BY WENDY LYONS
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - On the 100th anniversary of the U.S. take-over of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Congress is considering a plebiscite to allow Puerto Ricans to vote for statehood, independence, or "commonwealth" (the present status quo). A bill sponsored by Rep. Donald Young of Alaska passed the House of Representatives but has stalled in the U.S. Senate. The measure has sparked much discussion among Puerto Ricans here and in the United States.

In fact Puerto Rico is a colony. The United Nations has adopted resolutions almost yearly since 1972 supporting Puerto Rico's right to self-determination and independence from colonial rule. Washington has historically used Puerto Rico as a launching pad for its aggression abroad through its military bases on the island. Puerto Ricans can be drafted into the U.S. military. They cannot vote in U.S. elections, though it is Washington that exercises control over matters of war, foreign relations, immigration and emigration, citizenship, finances, postal service, communications, maritime transport, parks, forests, natural resources, and education there.

In 1993 a plebiscite was held where maintaining the "commonwealth" status narrowly beat out statehood. Neither got a clear majority vote. Around 4 percent of the population voted for independence.

The present ruling party in Puerto Rico is the New Progressive Party, which favors statehood. In discussions in a working-class shopping area in Río Piedras, those who strongly favored that party tended to support statehood as well as the plebiscite. Those who backed the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), which supports maintaining the present status of Puerto Rico, generally said that they didn't think there should be another referendum. Many felt the whole issue was being decided somewhere else and didn't have much to do with them.

Juan Davila, a 69-year-old a jitney driver, has been a supporter of the PPD since it was founded in the 1940s. He said he felt that Puerto Rico had made so much progress under commonwealth that it was a "showcase" for the rest of Latin America. His father was a sugarcane farmer who received land from the government to build a house and help for its construction from a government-sponsored mutual aid group.

"I like statehood," said José Carrión. He had just parked a telephone company truck on the sidewalk to work on the phone system. He is 36 and a member of the Independent Union of Telephone Employees (UIET). He said he felt that laws were applied in a more just manner in the United States than in Puerto Rico.

On March 28 former Governor Rafael Hernández Colón, a leader of the PPD, called for a Yes or No vote on commonwealth. Under his proposal, if the commonwealth were to win, talks would begin to "perfect" it. If commonwealth were to lose, negotiations for statehood would take place. He said he would not include the independence option because it didn't have enough ballot support.

The Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), a social democratic party, backs the U.S.-sponsored plebiscite. Vance Thomas, president of the PIP Youth, told the Militant that "this is the first time since 1952 that the powers that be in the United States are willing to talk about Puerto Rican status. The Young project is flawed but it is a good starting point.

"We would need a 10-year transition period for independence," he said. "Puerto Rico has not been able to develop her own economy because its been a colony. We would need aid in the beginning and access to U.S. markets." When asked about Washington's military bases, he said, "We would ask the U.S. to give up all the land to Puerto Rico but the U.S. originally invaded Puerto Rico for military reasons and we might have to give up part of the land to achieve independence."

When asked what he thought of ultrarightist U.S. politician Patrick Buchanan's chauvinist opposition to statehood for Puerto Rico, he said, "I can understand that someone that is race oriented would have practical reasons for opposing it. I would be concerned if I had to admit a Spanish-speaking culture into the United States - people who want statehood because of economic reasons, not because they feel American. People feel Puerto Rican first, not American."

Rafael Cancel Miranda, a longtime independence fighter who spent 25 years in U.S. prisons, called the plebiscite "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." The position of the Federation of Pro-Independence University Students (FUPI) is that the plebiscite would be something imposed by U.S. colonial rule. The issue is being debated among Puerto Ricans in the United States. Among Puerto Ricans who work at the garment shop where this reporter works, a small minority are for independence. Statehood has more adherents, and maintaining the status quo has the majority. Many say that independence is not feasible because the economy would collapse if the United States were to pull out. Many are glad that unlike other immigrants, they have legal status to work and live in the United States. At the same time there is pride in being Puerto Rican among everyone regardless of their position on the status of the island and most are angry at the domination of Washington over the affairs of Puerto Rico. This anger flared up over the debate in the U.S. Congress over making English the dominant language in Puerto Rico.

At the recent FUPI Congress here, I asked Ludwig Medina how he would answer some of my co-workers' arguments against independence. Some people say that Puerto Rico would end up like Cuba and be blockaded by Washington. "Well it would be good, if we ended up like Cuba and had a revolution," Medina replied. "That is what we need to really guarantee our independence. As for blockading Puerto Rico, think about the reaction that would cause in the United States. Do you think all the Puerto Ricans who live there would let them get away with it? Tell them that lots of others would join to stop it too. This would cause a tremendous problem for the United States."

In the United States, Lorenzo Rosselló of the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners, answered the same question at an April 4 demonstration in front of the United Nations, calling for freedom for Puerto Rican prisoners. "People ask how can we survive without the United States. This turns things around. It is the U.S. corporations who live off the Puerto Rican people, not the opposite. If the industries went to the people who are actually producing things, we would be OK."

Pedro Pietri, a Puerto Rican poet who read his independista poems at the same demonstration, said in an interview, "Independence won't come through a plebiscite It will come through the struggle of people to resist oppression - to take what's ours and develop it.

"We can survive if we cooperate together in Puerto Rico and with other nations to develop ourselves. We need to become part of the world on our own - to be a sovereign and peaceful nation."

Washington "would probably try to destabilize us in every way possible if we win our independence. We would just have to fight like many nations before us have done for our rights as a nation." When Puerto Rico does win its independence, he added, "there will be a terrific reaction from Puerto Ricans here in the United States against U.S. aggression."

The debate over the status of Puerto Rico takes place in the framework of rising resistance to the attacks on working people on the island. Last fall the labor movement responded with a general strike to threats by the Puerto Rican government to privatize the phone company. It seems every third car you see on the road has a sticker on it opposing privatization. This resistance is reflected in renewed pro- independence activity among youth. FUPI had dwindled in size but is now growing.

After a lull of several years, protests are building against the U.S. military base on Vieques and the planned installation of radar equipment on the island. Part of the Southern Command of the U.S. Army has recently been moved there. The more obvious drive to war by the U.S. government is prompting action by growing numbers.

The continued harassment of pro-independence activists by U.S. government agencies is also sparking protest. On July 25 there will be mobilizations in both Puerto Rico and in the United States to demand freedom for independence fighters imprisoned in U.S. jails and for self-determination for Puerto Rico.

Wendy Lyons is a member of the Union of Needle Industry and Textile Employees in New York. Ron Richards, a member of the American Federation of Government Employees in San Juan, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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