Vol.64/No.19 May 15, 2000
U.S. Out of Vieques!
Protest evictions! No more bombing!We urge you to build and join the public demonstrations being organized now in many cities against Washington's imperial show of force in retaking the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico.
| EDITORIAL |
The U.S. rulers want to assert their "right" to use the island for bombing practice in preparation for their wars of aggression around the world. The deployment of U.S. marshals and FBI cops backed up by 1,200 U.S. Marines on three warships is also intended as a warning to anyone who dares stand up to the military might and prerogatives of the U.S. ruling families.
This assault on the people of Puerto Rico is the first political result of the commando-style raid the Clinton administration carried out April 22 in Miami. The final decision to launch the invasion force against Vieques was taken just days after U.S. attorney general Janet Reno ordered the raid on a home in Miami. Since then, the consensus has grown in U.S. ruling circles that the operation "worked"—that is, that they have won widespread public acceptance for this assault, which they will use to undermine the democratic rights of all working people.
The same state power and the same action, on a larger scale than Miami, was unleashed on Vieques. The U.S. rulers will push as far as they can to try to deal a blow to the struggle to get the U.S. Navy out of Vieques and to the independence movement. At the same time, they will continue to encounter widespread opposition among working people in Puerto Rico and, increasingly, in U.S. cities—especially those with Puerto Rican communities.
Washington's deployment of cops and troops to retake Vieques for their war training, in face of mass opposition among Puerto Ricans, shows the true face of U.S. colonial rule in this Latin American nation. With the typical arrogance of imperialist powers, the U.S. Navy brass describes Vieques as "our crown jewel." Since World War II, when they evicted fishermen, farmers, and workers from their homes and land, the U.S. military has used two-thirds of the small island to carry out bombing practice and other military exercises and store ammunition, and the surrounding waters are used for military maneuvers—all with total disregard for the livelihood of the fishermen and other inhabitants of Vieques.
Since Washington seized Puerto Rico as a colony a century ago, the U.S. military has used all of this island as a springboard for military interventions to assert U.S. imperialist interests around the world, from the invasion of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989 to war moves aimed at revolutionary Cuba. In fact, the April 1999 incident that detonated the current upsurge of protests against the U.S. Navy presence on Vieques was a U.S. warplane that dropped bombs and killed a local resident, David Sanes. The Navy was using Vieques to train pilots for the U.S. bombing campaign against the workers state in Yugoslavia.
Colonial rule means all the decisions affecting the people of Puerto Rico are made in Washington, not San Juan. It means the people of Puerto Rico are subjected to high unemployment, low wages, and a distorted economy that is designed to siphon profits to U.S. companies with little regard for the Puerto Rico's economic and social development. It means stepped-up use of the FBI and other cop attacks on unions and the independence movement. It means six pro-independence political prisoners in U.S. jails today.
The independence of Puerto Rico is in the interests of the vast majority of the people of the United States. Working people in the United States and the Puerto Rican people face the same exploiters, whose headquarters is in Washington, D.C. A successful struggle for the complete sovereignty—independenceùof Puerto Rico will deal a powerful blow to our common enemy. It will show it is possible to stand up to the most brutal capitalist class in the world and break its domination.
That is why the U.S. rulers are concerned about the spreading mood of resistance and anticolonial sentiments among Puerto Rican working people, seen most graphically today in the widespread movement to get the U.S. Navy out of Vieques. This combativity coincides with increased resistance by workers and farmers in the United States. Working people and youth in this country fighting for their unions or to defend their right to farm, as well as protesting police violence and other brutalities of the capitalist system, will be the most receptive to calls to oppose Washington's brutal moves against Vieques.
U.S. military out of Vieques! Protest the evictions! No more bombing!
Independence for Puerto Rico!