BY ROSE ANA BERBEO
NEW YORK - As the 100th anniversary of Washington's invasion and colonization of Puerto Rico nears, the U.S. Congress is considering whether to allow Puerto Ricans to hold a plebiscite on the island's future.

The House of Representatives passed a bill March 4 - known as the Young bill after its main sponsor, Rep. Donald Young of Alaska - which directs Puerto Rico to hold a plebiscite by the end of the year. Residents of the island would choose between becoming a U.S. state, declaring for independence, or keeping the current "commonwealth" status. The vote carried by 209-208.

Two proposed amendments to the bill were defeated. One would have declared English the official language of instruction throughout the United States, including in Puerto Rico if it became a state. Currently both English and Spanish are the island's legal languages, with the vast majority of its residents using Spanish, their native language. The other amendment would have allowed people born on the island but now living elsewhere to vote in the plebiscite. About 2.7 million Puerto Ricans live in the United States.

The bill has stalled in the Senate, where majority leader Trent Lott of Mississippi said the Senate was too busy to deal with the question of Puerto Rico. Right after the House bill passed, Lott said, "This year, statehood issues are issues we are not going to get into."

Washington conquered Puerto Rico in July 1898, following more than 400 years of Spanish rule. In 1952 Congress created the commonwealth status, claiming that this decolonized the island. In 1972 the United Nations adopted a resolution in support of Puerto Rico's right to self-determination and independence from U.S. colonial rule. The UN General Assembly has approved similar resolutions virtually every year since 1976. Under the current status, Puerto Rico's 3.8 million residents are U.S. citizens, subject to the U.S. military draft, but with no vote in federal elections and no say over the country's foreign policy or the budget voted on by Congress. Puerto Ricans vote for a local "autonomous" government, which can impose taxes on the island and manages the distribution of federal funds. Washington currently has a significant number of military bases on the island. Today, for example, the U.S. Navy claims more than two-thirds of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

Backers of the Young bill in the United States and on the island all claim they are for Puerto Rican self-determination, including members of both the ruling New Progressive Party, which is pro-statehood, and the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP). The other major capitalist party, the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), which supports the status quo, is divided, with some favoring the plebiscite and others arguing that the language of the bill favors statehood.

Puerto Rican pro-statehood forces have campaigned intensely around the bill, buying newspaper ads and making campaign contributions to various U.S. politicians.

Longtime Puerto Rican nationalist and ex-political prisoner Rafael Cancel Miranda said in a telephone interview from Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, that the Young bill is nothing but "political maneuvering that attempts to continue delaying Puerto Rico's sovereignty and freedom.

"This is nothing new," Cancel Miranda added. "It's a way of justifying the unjustifiable. You have to recognize the invasion of Puerto Rico, of a country occupied and ruled politically, socially and economically. There cannot be a plebiscite in a colony, a militarily occupied country."

Former political prisoner Jorge Farinacci, writing about the Young bill in the Puerto Rican magazine Pensamiento Crítico last fall, noted that the U.S. government is not moving towards decolonizing Puerto Rico. Instead, the intensification of the North American military presence, plans to install radar equipment on Puerto Rico, and the expansion of U.S. cop agencies on the island all point to "the consolidation of colonial domination," he stated.

Activists in New York who are building a July 25 national march on the United Nations to demand independence and self- determination for Puerto Rico and freedom for Puerto Rican political prisoners expressed similar opinions about the bill.

"The UN decolonization committee is very clear that there's a process to decolonize," said Saulo Colón, a member of the Puerto Rico Collective, one of the organizations in the Comité 98 coalition that is building the march. "You need to be free and sovereign in order to exercise self-determination. Before the process can begin, there has to be a withdrawal of the entire U.S. military presence, and all the political prisoners must be set free.

"We should not legitimize this [Young bill] in any way," Colón said. "People should not participate in this thing. They should march to the UN on July 25."

Pro-independence activists are planning numerous rallies and other activities both on the island and in the United States throughout the year.

Capitalist politicians in the United States of both parties, from President William Clinton to House Speaker Newton Gingrich and Senator Alfonse D'Amato of New York, support the bill, all claiming to back self-determination for the Puerto Rican people. Patrick Buchanan used his February 28 syndicated column to oppose the Young bill and Puerto Rican statehood. The ultrarightist politician cited the cultural war for the "soul of America," the burden of poverty Puerto Rico would present as a state, and how Puerto Ricans would supposedly take away jobs from "high-paid American workers" as the reasons for this position. Instead, he states, he is for Puerto Rican independence. "If Puerto Rico, where but 20 percent of the people speak English and only 16 percent identify themselves as Americans, becomes a state, the United States will become two nations," Buchanan declared.

Plebiscites have been organized in Puerto Rico twice before, in 1967 and 1993, with the status quo winning the most votes in both cases. Pro-independence forces boycotted these referenda, with the exception of the PIP, which did participate in the 1993 vote. Those plebiscites were non- binding, requiring no action from Congress.

In 1967, "commonwealth" status won about 60 percent of the vote, and statehood 39 percent. In 1993, about 74 percent of the island's eligible 2.2 million voters participated, with some 48 percent voting to keep the status quo, 46 percent voting for statehood, and 4 percent voting for independence.

The Young bill provides that if neither statehood nor independence receives a simple majority, then commonwealth status remains intact and the Puerto Rican government could hold further plebiscites every 10 years. If statehood receives a simple majority, Clinton would have six months to send Congress a transition plan to be considered within four months. The transition could take no more than 10 years, with Congress taking a final vote to formalize Puerto Ricós statehood.

Rose Ana Berbeo is a member of the International Association of Machinists.  
 
 
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