, nor from the standpoint of the color factor can we confuse the Puerto Rican national minority with the national group questions, such as the German, Irish, Italian, etc.
To sum up–the similarity between the national group and the national minority in the United States exists in the fact that both are expressions of a similar historical process.
Explaining this capitalist process of the assimilation of nations, Lenin referred to its concrete manifestations in the United States when he stated:
An approximate idea of the dimensions of the general process of assimilation of nations that is taking place under the present conditions of advanced capitalism can be obtained, for example, from the immigration statistics of the United States of America. . . . New, York State, in which, according to the same census, there were over 78,000 Austrians, 136,000 English, 20,000 French, 480,000 Germans, 37,000 Hungarians, 425,000 Irish, 182,000 Italians, 70,000 Poles, 166,000 people from Russia (mostly Jews), 43,000 Swedes, etc., is like a mill which grinds up national distinctions. And what is taking place in New York is also taking place in every big city and factory settlement. Whoever is not immersed in nationalist prejudices cannot fail to perceive in this process of assimilation of nations by capitalism immense historical progress, the breakdown of the national hideboundness of the various backwoods–especially in backward countries like Russia. (CRITICAL REMARKS ON THE NATIONAL QUESTION, Page 26)
In a historical sense, then, there is no difference between Italian, German, Irish or Jewish national groups in the United States and the Puerto Rican and Mexican national minorities.
The difference is political. The fact of the oppression of the national minority is what makes them distinct. An oppression that has its roots in a nation oppressed by the same ruling class that oppresses the minority.
Puerto Rican immigration is the fountainhead, the original source of the Puerto Rican national minority.
The Puerto Rican national minority has its historical beginning during and especially since the first World War.
This immigration showed a steady, though limited flow of about 3,000 a year up and until the depression of the 1930’s. A slower tempo during the 1930’s and then a constantly increasing pace during the second world war. And since the end of the Second World War, an unprecedented exodus from Puerto Rico to New York which few of us appreciate in its full scope and social and political impact. The Puerto Rican minority has three specific sources of growth. The first and still main source is represented by the rate of immigration from Puerto Rico. The following chronological table shows the specific pace of Puerto Rican immigration to New York City.
1941.... 633
1942.... 1,402
1943.... 3,204
1944.... 11,201
1945.... 13,573
1946.... 39,911
1947.... 24,511
1948.... 32,775
1950.... 34,703
1951.... 52,899
1952.... 59,103
What these figures show is no mere increase of the rate of immigration but the staggering rate of increase of 9,000%, if we take the years 1941 and 1952 as a comparison. When we add the Puerto Rican immigration figures for the first four months of 1953 (that is 30,500), then we can understand what the chauvinistic and reactionary spokesmen of the ruling class mean when they say . . . “and the end is not yet in sight. . . .” (NEW YORK POST)
Not computed or related to those figures are the nearly 16,000 Puerto Rican migrant workers who arrive every year during the planting and harvesting seasons, especially to New York and New Jersey, quite a number of whom remain in New York. With this fantastic rate of immigration it won’t be difficult to understand the accelerated tempo of growth and development of the Puerto Rican national minority.
Total figures for the Puerto Rican population in New York City taken chronologically show the following:
1910.... 554
1920.... 7,564
1930.... 53,900
1940.... 76,800
1950.... 246,306
1952.... 376,000
April 1953.. 405,900
The percentage of increase of the Puerto Rican minority since 1950 is 67%, since 1940 is 502%, and since 1930 is 700.5%. The total Puerto Rican population in New York at present represents 5% of the City’s total population, or one out of every twenty.
The chronological breakdown of the total Puerto Rican population of New York City by Borough gives us the following figures:
...................... 1930............ 1940.......... 1950.......... 1952.......... 1953
Manhattan.... 41,700........ 54,000....... 138,507..... 211,000.... 227,800
Bronx.............. 500.......... 10,100......... 61,924....... 94,000...... 101,500
Brooklyn......... 9,600........ 11,200....... 40,299....... 62,000...... 65,000
Queens.......... 900.......... 1,300........... 4,836.......... 8,000.......... 8,500
Richmond........... 200......... 200......... 740........... 1,000............ 1,090
From these figures we make the following observation. One–Manhattan, “New York County,” has the majority of the Puerto Rican population in New York City (56%). This represents 11% of the total population of the Borough of Manhattan, or one out of every nine. Two–there has been an absolute growth in every Borough of the City. Three–the fastest growing Puerto Rican community is that of the Bronx. It has overtaken and surpassed Brooklyn as the second largest Puerto Rican community in New York.
As can be seen, the total figures for Puerto Rican immigration do not add up to the total increase of the Puerto Rican minority. The reason for this seeming discrepancy lies in the fact that there is an internal source of growth as well as an external one. This internal source of growth was represented up and until 1950 by the local births of 58,820 children of Puerto Rican parentage. As of April 1953, there are 86,000 New York-born Puerto Rican children.
The tremendous absolute and relative growth of the Puerto Rican minority in New York has brought about extremely important social and political changes within the Puerto Rican minority. These changes must be noted and fully grasped.
The most notable change which has occurred in the last few years has been the spread of the Puerto Rican community to different parts of the city.
In the Bronx, the original East Bronx community has extended itself to the South Bronx and to the Morrisania area. In Brooklyn, the original Boro Hall comunity has spread to the Williamsburg-Greenpoint and Red Hook-Gowanus sections. In Queens, the Astoria Puerto Rican community is still growing, while at the same time the Puerto Ricans there are slowly, but surely, finding their way to other areas.
In New York County, the spread of the Puerto Rican community is indeed spectacular! Here, it is not just a question of the Puerto Ricans moving to certain areas, but actually to most of the districts of the Borough.
There are in New York County eight distinct Puerto Rican communities. These are Lower Harlem, West Side, Manhattanville-Lower Heights, Washington Heights, Lincoln Square, Chelsea, East Side and East Midtown.
These Puerto Rican communities vary from each other in terms of numbers, compactness and other characteristics.
The main Puerto Rican community, and still its political, civic and cultural center, is Lower Harlem. The term Lower Harlem as applied to the Puerto Rican community is fast becoming a misnomer. The reason is that this community is constantly shifting as well as expanding in a south-east and northeast direction. It is receeding from the 14th Assembly District and penetrating rapidly the 10th and the 16th Assembly Districts, both in the very heart of East Harlem.
