As the Socialist Workers Party's candidate for president of the United States in this election year, I have traveled back and forth across the country.

Last week I spoke with meat packers in St. Paul, Minnesota, who are fighting for a union. The workers there, of many different national origins, are taking a stand for human dignity against the brutal speedup of labor that leads to injuries and the grinding up of workers. I also spoke with farmers who are protesting against the devastating conditions they face, many of them being driven off the land, stripped of their livelihood, even discriminated against by federal agencies because of race. Coal miners are on strike in the Western coalfields, and immigrant workers have held rallies around the country for equal rights and against deportations. This picture of resistance by working people is an increasingly noticeable feature of politics in the United States today.

Yesterday I participated in the convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, one of the sponsors of a national march to protest police brutality planned for August 26 in Washington, D.C. Police brutality is part of the pattern of violence by the rulers of this country against working people. Last week more than 5,000 people marched in Dearborn, Michigan, against the killing of a Black man who was defending his daughter against security guards who had accused her of stealing a $4 bracelet. This past weekend, defenders of civil rights marched in Kokomo, Mississippi, after a young Black man was found hanging by a belt from a tree in front of his house.

As a participant in these struggles, I point out to others that independence for Puerto Rico is in the interests, not only of the Puerto Rican people, but of the vast majority of the people of the United States.

Workers and farmers in the United States have absolutely no interest in Washington's colonial rule over Puerto Rico. It is only the tiny handful of wealthy ruling families in this country that benefits from the exploitation of Puerto Rico's labor, land, and natural resources.

The Puerto Rican people and working people in the United States face the same exploiters and the same oppressors--those in Washington and Wall Street. As long as the U.S. rulers are able to maintain their colonial domination of Puerto Rico, labor in the United States will not be able to throw the source of exploitation off our backs either.

Some 2.7 million Puerto Ricans are part of the working class in the United States. They are subject to systematic discrimination and second-class status, as are Blacks, Mexicans, and other oppressed nationalities in this country. U.S. colonial rule of Puerto Rico reinforces racist prejudice and every reactionary force in the United States--to the detriment of the entire working class.

The trampling of the national rights of the Puerto Rican people strengthens the ability of the U.S. rulers to attack the democratic rights of those here who are resisting the employers and their government.

Last year, an international campaign for the release of Puerto Rican political prisoners won the release of 11 independence fighters. But today, six independentistas remain in U.S. prisons. One of them is José Solís, framed up by the FBI and locked up in a U.S. prison only last year. We join with thousands of others in demanding that U.S. president William Clinton release them unconditionally now.

The use of the FBI, marshals, and courts to harass and frame up unionists and independence fighters in Puerto Rico emboldens Washington to use similar methods against working-class fighters in the United States. Puerto Ricans are disproportionately victims of this so-called "justice" system.  
 
'We have a common enemy'
Two months ago, in an imperial show of force, 300 FBI agents and U.S. marshals, backed up by 1,200 marines, landed on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques and arrested 200 Puerto Ricans and their supporters protesting against the U.S. Navy's use of their land. Since then, the U.S. military has resumed war training on Vieques, shelling the small island in defiance of the will of the majority of the people of Puerto Rico, and of large numbers of Puerto Ricans living in the United States.

Mr. Chairman:

A successful struggle to get the U.S. Navy out of Vieques will deal a resounding blow to our common enemy. It will show--to use a slogan popularized by a number of working-class struggles led by Spanish-speaking workers in this country today--that Sí se puede. Yes we can! Yes, it's possible to stand up to the most brutal imperialist power in history and win freedom from its rule. It is possible to win independence for Puerto Rico.

The accumulation of experiences in struggles by working people in the United States, which I referred to earlier, is leading many to become more receptive to the fight against U.S. colonial rule in Puerto Rico, and to identify with the fishermen, workers, youth, and others battling to get the U.S. military out of Vieques.

The battle to remove the U.S. Navy from Vieques has drawn attention to how Washington uses Puerto Rico as a launching pad for military aggression worldwide. The warships and planes that are now resuming military exercises in the area of Vieques will be sent around the world to protect the interests of U.S. big business and to assault other peoples, from the Balkans to the Middle East. The use of U.S. military facilities in Puerto Rico under the banner of fighting "drug trafficking" in the Caribbean is of a piece with the growing U.S. military intervention in Colombia and other Andean countries under the same pretext.  
 
Example of revolutionary Cuba
Washington has not only covered Puerto Rico with its military bases. It also uses Puerto Rican youth as cannon fodder for its wars of plunder. Significant numbers of Puerto Ricans have opposed being drafted into the army of the colonial power over the years--during World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and in between. Their actions set an example for youth in colonies worldwide.

Mr. Chairman:

The people of Puerto Rico and working people in the United States are often told by our common oppressor--the U.S. employers and their government in Washington--that it's useless to struggle, that independence will only lead to degradation and decline. But the example of revolutionary Cuba is proof to the contrary.

The workers and farmers of Cuba have proven that it is possible to struggle courageously and win genuine independence from U.S. domination. The socialist road they have chosen is the course that has made it possible to achieve sovereignty and dignity.

In 1959, Cuban workers and farmers overthrew a U.S.-backed dictatorship and freed themselves from U.S. control. Since then--despite four decades of a ruthless campaign by Washington to punish them for the audacity of making their country the first free territory in the Americas--the Cuban people have successfully defended their hard-won freedom. Cuba has always consistently championed Puerto Rico's fight for independence and set an example of selfless solidarity.

The condemnation by this committee of Washington's colonial rule of Puerto Rico will serve the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people of the United States and those everywhere fighting for the right to self-determination and the future of humanity.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of this committee, for the opportunity to present these views before you today.  
 
 
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