Like the previously disclosed Cointelpros against the "New Left," the antiwar movement, Black groups, the Socialist Workers party, and others, the operation against the Puerto Rican independence movement was aimed at disrupting and destroying a force the government feared could win mass support.

The largest program, thirty-seven separate actions, was--in Attorney General Edward Levi's words--"aimed at militant and violence-prone groups" that sought Puerto Rican independence. This is a classic example of making the victim look like the criminal, as Puerto Rican independence groups have been among the most prominent targets for acts of violence by right-wingers and cops.

The program began in August 1960, a year after the Movimiento Pro Independencia (Proindependence Movement) was founded in Puerto Rico and shortly after the 1959 victory of the Cuban Revolution. The fear that Puerto Rican militants might find the victorious revolution an attractive model for their own U.S.-dominated island must have been one motive that prompted the FBI program.  
 
June 12, 1950
The AFL National Farm Labor Union has called on Governor Earl Warren to bring pressure on the large cotton growers in the West Side of Fresno County to halt wholesale evictions of hundreds of striking farm workers. The union has been on strike several weeks against wage rates of 55 to 65 cents per hour. It has demanded 85 cents.

William Swearingen, Fresno County organizer for the AFL National Farm Labor Union, reported: "The Murietta Farms Company, a Giffen holding, has served eviction notices on 40 Mexican-American families involving some 175 men, women, and children. This is in one camp alone. We expect similar action to follow in other camps..."

He said that the workers who are striking against the 65-cent chopping wage have resided in the Giffen Camp the year round. "The growers are now feeling the impact of the strike and now intend to force people to work under threat of eviction...

"These eviction notices are proof that there is an effective strike on," Swearingen said," and, further, the responsibility for the strike falls directly in the hands of the growers and certain county agencies who refused to meet with the union and settle the matter peaceably." The 3,200 strikers are facing dire want and need immediate material aid from the labor movement if they are not to be starved back to work.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home