In the West Side, the Puerto Rican community which a few years ago had its main center on Columbus Avenue from 107th to 109th Streets, whose western limit was Amsterdam Avenue and its southern limit 99th Street, has spread tremendously both west and southward.
To give a concrete example of the spread of the Puerto Rican community in the West Side: P.S. No. 9 at 82nd Street and West End Avenue was reported to have less than 10% Puerto Rican students in 1947. What constitutes less than 10% we do not know. But we do know that the present enrollment of Puerto Rican children in P.S. No. 9 represents 33% of the total enrollment of the students.
In Chelsea, the estimated Puerto Rican population according to Mr. Carpenter, head of the Hudson Guild, is 25% of the total area population.
In the Lower East Side there has been developing for some time an important Puerto Rican community. Despite the fact that the Lower East Side Puerto Rican community still is of the honeycomb variety, nevertheless, it is one of the fastest growing. It won’t be long, judging from previous experience, before the East Side comunity develops into one of the main Puerto Rican communities.
In the East Midtown area a small community of Spanish-speaking people from Tampa now has developed into a thriving predominantly Puerto Rican community. And growing very fast too.
The Manhattanville-Lower Washington Heights Puerto Rican community is one of the most compact and fast expanding sectors.
The Washington Heights Puerto Rican community is the smallest and weakest, but even there increase and growth is noted, even if slowly.
These new Puerto Rican communities should not be seen as fixed quantities in relation to the rest of the given areas, for in the main, they constitute the growing and developing element.
Nor can we see these communities as appendices of Lower Harlem, for while it was true that in the early period of their formation, these new Puerto Rican communities depended exclusively upon Lower Harlem (“El Barrio”) for their social, cultural and political life, the fact is that that period already belongs to the past.
No more do the residents of the new Puerto Rican communities go to the Teatro Hispano or to the Teatro Latino, they go instead to the Metropolitan on 14th Street, or to the Edison at 103rd Street and Broadway. No more do they go to the Park Avenue Market, but instead they go to the Orchard Street Market or to the Market on 9th Avenue and 40th Street. No more do they have to go to the Marcantonio Club in Lower Harlem, but instead they go to their local Club in the 7th, the 4th, the 5th, and 3rd A.D.’s. No more do they have to go to the Temple Bethel at 110th Street, but instead they go to their local church.
Without exception, every one of these local Puerto Rican comunities have their own internal economic, social, political and cultural life.
Representative business enterprises, theaters, churches, social and political organizations, all these are specific features of the new Puerto Rican communities.
As we note this development, growth and spread of the Puerto Rican community, we must single out one of its special aspects which represents a qualitative leap in the social-economic structure of the Puerto Rican community.
In the period before the Second World War, the composition of the Puerto Rican minority was almost totally working class.
Only a very sparse, minute business strata, representing exclusively small time traders existed. A few grocery stores, barber shops, meat markets, and second hand furniture dealers were more or less representative of the sprouting middle class. A handful of professionals rounded out this embryonic middle-class sector.
At the present moment the picture is altogether different. First, small business is no longer minute, but quite substantial, relative to the population. Second, business enterprises are not limited to grocery stores, barber shops, etc.; they now include:
1) –Small manufacturers–garment contractors, food product manufacturers, refreshment bottling concerns, etc.
2) –Real estate enterprise.
3) –Garages and used car dealers.
4) –Travel agencies.
5) –Big scale radio programs.
6) –Summer resorts (Newburgh area).
7) –Jewelry merchant houses (Casa Rodriguez, Casa Lopez, etc.).
8) –Furniture dealers (no more second hand stores–but large furniture establishments such as Casa Boro, Frank P. Diaz, etc.)
9) –Department stores (Mario Gonzalez).
10) –Theaters (Circuito Ansell) (Circuito Harris).
11) –Undertaker Establishment (Funeraria Gonzalez, Funeraria Ortiz, Funeraria Echevarriar).
12) –Banking (Banco de Ponce).
13) –Press and Periodicals (El Diario, La Prensa, Ecos, Temas, Grafico).
The professionals, doctors, lawyers, etc., have increased in relative proportion to the population. There are over 200 ministers.
All of this spells out one thing, and that is that the Puerto Rican middle-class is a hard reality and has to be reckoned with. They are already an important social force and exert their class influence in the life of the Puerto Rican community.
This social strata represents five per cent of the totality of the Puerto Rican minority. The trends among this social grouping, its specific role must be ascertained in order to determine the concrete approach to this class.
The petty bourgeois strata within the Puerto Rican national minority is not of a homogenous character. There are two distinct though related rungs: an upper and a lower. The upper rung consists of a small grouping of the most prosperous business concerns and the most successful professionals. The economic base of the Puerto Rican petty bourgeoisie is semi-Jim Crow in character. The market upon which the Puerto Rican petty-bourgeoisie is dependent, consists in the main, but not exclusively, of Puerto Ricans and other Spanish speaking peoples.
Two definite trends are noticeable among the petty-bourgeoisie. One trend is toward collaboration with the U.S. ruling class, and the other one oscillates towards the working class strata of the Puerto Rican minority.
Two definite trends are noticeable among the petty-bourgeoisie that the ideology of the U.S. ruling class is absorbed and transformed into a reformist, conformist ideology. This ideology they attempt to infuse and disseminate among the Puerto Rican Spanish-speaking minority. The bulk of the small traders and businessmen, as well as some individuals among the upper rung, show a disposition to struggle and react favorably to the problems and issues facing the Puerto Rican minority.
As we struggle to attain the greatest unity within the national minority, we must always bear in mind that unity will remain a dream so long as the ideology of conformism is not exposed, combatted and decisively defeated.
We have said that winning the greatest number of middle class elements for a policy of struggle is possible. This is so because the bulk of the lower rung consists of petty traders and small time professionals and church ministers. Moreover, all of these elements are in very close and intimate economic and social contact with the working class sector of the minority.
Just examine the composition, role and program of the “Comite de Unidad Hispana.” In composition it is represented by trade unionists, ministers and small business men. Its role is that of fighter for the basic interests of the whole minority and also acts as its unifying center. Its program includes political representation, literacy test in Spanish, jobs, housing and civil rights.
As could be seen, the aim and the program reflects the issues and problems affecting the working class sector. As a matter of fact, ALL of the issues on which this united front is based have at one time or another been advanced by the working class sector of the Puerto Rican minority.
