Anti-colonial, economic struggles intersect

A serious crowd gathered here on April 16 to discuss the struggle in Puerto Rico for independence from U.S. colonial rule and to hear about recent developments on the island, including a massive student walkout against tuition increases.
Con ven ed by supporters of the Socialist Front of Puerto Rico, the event was co-sponsor ed by Pro-Libertad, Vieques Support Campaign and others.

The featured speakers were Ismael Guadalupe Ortiz, a leader in the struggle to get the U.S. Navy out of Vieques, and Jorge Farinacci of the Socialist Front.

Guadalupe told the audience that abuses by the U.S. continue in Vieques. “The U.S. Navy got out of Vieques,” he explained, “because we kicked it out, but the struggle is not over.” The process of cleaning and decontaminating the small island after the U.S. Navy used it for bombing practice for more than 60 years is enormous. Guad alupe said, “The U.S. is doing nothing to clean up the mess it made.”

The territories that the Navy vacated in May 2003 were turned over to the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Resi dents are restricted to two beaches on the entire island by the Fish and Wildlife Department,” Guadalupe said. “The other beaches are off-limits from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. We, the people of Vieques, get ticketed if we go into the restricted areas. But we are returning to these areas in acts of civil disobedience to reclaim our land.”

The civil disobedience also serves to bring up issues such as development. Gua da lupe explained, “Our presence forces the issue of the development of Vieques. We have our plan for tourism based on resident guest houses, not on big corporate hotels and properties. They are buying up the island and gaining control of everything. But we will fight them.”

Jorge Farinacci emphasized that the struggle in Puerto Rico is a struggle of the poor against the rich. “Unemployment is rising, food prices and healthcare costs are rising. The gap between rich and poor is growing. There is no base for industrial growth. This has led to an economic crisis.”

Farinacci explained that this crisis has led the ruling class parties in Puerto Rico to call for a process of decolonization, and added, “Let’s be clear, the lackeys of U.S. imperialism will never lead the fight to decolonize.

“What is clear is that they would like to get out of this crisis by taking it out on the backs of the poor, like all capitalists.” He explained, “For example, the government has said there will be no wage increases for the next four years.

“There will be struggle,” Farinacci promised, “The question is who will lead this struggle to get out of this crisis.”

An indication can already be seen with the university students, he said. “One of the hikes pushed through by the government is a 33-percent tuition increase. Here they have made a mistake.”

Farinacci recounted how the students at the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras have called for a general strike against not only the tuition hike, but all the attacks on the poor. They are making it a working class issue.

“Some claim that these youth are being manipulated,” Farinacci said. “But the youth know, just like the youth who went up to the Sierra Maestra, the youth who are fighting in Iraq, the youth in Vene zuela. They know their role is to defend the rights of the majority.”

Farinacci took a moment to explain what the Socialist Front is. “We bring in all the fundamental struggles of the workers. That includes women, homosexuals, blacks and immigrants.

“We always say we identify more with the black Dominican woman worker than with the whites born in Puerto Rico who have sold out our country.”

Also present at the event was Rosa Meneses Albizu Campos, president of the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico and grand daughter of Puerto Rico’s great independence figure, Don Pedro Albizu Campos. She said the ruling elite in Puerto Rico and U.S. imperialism “may loosen the chain or tighten the chain, but it is only the Puerto Rican people who can break the chains of colonialism. And we will be victorious.”