First Published: Unity, Vol. 2, No. 11, June 1-14, 1979.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
Copyright: This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
New York – The annual Puerto Rican Day parade in New York City, to be held this June 10, has a special significance for the Puerto Rican independence movement. Romero Barcelo, the governor of Puerto Rico, will visit New York to attend this year’s parade to promote his campaign to have Puerto Rico become the fifty-first state.
But it is independence, not statehood, that the Puerto Rican people are fighting for. The reason? Because Puerto Rico is a colony, and the Puerto Rican people can only be free with complete independence from any imperialist domination.
The U.S. imperialists have held Puerto Rico as a colony since when U.S. troops moved in after this Caribbean island country won its independence from Spain. Despite U.S. proclamations that it is a “free associated state,” Puerto Rico is one of the last remaining outright colonies in the world.
Colonial status has meant fabulous profits for U.S. businesses, which have invested more than $14 billion on the island and which control well over 80% of Puerto Rico’s industry.
For the Puerto Rican masses, U.S. colonial domination has meant an unemployment rate of 45% with 60% of the people living below poverty level and 70% forced to go on food stamps. Those Puerto Ricans who can find work get paid only a third to a half of what U.S. workers get, yet the cost of living in 25% higher than in the U.S.
Many Puerto Ricans have been forced to move to the U.S. because of the grinding poverty and unemployment on the island directly caused by U.S. imperialism. One-third of all Puerto Ricans now live in U.S. cities like New York and Chicago.
U.S. domination has suppressed the Puerto Rican people’s culture and their Spanish language. In the schools, Puerto Rican children must frequently recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. The Puerto Rican flag is not even allowed to fly in any official capacity unless it is alongside the American flag. And under the iron hand of the U.S., 35% of Puerto Rican women and 20% of the men have been forcibly sterilized.
To ensure its continuing rule, the U.S. maintains an extensive military presence, occupying over 13% of Puerto Rico with military bases.
The U.S. ruling class has recently launched a massive “Puerto Rico, U.S.A.” campaign. Granting statehood – or rather, forcing it on the Puerto Rican people – is a way for the U.S. imperialists to permanently bind the island to the U.S. and head off the growing independence movement. Puerto Rican Governor Barcelo has spearheaded the pro-statehood campaign in an effort to convince Puerto Ricans that statehood will bring genuine equality and a better life for the people, since they will be able to “have a vote” in Congress.
But statehood will only mean more misery for the Puerto Rican people, in the form of increasing investments and domination by U.S. corporations, the further destruction of their national culture and imposition of Yankee imperialist culture. It will mean the continued warped economic development and ripoff of the natural and human resources of the island.
As much as Barcelo pushes statehood, he actively opposes independence. There is evidence he had a hand in the assassination of independence fighters Carlos Soto Arribi and Arnaldo Rosado, and he is the last major Puerto Rican politician to oppose the release of the four Puerto Rican nationalist prisoners.
While Barcelo is hopeful of convincing Puerto Ricans in the U.S. to accept his phony promises of freedom through statehood, his visit will be met head-on by resistance and a resounding call for independence.
The Puerto Rican Day parades traditionally have pro-independence contingents. Look around at any program or demonstration of the Puerto Rican people and you will see the Puerto Rican flag and the slogans and banners of the independence movement. Whether it is a struggle of Puerto Rican workers and students in the U.S., or of the people in the Puerto Rican homeland, the call for independence is ever-present.
A number of organizations and individuals from the Puerto Rican communities in the U.S. have taken up support for independence and for causes like winning freedom for Puerto Rican political prisoners.
One such group is the New York Committee to Free the Puerto Rican Nationalist Prisoners, formed by former members of the Young Lords Party and others. This committee is building support for the unconditional release of Oscar Collazo, Lolita Lebron, Rafael Cancel Miranda and Irving Flores – the four Puerto Rican patriots who took armed action against the U.S. ruling class in the early 1950’s, during a time of mass uprising on the island. The committee sees the struggle to free the nationalists and the struggle for Puerto Rican independence as one and the same.
To help build support for the independence movement, the committee is initiating a demonstration on June 8, at the office of the Puerto Rican Commonwealth in New York to demand the release of the four nationalists, independence for Puerto Rico, and to expose the U.S.-Barcelo statehood fraud.
ĦQue viva Puerto Rico libre! Free Puerto Rico!