Only one issue of the five mentioned, namely the literacy test in Spanish, could be said to be “new” as a united front base. However, this issue has not only existed objectively for a long time, but it has also been raised for years from within the working class sector.
So far as the struggle for unity within the Puerto Rican minority is concerned, there are ONLY two basic ideologies to be considered–one–the ideology of the United States ruling class, swallowed by the upper rung of the petty-bourgeoisie and regurgitated in the form of conformist policies– two–the ideology of the working class, concretely expressed in a spirit and attitude of resistance to the conditions of OPPRESSION– which constitutes the basic political ingredient of the Puerto Rican minority. Unity of the minority presupposes victory for the ideology of the working class sector over that of the upper rung of the petty bourgeoisie.
It should be made clear that the specific class ideology of the upper rung of the petty-bourgeoisie does not negate the possibility of participation of some of its individual members in a united front struggle. More than anything else we are trying to establish the all important question of the economic roots of ideology and its specific class character. In life we will find that there are some individuals among the lower rung of the petty-bourgeoisie and even among the workers, who are affected by conformist ideology, but that is not the main point. The essential question is the source and fountainhead of the enemy class ideological infection.
The working class section of the Puerto Rican national minority consists of an estimated 95% of the population. It is homogeneous in character, with industrial, productive labor as its main base.
Progressive trends within the Puerto Rican minority, past and present, originate and stem from its working-class sector. The great traditions of working class struggles run deep and powerful. Its background of the labor and socialist movements in Puerto Rico and other parts of Latin America, as well as the tremendous influence exerted by our Party still remain as a basic ingredient in the consciousness and ideology of the working-class sector of the Puerto Rican minority.
We will not attempt at this point, to spell out the general features of the relationship between the two classes, into which the Puerto Rican national minority is divided at present. Nor will we attempt to concretize right now the two trends within the middle class.
We will do this instead, when wa deal with the concrete problems facing the minority. Then we will strive to show these relationships in the “real,” “live,” process of struggle, in a way which will establish, as clearly as possible, their specific class positions.
The growth and development of the Puerto Rican minority, with its consequent social changes and especially with the emergence of a fully grown middle-class has called forth the adoption of a new attitude by the United States ruling class. This new line is new only in its application to the Puerto Rican minority. As a matter of fact, this same approach has been previously followed by the ruling class in relation to the Negro people and the Puerto Rican nation.
The specific character of this “new” policy consists of a two pronged approach–on the one hand, an intensification of the violent attacks against the Puerto Rican minority, especially against its working class sector, and on the other hand, in an attempt to win over allies from a specific segment of the Puerto Rican minority to be utilized as their agents and apologists.
The increased attacks against the Puerto Rican minority are being accompanied by a barrage of ideological heavy artillery. Where the neo-Malthusian pseudo-scientists leave off on the Puerto Rican nation, the hired sociologists and “experts” on the Puerto Rican question take over.
All the shades of the “sociological” prism are represented in the host of “theoreticians” who try to explain the so-called Puerto Rican “problem.” From the open, vicious racist to the “objective” ethnologist; from the professional social worker to the civic minded city official; from the paternalistic “slum goer” to the friendly “defender” of the “misunderstood and persecuted” Puerto Rican; from the editors of the local publications to the reporters of the New York Dailies, slandering the Puerto Ricans while writing on politics, economics and sports.
These hired sociologists and “experts” advance theories and opinions on every single question affecting the life of the Puerto Rican minority.
First, we will present their basic conception of the social nature of the Puerto Rican minority. Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer in their book U.S.A. Confidential “explain” the “fundamental” character of the Puerto Rican minority thus:
Not for more than thirty years did a mainland political shark visualize the political possibilities of more than 2,000,000 ready-made voters who could be bought and shipped for nickels. That protagonist of the common man . . . Fiorello H. La Guardia, was the political prodigy who fell on and immediately began to work this gold-mine. He began the only predesigned mass piping of qualified voters from beyond our borders. The lure–and it took little to bring them streaming from their overcrowded native grounds with its miserable economic conditions to the fabulous metropolis–was relief. Before they set foot on the continent, they had to be penciled in on the dole. And since that could be cut off by a wave of the hand, they voted in a body, successively, Republican, Democratic, and La Guardia’s own creation, the American Labor Party.
Now they are in their second New York generation. Some of their children even speak English. They are precious. Many influential people and institutions feel that, by accepting our public gratuities, they have become our foster children. Their privileges have become vested rights. Mustn’t say anything unflattering about them, though they have become the most vicious element in New York life. . . .
Conditions in Harlem and East Harlem are indescribably frightful. . . . There is and there can be no attempt at law inforeement in the area. It is a junglf practically unpoliced. If you don’t get killed first, you can buy a dame or dope at any corner. Thousands of the tens of thousands in this area, who are on relief . . . get welfare handouts, with which they buy dope. These animals have been fed on propaganda so long they assume the community owes them not only a living but junk money.
The DAILY MIRROR in its October 23, 1950 editorial, declares that:
Marcantonio’s strength comes from degraded, depraved slums within his district. It comes from hordes of Puerto Ricans enticed here from their home island, for the value of their votes. And subjected to pitiful poverty, which Marcantonio has done nothing to alleviate, except to force thousands on relief.
And THE NEW YORK TIMES adds the following in is December 14, 1952 issue:
In the middle of East Harlem, one of the most thickly settled communities in the nation. ... is a frontier community where the new is ever mingling with the old and turbulence all too often erupts into violence, which have won it such newspaper denunciation as ’a pariah community,’ ’New York’s worst spot,’ ’A verminous, crime-ridden slum,’ and the most dismal, dangerous and troublesome section in the whole city. Once it was predominantly Jewish and Irish, later overwhelmingly Italian. Today it is overflowing with Puerto Ricans and immigrants from other Spanish-speaking lands.
Those are some of the openly chauvinistic characterizations. . . . Now comes the “expert” and “theoretician,” Clarence Senior:
(1) “The Puerto Rican migrant, a product of cultural and racial conflict on his island, produces further ethnic conflict in New York City; he is a victim of both conflicts, and, like most people caught in ethnic diversity he sometimes turns on his own group to rend it, and in so doing, further victimizes himself.
(2) “Thus, the Puerto Rican who doesn’t understand or speak English is conspicuous as a member of a different language group, but to no greater extent than members of any other of the numerous language groups. But if he causes the authority trouble, he then becomes conspicuous as a member of a group outside the whole of the New York world, and his conspicuousness is differentiated from all other language groups.
