BY MARTÍN KOPPEL  
Others have testified here to the abundant facts demonstrating that Puerto Rico is a U.S. colony, and describing the brutal consequences of this colonial subjugation for the Puerto Rican people.

As several have eloquently explained today, independence from U.S. rule is a necessity for the people of Puerto Rico if they are to freely determine their own destiny.

I would like to add that a successful fight for the independence of Puerto Rico is in the interests of the vast majority of the people of the United States. Workers and farmers here have absolutely no interest in Washington’s colonial rule over Puerto Rico.

The U.S. rulers always talk in terms of “We Americans.” But that’s a lie. Working people in the United States have no common interests with the owners of General Motors, Boeing, Cargill, Exxon, and the twin parties that serve their interests—the Democrats and Republicans. Instead, we have everything in common with fellow working people around the world—from France to China to Puerto Rico. We face a common oppressor and exploiter: the tiny class of U.S. billionaire families and its government.

As long as Puerto Rico is under Washington’s colonial boot, the fighting capacity and solidarity of the working-class movement in the United States will be weakened.

As the Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of New York City, I have been speaking with working people about that fact. And it rings true, especially among workers who are engaged in resistance to the offensive by the employers against our wages, working conditions, and rights.

Today we are hearing more revelations about the torture and degradation of prisoners locked up by the U.S. government at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo—territory occupied against the will of the Cuban people. These crimes are not “excesses” or aberrations. They show the true face of U.S. imperialism. This brutalization is simply an extension of what the U.S. rulers do routinely to prisoners inside the United States. Washington is the number one jailer in the world, with 2 million men and women behind bars.  
 
Jailed independence fighters
Three independence fighters have been locked up in U.S. prisons for a quarter of a century—Carlos Alberto Torres, Haydee Beltrán, and Oscar López. And José Pérez González and José Velez Acosta remain in jail for activities against the U.S. Navy’s presence in Vieques. I join with others here to demand: release them all now!

I also join the call for the release of five Cuban revolutionaries framed up by the U.S. government on espionage and other conspiracy charges. Their “crime” was gathering information about ultrarightist Cuban-American groups that have a long history of violent attacks against Cuba from U.S. territory, with Washington’s knowledge and complicity.

The U.S. government has used Puerto Rico as a springboard for launching assaults on countries around the world—from its invasion of Grenada in 1983 to the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, and the war and occupation of Iraq. It continues to use Puerto Rican youth as cannon fodder in these imperialist wars. I salute the students at the University of Puerto Rico who are telling the truth about this fact as they campaign against the use of university campuses by the ROTC. The successful 60-year-long struggle by the Puerto Rican people to get the U.S. Navy out of Vieques also helped educate millions about these realities….

Colonial domination of Puerto Rico reinforces the systematic discrimination and racist prejudice faced by 2.7 million Puerto Ricans here, along with Blacks, Chicanos, and other oppressed nationalities. As long as Puerto Rico remains a colony, Puerto Ricans will be subjected to second-class status in the U.S….

Mr. Chairman, in face of a growing worldwide economic depression, the U.S. rulers, who live off the labor and resources of millions around the world, have the arrogance to tell the Puerto Rican people that they have no choice but to depend on Washington, that independence would only bring them ruin.

But the living, fighting example given by the workers and farmers of Cuba and their revolutionary leadership gives the lie to this claim. Revolutionary Cuba shows that in making a socialist revolution, it is possible to fight and win genuine independence from U.S. imperialism. Cuba points the way forward for working people around the world, including in the United States.
 
 
Related articles:
Support workers’ struggles to organize unions
Back right of semicolonial nations to develop sources of energy they need, including nuclear power, for economic advancement
Socialist Workers campaign in Pittsburgh  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home