First Published: The Communist, Vol. III, No. 2, January 22, 1977.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Before he left office, Gerald Ford raised a proposal to Congress to make Puerto Rico our 51st state. This came at an opportune time when the pro-statehood party the Progressive National Party; (PNP) won the recent elections in Puerto Rico. Their candidate, Carlos Romero Barcelo defeated the independence parties who domminated politically for the last few decades.
Why does such a proposal for statehood arise now? The US has historically dominated Puerto Rico, politically, militarily and economically. Puerto Rico was forcibly taken over by the US after the defeat of the Spanish in 1897. The “Foracker Act” passed by Congress in 1900 was designed to provide for a Puerto Rican legislature and governor. This laid the political basis for the new colonial government.
Though the US imperialists were not ready to annex Puerto Rico as a state, they established firm political control over this new territory. For example, laws that were passed by the Puerto Rican legislature could be annulled by the US Congress. Territories such as Puerto Rico were officially known as “possessions” of the US – a word that accurately described their complete lack of democratic rights, particularly the right to political independence. (See THE COMMUNIST, Vol. 1, no. 3).
The Puerto Rican people never took colonial domination meekly or passively, and over the years, the rising tide of struggle increased against the rule of US imperialism. In 1917, the imperialist made them token citizens with the “honor” of fighting in the imperialist armies. They gave the Puerto Rican people token representation in Congress and the use of US currency, but never what the people wanted most: self determination.
Militarily, the US occupies Puerto Rico. The Army and Navy bases sit on 13% of the land on the island. Surrounding islands are used as bases for counter-insurgency activity or for target practice, where hundreds of people have been killed by sporadic shelling offshore by the Navy over the years.
Economically, US corporations dominate Puerto Rico as well. Many corporations operate tax free on the island, paying workers subhuman wages. They justify, the deplorable conditions and low wages on the fact that they are providing Puerto Ricans with jobs and building the economy. However the reality is much more devastating. Puerto Ricans never reap the benefits from the wealth that they create. With unemployment as high as 80% in some towns, the masses are forced to pay high prices for essential items, that they must import. Because of these conditions, over 30% of the island’s population have migrated to the US.
Because the means of production is in the hands of US imperialism, Puerto Rico’s agricultural resources are concentrated on one crop – sugar, which leaves them open to that domination. All of their other natural resources – tobacco, oil, tin, nickel, copper, marble, etc. are sold for low prices and processed by US corporations in the US and sent back to the island to be sold at inflated prices.
The Puerto Rican people have never taken this oppression lying down. There has over the years been organized struggle to liberate Puerto Rico. National heroes arose such as Jose de Diego and Pedro Albizu Campos, who led the growing independentistas’ movement. In 1948, workers went on strike throughout the island, paralyzing key industries. During the Korean War the independence movement took on an even more profound anti-imperialist character. The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party organized opposition to the drafting of young men in the army to invade Korea. They said in a notice to the US government that Puerto Ricans would rather die fighting for the independence of their country than serve US imperialism against other oppressed peoples. The US responded with violence and terror, and the heroic peoples took their stands in Arecibo, Jayuya, Mayaguez, Ponce, Naranjito, and Utauado. Even though thousands were arrested and many killed, the resistance to US domination wasn’t crushed.
In addition to murderous US imperialism, the Puerto Rican people also face the hegemonic ambitions of the Soviet Union who have a firm foothold in the Caribbean. Under the signboard of liberation, and utilizing conciliation with modern revisionism by elements in the independence movement such as the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP), the Soviets are trying to bring the Puerto Rican people under their domination. Those like PSP that conciliate with the Soviet imperialists do not offer the people true independence, but merely open the door for control by one superpower to replace the other.
In addition, forces like the PSP have helped provide an opportune time for the US to seize on the confusion created among the people to push their call for statehood. The results of the last election are bitter testimony of this fact. During the last election, the PSP received a very small number of votes and it is clear that one reason they lost support is because they preach friendship with the USSR, which is being more clearly seen by the people in Puerto Rico, as well as all of Latin America, as an enemy rather than a friend. The Puerto Rican people will not buy any effort to sneak in the influence of the social-imperialists under the name of independence as happened in Angola. Heading on this course, PSP lost their one-time popular support and the pro-US imperialist party took advantage of that fact.
The call for statehood is an attempt by the US imperialists to consolidate its control in the face of Soviet strivings for hegemony. The US, weakened with internal and external crises, is attempting to forcibly annex Puerto Rico once and for all, guaranteeing its access to the rich natural resources of Puerto Rico, including valuable off-shore oil. Also, if the US imperialists could force statehood on Puerto Rico, they would be even more ruthless in their attempts to smash the independence movement under the false cover that it was an “internal state matter.” That is one reason that, even though the US imperialists effectively control Puerto Rico now, they still desire that final official annexation.
Any illusions that making Puerto Rico a state will improve the conditions for the people of the island must be shattered. Such a move would only benefit the rich. One can only look at the rising unemployment, inflation and increased attacks on the working class, oppressed nationalities and national minorities in the US to see that absolutely no “salvation” arises by such a situation. Besides, the correct demand for Puerto Rico is for unqualified independence. The call for statehood is a disguised neo-colonial plot to deprive the Puerto Rican people of the political control over their own territory. It is similar to France’s relationship to Algeria – in no way can the limitations on political sovereignty implied under statehood be applied to the conditions of Puerto Rico.
The call for statehood by the US represents its desperation in facing the rising struggles of the Puerto Rican people for independence, its swiftly taking advantage of weaknesses in the independence movement caused by those who conciliate with social imperialism, its increased contention with the Soviet Union in Latin America, and its panic as it faces the rising storm of the oppressed peoples and countries of the world as well as its own internal crisis. Even though the pro-US party won the recent election, that victory was by no means a consolidated one. It in no way represents a mandate for Puerto Rico to become a state unit of the US. The people know that Puerto Rico was taken by arms. Liberation will only be guaranteed through armed struggle for independence by the masses of Puerto Rican people, under the leadership of a vanguard party that exposes and opposes both super powers. We must demand that the US imperialists remove all military presence from Puerto Rico, that the ownership of all factories and means of production be placed in the hands of the Puerto Rican people, and that the Puerto Rican people be allowed to exercise complete and unlimited sovereignty over their own country.
US OUT OF PUERTO RICO!!