(3) “The American is realistic, concise, exact, irreverent, competent, prompt, and dependable; the Puerto Rican tends to be romantic, diffuse, vague, superstitious, inefficient, dilatory, and unreliable. Where the American is modern, the Puerto Rican is medieval; where the American is scientific, the Puerto Rican is poetic. . . . The American is impatient with the casual attitudes of the Puerto Ricans; the Puerto Rican is irritated by the exacting demands of the Americans.
And now comes the “friend” of the Puerto Ricans–Professor Don W. Dodson, from N.Y.U., advises a group of Puerto Rican leaders thusly:
1.–You have migrated from a folk society to an industrial one. To succeed you need education and lots of it.
2.–Don’t mistake problems which are common to us all, such as the housing shortage, as problems which are yours alone.
3.–Don’t mistake clannishness among Americans as prejudice. If peoples from this continent migrated to Puerto Rico in large numbers, the natives would be clannish toward them also.
4.–Don’t let the contrast between yourself and the upper socio-economic strata in this country cause you to despair. These social distances were probably as great or greater where you came from.
5.–Make generous allowance for the inability of the dominant group to communicate with you. Many people who make honest effort to know and understand probably don’t have the ability to bridge the chasm of cultural difference.
6.–Don’t take our frustrations out on some other group.
7.–Don’t excuse your own shortcomings by claiming you were discriminated against. Undoubtedly you will meet discrimination, but make certain that the cause for your being snobbed does not rest in yourself.
8.–Don’t let your disappointments with New York cause you to be lured into following dictators who promise to deliver you into the ’promised land.’ The greatest betrayal of the century has been the promise on the part of dictators that they would improve the life of the ’people.’ The Communist promise of thirty years ago is still a ’will-o’-the-wisp’ and the proletariat are no nearer freedom today than they were then.
Puerto Ricans can well do without these “friends”!
These and literally thousands of similar references form the ideological essence of the atmosphere with which the ruling class surrounds the Puerto Rican minority by poisoning the minds of the people of New York with this chauvinistic filth.
From this central theme of “national, racial, and social inferiority” derives the whole pattern of relationships affecting the Puerto Rican minority.
In every field of activity, economic, social, or political, the Puerto Rican citizen experiences the pressure of his social condition as a member of an oppressed minority.
Three main forms of discrimination affect the Puerto Rican minority. These three forms are interrelated. They are not peculiar to the Puerto Rican minority since we find either one or all of them affecting other national minorities in the United States; however, these three forms of discrimination in their totality spell out concretely how chauvinism affects the Puerto Rican minority in New York.
The three forms are: first and most extensive, discrimination based on language. Second, and most vicious, discrimination based on color. Third, discrimination based on lack of skill.
As already stated, the working class sector constitutes the overwhelming majority of the Puerto Rican community in New York City.
But the importance of this sector cannot be gauged properly by noting only the numerical preponderance of the working class. It is the great political and social role which the working class sector of the Puerto Rican minority plays, that must be grasped. All progressive trends within the Puerto Rican minority have their roots and origin in this sector of the population.
The working class sector of the Puerto Rican minority has a long and heroic history of struggle.
The Puerto Rican workers in New York have not at any time given up or slackened the struggle.
Sometimes led by our Party; momentarily led by some fighting members of the petty bourgeoisie, or spontaneously, they have formed their battle lines in defense of their rights as workers, or as members of the oppressed Puerto Rican national minority.
The Puerto Rican workers were there by the thousands when the World Telegram was picketed for its campaign of slanders which it leveled against the Puerto Rican minority in 1947.
They participated by the thousands in the numerous protests organized against the attempted police murder of Herminio Miranda in 1949.
Whole police squads could not stop them during the protest actions against the police-murder of Sergio Rodriguez in 1950.
Spontaneously, they started the powerful campaign of protest which swept the Bronx when King Gonzalez, the 16-year-old Puerto Rican youth was murdered by the police in 1952. It was the Puerto Rican workers who scared the daylights out of the police, the landlord and the editors of the El Diario when 700 demonstrated against the eviction of Mrs. Marina Gomez on September 3, 1951 in the Bronx. It was the militant Puerto Rican women who, with the support of Negro and Italian women, forced the closing of the block where two Puerto Rican children were killed by a truck.
Who chased the Hearst fascist-minded reporters from Lower Harlem in 1952? The Puerto Rican workers and youth did! And this despite the drawn guns of the police who were acting as bodyguards for the men from the Journal-American.
Who was it that fought the bosses and the police on the picket line at Simplicity Patterns on East 102nd Street in 1948? Puerto Rican and Negro young women workers did.
Every day of the week in some part of the city these struggles take place. On police brutality, on housing, on political representation, or the trade union picket line, you find Puerto Ricans on the battle line–men and women fighting for their rights.
This is the class with the indomitable spirit, the class that won’t bow before insults, threats, police beatings or murders.
This decisive sector of the Puerto Rican national minority, because of its numerical predominance and because of its average age level of 24 years presents an astonishing labor force estimated at around 200,000. At least 45 per cent of this labor force are women.
This labor force is concentrated mainly, but not exclusively, in the following industries:
1) Garment; 2) Maritime; 3) Food and hotel; 4) Radio and Electrical; .5) Laundry; 6) Meat-packing; 7) Toys and novelties; 8) Shoe; 9) Domestic; 10) Distributive; 11) Furniture and mattress; and 12) Baking.
Other industries where there is a noticeable rise of the Puerto Rican workers are: maintenance, auto and steel, and longshore.
There are 65,000 organized Puerto Rican workers in New York City.
The following list of union locals in the different industries contain the bulk of the organized Puerto Rican workers. These are:
GARMENT: Locals 22, 91, 23, 25, 65–A. F. of L.
ELECTRICAL (UE): Locals 430, 475.
MARITIME: NMU-CIO–M.C. & S.-Ind.–S.I.U.–A. F. of L.
LAUNDRY WORKERS: Amalgamated, CIO.
FOOD, HOTEL, RESTAURANT, CAFETERIA & CLUBS: Locals 89, 6, 302, 1, A. F. of L. DISTRIBUTIVE: Local 65, CIO.
TOYS & NOVELTIES: Locals 223, 157, 130, CIO–Local 132, ILGWU–A.F. of L.
FURNITURE & MATTRESS: Local 140, CIO.
