U.S. and Puerto Rican colonial officials have tried every trick in their book--threats of arrests, terrorist-baiting, offers of money, stalling tactics--but have failed to stem the widening movement. Instead, the cry of "Not one more bomb--U.S. Navy out of Vieques" has captured the convictions of millions.

As Cuban president Fidel Castro pointed out to 6,000 youth at a continental student conference in Havana, "Puerto Rico is a small nation at the doorstep of U.S. imperialism, under its colonial boot. The people of Puerto Rico don't have nuclear weapons. But they may be on the verge of forcing the hated U.S. Navy to stop bombing Vieques. That's not a small feat!" The U.S. rulers are not as powerful as they seem, the Cuban revolutionary leader correctly pointed out. They can be defeated if there is a powerful enough movement of millions.

Pro-colonial politicians in Puerto Rico, and Democratic Party politicians in the United States, have jumped onto the Vieques bandwagon and have unsuccessfully tried to derail the fight into support for big-business parties. But the driving force behind the mass protests against the U.S. Navy and related struggles has been workers, fishermen, and youth who want to stand up to Washington. The class divisions have become clearer through this struggle, helping cut through the illusion of a "national consensus."

Capitalist politicians are rightly fearful that, while the majority of Puerto Ricans are not pro-independence today, the fight to get the U.S. military out of Vieques has given an unprecedented hearing to those who explain that independence from U.S. colonial rule is both necessary and possible. And it has put the working class in a stronger position to fight for its interests against the employers.

In fact, the fight to win Puerto Rico's sovereignty from U.S. rule is 100 percent in the interests of the vast majority of the people of the United States. Working people in this country and the Puerto Rican people face a common enemy--Washington and the exploiting minority it represents.

The best example today of a successful road to national sovereignty is revolutionary Cuba. In Puerto Rico's sister nation, workers and farmers swept the parasitic wealthy minority out of power and took the reins themselves, breaking U.S. domination.

The rising national struggle in Puerto Rico is part of the pattern of renewed resistance by workers and farmers throughout Latin America--from Bolivia and Ecuador to Costa Rica--as well as in the United States and Canada. Fighters against the U.S. Navy in Puerto Rico and union and farm militants here will find common strength as they link up with each other. That is a process to encourage.  
 
 
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