Puerto Rico: Let the rich pay!

Arturo J. Peréz-Saad WW photo

In 2004, 62 percent of Puerto Ricans lived below the poverty line, of which 66 percent were households headed by women. The price of water and gas doubled and tripled within the last year.

On May Day the Puerto Rican government locked out 100,000 government workers, specifically targeting the Depart ment of Education, whose 46,500 unionized teachers have been under direct attack by the state.

The current bankruptcy of the Puerto Rican government is due to its colonial status. This includes the sell-off of public land to transnational corporations by both ruling parties, the New Progressive Party (PNP) and the Popular Democratic Party (PPD). The granting of tax-free status to U.S.-based transnational corporations for many years has kept the Puerto Rican nation poor and dependent on U.S. government subsidies.

The Puerto Rican government now wants to impose a sales tax on the workers to create revenue. There is already a sales tax added to all products sold in PR. The government plan would amount to a double tax, and that is why the workers are protesting. A common slogan has been: “Not 4, not 5, not 7 percent, let the rich pay for the crisis!”

While the colonial government thought it could railroad workers into deeper poverty, the massive resistance has put them on the defensive. This crisis could be the beginning of the end of the U.S. colonial occupation of Puerto Rico.

—Arturo J. Pérez Saad,
Arab-Puerto Rican organizer