There are 135,000 unorganized Puerto Rican workers, or two-thirds of the total Puerto Rican labor force.
On the housing question color is the predominant factor in the discrimination of Puerto Ricans; on the question of education language is the main factor; in industry all three main factors in the discrimination of Puerto Ricans–language, color and skill–are used by the bosses to keep the Puerto Rican worker alongside with the Negro worker in the lowest rung of the industrial ladder.
Menial, unskilled or semi-skilled categories of employment are reserved for the Puerto Rican worker in most shops.
Some shops refuse employment to Puerto Rican workers if they don’t talk English fluently. The reason for this is obvious, the division of the workers and the guaranteeing of an ever-increasing rate of profit.
Some of the shops will not employ Puerto Ricans if they DO talk English.
Strange? Not at all!
Exclusive employment of Puerto Rican workers who cannot talk English takes place in the sweatshops in several industries.
The profit motive here is even more shameless and cynical. When this criminal practice of utilizing non-English speaking workers in order to pay them a pittance of a wage becomes a public scandal, then the authorities intervene. Last year Mr. Frank J. Muench, Director of the Wages and Hours Division for New York and New Jersey, made the following statement:
In Puerto Rico the average minimum wage in employment covered by the Federal Laws is less than 40 cents per hour. It is as low as 15 cents an hour in some trades such as hand-sewing operations in the leather and textile industries. Transplanted to New York, the uninformed islander eagerly accepts an offer of 50 cents an hour or less.” (New York Post, July 24, 1953).
Who is responsible for the terrible exploitation which victimizes these Puerto Rican workers? Who is to blame for the violation of the minimum wage law? “The Puerto Rican worker, of course. Who else!”
So the newly arrived Puerto Rican worker who, after being rejected in most shops because of the so-called “language barrier,” is forced to accept a miserable wage in a sweat shop, is then made the scapegoat by the official authorities. He, the Puerto Rican worker, and not the bosses are responsible for sweatshop wage standards. He, the Puerto Rican worker, and not the bosses, with their method of using discrimination to jack-up their profits, is presented as the real culprit.
In the same way as in the housing question, discrimination often forces the Puerto Rican worker to submit to rent-gouging, and then is accused for being responsible for high rentals, in the same way, after being barred from the better-paying jobs by the bosses’ discriminatory practices, he is then charged with being responsible for depressing the existing wage standards.
No wonder the owners and managers of the sweatshops continue along merrily exploiting thousands of Puerto Rican workers in the fashion we have stated.
Job discrimination of Puerto Ricans is never evident in the glowing figures of employment, official and private, that are handed out occasionally. For instance, there are over 300 Puerto Rican workers employed at the Waldorf-Astoria, representing 12 per cent of the employees.
They are employed in the following categories, according to management reports: Cooks, Housemen, Elevator operators, Busboys, Kitchen helpers, Silvermen, and Dishwashers.
You would never know that discrimination is so fierce in this industry by just reading those figures. It’s obvious that no white-collar, waiters or managerial categories are present here. But there’s more to it, much more.
The question to be asked is: How many Puerto Rican cooks or housemen are there? How many of those 300 are dishwashers or kitchen helpers? They are not telling. But they don’t have to; we already know by reading the official statement of Local 89 of the Food Industry Union. It says:
So, in the food industry, the representative category is where the overwhelming majority of the Puerto Ricans work. This category is where the kitchen menials are found–the silvermen, dishwashers, etc., better known as the “Blue-Jackets.” That goes for the whole industry–hotels, restaurants, cafeterias and clubs–including the Waldorf with its phony figures.
Moving up the ladder of skills, categories and rating is a painful process for the Puerto Rican worker in the food industry. Upgrading is rather the exception than the rule. Even where a high level of skills is attained, after years of hard toil, “language” or “color” is used as the deterrent and barrier to up-grading.
There are over 20,000 Puerto Rican food workers. About half of them are organized.
In 1947 there were an estimated 20,000 Puerto Rican workers in the sea-going division of the maritime industry. The high rate of organization of the Puerto Rican workers in maritime proves that Puerto Rican workers can and do strive for trade union organization. In 1947 there were about 14,000 Puerto Rican workers in the N.M.U., about 3,000 in the S.I.U., and 2,000 in the M.C. & C., with an additional smattering in the other sea-going craft unions.
If we allow ourselves to be fooled by the reports on the distribution of Puerto Rican personnel aboard ship, based on general ratings, we get a distorted picture of reality. Why? Because in most key ratings in maritime you can find Mates, Engineers, Boatswains, A.B.’s, electricians, carpenters, pump men, stewards, and waiters who are Puerto Ricans. But if we compare the different key-ratings and other specific categories, then we find that here, too, the overwhelming majority of the Puerto Rican seamen are found in the lowest ratings. As a matter of fact, for the Puerto Rican seaman, the ship is in the main just a “floating hotel.”
Forget the terminology and note the identity of the tasks despite the change of names; “kitchen-utility,” “mess-men,” “galley-boy.” Call them whatever names you want, but still they are the ones that have to work in the kitchen and wash the silver, the dishes, and the pots.
It is in the very appropriately named “La Fonda,” meaning “restaurant” in the vernacular of the Puerto Rican worker, that the stewards department finds its most descriptive title. And it is precisely in the “la fonda” part of the stewards department where you find most of the Puerto Rican sea-going maritime workers.
Examine the composition of the S.S. United States and the S.S. America of the U.S. Lines, or the Constitution or the Independence of the American Export Lines, all passenger ships on the European run, and see what you find. A great many of the crew members are Puerto Ricans. But where, and in what department do you find them? In the stewards department is where you find most of them.
Here is the breakdown of the composition of the S.S. United States:
Total Crew Members 1,100
Licensed Personnel 150
Puerto Rican 0
Unlicensed Personnel 950
Puerto Rican 134
Deck Department 5
Engine Department 15
Steward’s Department 114
Following is a table based on the monthly wage rates according to ratings.
............................................. Monthly Base Wage.......... % Increase from ’51-’53
Rating as of June 1953
Deck Department
Boatswain.......................... $400.68.................................... 20%
Carpenter.......................... 375.08.................................. 25%
Deck Utilityman................... 343.98................................ 25%
Able Seamen.................... 314.41.................................. 20%
Ordinary Seamen................ 244.19.............................. 8%
Engine Department
Electrician.......................... 499.25................................ 19%
Ass’t Electrician.................... 465.09................................ 41%
Deck Engineer..................... 380.88................................ 27%
Oiler (Steam)..................... 314.41................................ 20%
Fireman (Watertender)..... 314.41................................ 20%
Wiper.......................... ....... 294.30................................ 13%
Steward’s Department
Chief Steward.................... 390.25................................ 20%
Chief Cook.................... ... 361.18................................ 21%
Second Cook.................... 361.17................................ 32%
Ass’t Cook........................ 310.43................................ 20%
Messman or Utilityman... 242.32................................ 7%
Note the low wages of the messmen and utilitymen, and note the low percentage of wage increase.
How many Puerto Rican seamen do you find in the dry cargo boats? Very few. Why? Precisely because, contrary to passenger ships, the stewards department is very small.
Where we find exceptions to the general rule is in the ships plying the Latin American run, including Puerto Rico. That is why you find a relatively high percentage of Puerto Ricans in the categories outside the stewards department on the Moore MacCormac and Grace Line Ships, and especially in the Agui and Bull Lines, that make the run to the Caribbean.
Of course we have to note the improvement since the days of the 2 per cent limitation policy against Negro and Puerto Rican seamen by the U.S. Lines. Also the tremendous role that the rotary system of hiring has played in whittling down discrimination of Puerto Rican seamen by the shipping companies. But any conclusion which says that all the problems of the Puerto Rican and Negro workers are covered by the effectivity of the hiring hall is either naive or worse.
The hiring hall protects the Puerto Rican seaman’s right to his particular rating and nothing else. If the Puerto Rican seaman is strapped and bound to a specific low rating, as is the case, then the hiring hall cannot add one little thing to the fight for his rights to key ratings and up-grading. That problem still remains, no matter how strong the rotary system of employment might be. We want to emphasize the limitations of the hiring hall as a democratic vehicle in the workers’ struggle and especially in relation to Negro and Puerto Rican workers rather than negate its great importance. This should be understood.
The shipowners have not given up their main slogan in relation to the Puerto Rican seamen which is “talk American.” From the skippers down, all the officers see to it that the atmosphere of discrimination based on language is kept alive. Picking up the slogan from the shipowners, Joe Curran has made this slogan official policy for the N.M.U. through the union leadership’s support of a bill that wa pigeonholed in Congress last Spring. This bill, the so-called English Language Bill, S.1255, together with another one introduced by Senator Magnuson, calls for the elimination of non-English speaking seamen from the industry. This bill is unquestionably directed primarily against Puerto Rican seamen. Curran’s jingoistic arguments at the Convention went unchallenged. That is very dangerous, not only for the Puerto Rican seamen, but for the union as a whole. The use of language qualifications, called “literacy tests,” to disfranchise Puerto Rican voters is now being transferred from the political to the economic scene.
It is very significant that what is tacit practice among the bosses, discriminating against the Puerto Ricans on the basis of language, may yet get a legal prop in industry.
And the leaders of the N.M.U. and the whole C.I.O. Maritime Committee supports that step. Here is what Joseph Curran had to say in relation to the so-called “English Language Bill.”
On May 15, 1953, we testified before the Senate Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee in favor of S.1255, the so-called English Language Bill. That bill, also, was introduced by Senator Magnuson.
The first section of the bill provides that 75% of the crew of cargo and tanker vessels and 100% of the crew on passenger vessels must be able to read and write the English language adequately to perform their shipboard duties. (stress added)
The practice of discharging American crew members upon termination of Articles abroad and signing on foreign crews is most deplorable when we consider the national defense aspect of the problem. At the outbreak of war we can depend on an American crew to run a ship to the United States or to a friendly port. We can only hope that a foreign crew would do the same.
Despite the pressure exerted by our office, this desirable bill was not brought up before the two Houses of Congress. We have not been able to obtain support of this measure by the companies. Passage during this Congress over their objection is unlikely. (stress added)
First, note the title of the bill, and second, note the emphasis of the first section of this bill.
In that section there is demanded that 100% of the crew on the passenger vessels (that is where the Puerto Ricans work) be able to read and write English. Thirdly, note also the appeal by Curran to the shipowners.
We should not be fooled by Joe Curran’s demagogic cry against discrimination in his report. How could he be taken at face value on this question of discrimination when in his report to the Ninth National Convention of the National Maritime Union he states:
True, we still have people who occasionally raise the color question in the union. We are aware of the fact that there are still a few Communists on the ships. We know that these persons will use every strategy to divide the union by creating false issues of discrimination. . . .
We should not follow the left sectarian tactic of making Curran the main target in the struggle for the rights of the seamen. For we know that their main enemy are their exploiters, the shipowners. In the N.M.U. the struggle for the rights of the Negro and Puerto Rican seamen must be based not only on the general problems facing all seamen but on the problems that affect them specifically.
An exception in the maritime industry is the Marine, Cooks and Stewards. This union does have a program of struggle for the rights of the Puerto Rican seamen. More than that, it fights for that program. In the New York Port local there are two Puerto Rican patrolmen and the union as a whole is leading the fight against the so-called “language bill.”
To sum up: The Puerto Rican labor force in New York City is increasing at a very fast pace. There is no force that can contain it. Neither oppression nor discrimination can deter the Puerto Rican workers from joining the ranks of the labor movement. The question is not whether the Puerto Rican workers will play a positive role or not. The objective conditions of their existence have decided that already.
The question is: Will the trade union movement make it possible for the Puerto Rican workers to play the role that they can play to their full potentiality?
This question will depend for an answer on the rank-and-file of the trade union movement, and especially by the Communists in the trade unions.
We think that a program for trade union struggle on the Puerto Rican question should be developed.
Another important question facing the Puerto Rican minority of New York is education.
Here, as elsewhere, the ideological variation to the central jingoistic theme is noted. However, there is a special quality to the approach of the ruling class to the Puerto Rican minority on this question.
Let us introduce the subject in its general aspects first, and then single out its most important features.
There are 1,200 schools in New York City–802 are public and 398 are Catholic. There are 575 elementary public schools and 227 public high schools.
The 1947 report of the Board of Education shows the following percentage and distribution of Puerto Rican students in the city schools by Boroughs:
SCHOOLS WHERE PUERTO RICAN STUDENTS ARE 50% OP TOTAL ENROLLMENT
Manhattan 7 schools
Bronx 1 school
Brooklyn 2 schools
SCHOOLS WHERE PUERTO RICANS FORM 11 to 49 PERCENT OF SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
Manhattan 24 schools
Bronx 19 schools
Brooklyn 15 schools
The 1953 fall enrollment for public school students totaled 915,165. Of these 59,000 are Puerto Rican students.
There are 305,000 elementary parochial school students. Of these 5,000 are Puerto Ricans.
The breakdown by categories and the ratio of Puerto Rican students is as follows:
IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
......................................................................... Puerto Ricans
Kindergarten............ 51,000...................................... 1,000
Elementary............ 549,131..................................... 46,571
Junior High............ 114,530..................................... 9,000
High Schools:
Academic............ 149,000..................................... 1,199
Vocational............ 41,500..................................... 1,200
The 1953 school registration shows that in Manhattan ere are Puerto Rican students in every one of the 125 schools except three. The report does not locate the schools where Puerto Rican students are absent. We just venture a quick guess . . . the silk stocking district.
The 1947 report of the Board of Education listed the estimated student Puerto Rican population as 25,000.
In 1953, this figure has almost trebled. We have already given the example of P.S. No. 9 to note the rate of increase of Puerto Rican students in Manhattan schools.
Therefore, it is logical to expect that there be a relative increase in all the schools of Manhattan, and in many of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens schools.
According to the NEW YORK POST of July 29, 1953, “the majority of the 475 elementary schools have at least 10% Puerto Rican enrollment, in some, the ratio runs as high as 80%.”
Another notable change in the Puerto Rican student body in the city schools was the enrollment this year of 13,000 new Puerto Rican students. This shows the rapid relative and absolute growth of the Puerto Rican student population.
On the 1953 enrollment data, we observe the following:
1. The percentage of Puerto Rican elementary school students is 6% of the total. The percentage of Puerto Rican high school students is only 1%.
2. The percentage of Puerto Rican vocational high school students is 3%. The percentage of Puerto Rican academic high school students is eight-tenths of one per cent.
Discriminatory practices in this field, PLUS economic pressures which are felt by the Puerto Rican minority are responsible for these discrepancies.
Now, let us examine the educational methods, approaches and procedures used in the New York City school system in relation to the Puerto Rican students.
How do the spokesmen of the ruling class view the problem of the Puerto Rican students in New York?
Listing the so-called problems arising from the increased Puerto Rican minority of New York, the Board of Education stated in 1947:
What are some of the problems raised by this increasing registration of Puerto Rican Students? Briefly stated they are:
1. The students do not understand the English language.
2. The educational background is poor and inadequate.
3. Many of the children came to the schools at about 16 years of age, and because they do not adjust readily, apply for employment certificates soon after they register.
4. Many of the children present health defects. They do not cooperate in the remedial measures.
5. The children show a tendency of keeping apart from the rest of the students, and seem to persist in talking Spanish.
“The students do not understand the English language.” This sweeping statement artificially blows up the language problem which in the main applies only to the recently arrived Puerto Rican child and which, in the absence of discrimination and segregation, could be eradicated in a few weeks or months, and projects it as the general problem of all the Puerto Rican children. From then on, the “language barrier” myth becomes the main prop of discriminatory practices in the schools.
We should examine our Party’s policy and our methods of work on the Puerto Rican question in order to point out in a concrete way the main reasons for the Party’s crisis in Puerto Rican work.
The general line of the Party on the basic facts of the Puerto Rican question is as just as it is correct.
Based on the fundamental Marxist principle of internationalism, our Party concretely applies to the relations of the oppressor United States nation and the oppressed Puerto Rican nation the Leninist principle of unconditional support to the national liberation struggles of the Puerto Rican nation.
Lenin’s thesis on this aspect of the question is contained in the following quotations from Vol. 19 of his Collected Works:
In contrast to the Proudhonists, who repudiated the national problem in the name of the social revolution, Marx, having in mind mainly the interest of the proletarian class struggle in the advanced countries, put into the forefront the fundamental principle of internationalism and socialism, that is, that no nation can be free if it oppresses other nations.
And further:
We must . . . demand the liberation of the oppressed nations, not only in general nebulous phrases, not in empty declamations, not only in postponing the question until socialism is established but in a clearly and precisely formulated program which shall particularly take into account the hypocrisy and cowardice of the socialists in the oppressor nations.
The leader of our Party, Comrade Foster, in his “Open Letter” addressed to Truman, formulates these tasks in relation to the Puerto Rican nation as follows:
First, there must be unqualified national independence granted to the Puerto Ricans, who are a nation of over two million people. Second, we should at once withdraw our military forces from the island, leaving the defense of the Panama Canal to the United Nations. And third, we should make all necessary financial grants to enable the Puerto Rican people to build up an industrial system and a diversified agriculture in the island that will provide them with a developing prosperity. On the third point, let me say that it would be a constructive thing if Congress were to take the $450 millions now being squandered on building up the big Puerto Rican military base and give these funds to the Puerto Rican people as a first installment on the cost of the reconstruction of their economic system but then I’m very well aware, Mr. President, that neither you nor the reactionary Congress will do voluntarily any of these things. To get them done will be the task of the Puerto Rican people and of the growing labor and progressive movement in the United States. The Communist Party will continue to give its full support to these struggles.
The slogan of immediate independence for Puerto Rico with economic guarantees is the slogan that embodies the basic policy of unconditional support by the Communist Party of the oppressor United States nation to the oppressed Puerto Rican nation.
The slogan is directed to the American people in general, and the American working class in particular.
All of that is clear and correct, but what happens to this correct line when it is applied?
In the application of this line, it is funneled toward the Puerto Rican minority.
Now, the Puerto Rican minority has a special role to play in the movements of support to the struggles of national liberation in Puerto Rico but when this slogan is transformed into a rallying slogan exclusively for the Puerto Rican minority, then we say that it is a wrong application of our correct line.
On the national minority facet of the Puerto Rican question, our Party bases itself on Stalin’s thesis on the special approach to the national minority.
Our Party’s policy on this facet of the Puerto Rican question is embodied in the slogan: “Equal Rights for the Puerto Rican Minority.” But again we see that the correct general line has been applied incorrectly.
Our main, we could say our only slogan with which we have approached the Puerto Rican minority has been the slogan of immediate independence for Puerto Rico.
We have no quarrel with the slogan of Puerto Rican independence. What we object to is the way it has been used.
This independence slogan has been raised as a substitute for struggle based on the immediate problems facing the Puerto Rican minority.
For years we have been approaching the Puerto Rican minority with the abstract slogan of Puerto Rican independence. What we have actually done is to wave the flag at the Puerto Rican minority.
And what about police brutality, housing, better wages, upgrading of Puerto Rican workers, political representation, equal pay for Puerto Rican women workers in industry, etc.? Very little of that, almost nothing. Where is the struggle for equal rights?
It is clear that there is ah obvious discrepancy between the general line of the Party and its concrete application in relation to both facets of the Puerto Rican question.
One thing that worries the imperialists quite a lot is what they term “the Stalinist solution” to the problems of the oppressed peoples.
As we have stated, Sir Gladwyn Jebb is fearful of such possible solutions to the problems affecting the colonial nations.
Apologists for American imperialism wail and bemoan the tendency in Guatemala, for instance, of solving the agrarian question in “the Yenan way.”
Professor Dodson warns the Puerto Rican minority against the possibility of the Puerto Ricans in New York seeking to solve their problems by listening or following the “dictators” and Communists.
Of course, Professor Dodson is consciously raising the so-called Communist issue as a bugaboo, but there is an element of reality in his fears. This “good friend” and “benefactor” hired by the ruling class to “help” the “poor Puerto Ricans,” knows that only the Communists have the answer and real solutions to their problems. Nor is Professor Dodson unaware that the masses, the Puerto Rican minority in New York, have shown in the past a ready ear for our advice and a willingness to accept the correct and courageous leadership of our Party.
The Communist Party armed with scientific knowledge and revolutionary will, can lead the way towards the solution of those problems.
The leader of our Party, Comrade Foster, has advanced the main theoretical and political principles to guide us in this task. In the previously quoted statement by Comrade Foster and in similar ones made from time to time, he has propounded what represents the basic Party postulates on the Puerto Rican question. The fact is that Comrade Foster has made tremendous contributions in regard to the Latin American peoples’ struggles against American imperialism. One of these contributions was his great book, AN OUTLINE POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS.
Have we, in the Communist Party of the United States of America, availed ourselves and utilized sufficiently Comrade Foster’s guidance and leadership on this question?
Unfortunately we have not!
Based on Comrade Foster’s presentation of the question, we should proceed to hammer out a concrete program on the Puerto Rican question. Without such a program it will be impossible for our Party to discharge its responsibility as the vanguard of the American working class in regards to the Puerto Rican question.
In the serious world situation today, with American imperialism desperately trying to create favorable conditions for the outbreak of a Third World War and internally striving to establish fascism, our line of struggle rings clear and true in Comrade Stevens’ report.
Guided with these correct policies and tactical approaches our Party is aiming to eliminate its isolation from the masses of the American people and to move them in opposition to the war policies and fascist tendencies of American imperialism.
All popular sectors within the United States and also those of the colonial peoples oppressed by American imperialism must be joined in this historical struggle. This includes the Puerto Rican people, both in the oppressed Puerto Rican nation and in the Puerto Rican national minority. But we do not as yet grasp the political fact that the Puerto Rican nation’s struggle for national liberation constitutes the link that pulls the whole chain of anti-imperialist struggles in Latin America. We do not as yet gauge correctly the actual or potential role that the Puerto Rican minority could play in New York.
The approach to our work in relation to the Puerto Rican national minority flows from the correct tactical line projected by the Party’s resolution of 1953 and the Stevens report.
Our approach to the Puerto Rican minority, then must be nothing else than the adaptation and concretization of the Party’s coalition policy to the specific conditions prevalent within the Puerto Rican minority.
At the present moment the main vehicle for political expression by the Puerto Ricans is and will continue to be for some time, through the Democratic Party.
This does not mean that the left is unimportant as a political tendency among the Puerto Ricans.
What we mean is that a distinction has to be made between participation of the left and left forms of participation.
We should guard against any overestimation of the “radicalization” of the Puerto Rican masses, the fact that they are oscillating toward the Democratic Party proves that the motion is in the opposite direction.
Nor should we confuse their militancy with class consciousness. On the other hand, underestimating the enormity of their problems, their militancy and the impact of the left movement in their consciousness will lead us into generalizations that do not conform with their reality. Participation of the Puerto Rican masses in the campaign of signatures for Charney proves this last point.
We should also note that while the Puerto Rican middle class already exerts a high degree of influence, today we cannot say that the situation exists where it has imposed its hegemony. Far from it. Among the masses of Puerto Ricans here, there is a very fluid situation. An actual free for all is going on in the struggle for influence and hegemony.
The main field for struggle in our Puerto Rican work must be in industry. The very center of that field must be the trade union movement. It is there that the Puerto Rican worker must be trained in the struggle to play the role of leader within the Puerto Rican minority.
The churches, the civic and social organizations, the settlement houses, etc., are also organizations through which we can carry through the struggles in the Puerto Rican communities . . . and also through the left movements, tenants and others.
Trade Unions:
1. A job training program for Puerto Rican workers
2. Upgrading of Puerto Rican workers
3. Fight for the .75c legal minimum wage per hour
4. Equal pay for equal work for women
5. For day care centers in the Puerto Rican communities.
6. Organization of the unorganized.
7. Integration of Puerto Rican leadership in the trade unions at all levels.
Housing:
1. Support of the struggle against rent gouging with special emphasis on furnished rooms.
2. Low-cost housing projects
3. Organization of the Puerto Rican tenants
Police Brutality:
1. End the murders of Puerto Ricans by the police.
2. Prosecute the murderers.
3. End police frame-ups of Puerto Rican youths
Education:
1. End to “corridor classes”
2. Employment of Puerto Rican teachers to teach in ALL
schools, all classes, all subjects.
3. End to retardation of Puerto Rican students
Health:
1. Public hospitals and clinics in the Puerto Rican communities
2. After-hour clinics for Puerto Rican working mothers
3. Spanish speaking personnel in public hospitals and clinics
Youth:
1. City administered recreation centers
2. High Schools in Puerto� Rican communities
Political Representation:
1. Literacy test in Spanish
2. For elected Puerto Ricans to all offices
3. For appointed Puerto Ricans to city and state offices
EQUAL RIGHTS FOR THE PUERTO RICAN NATIONAL MINORITY IN NEW YORK!
UNCONDITIONAL SUPPORT OF THE PUERTO RICAN PEOPLE’S STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE!