Vol. 71/No. 17      April 30, 2007

BY CHRISTIAN CASTRO  
DETROIT, April 3—More than 120 students gathered at Wayne State University (WSU) here today to hear Rafael Cancel Miranda speak on the fight for independence of Puerto Rico from U.S. colonial rule. The event was sponsored by the campus Club Hispano, Center for Chicano-Boricua Studies, French Club, Young Socialists, and the Puerto Rican Club of Detroit.

Also speaking was Martín Koppel, a Militant reporter who interviewed Cancel Miranda for articles later published by Pathfinder Press as the pamphlet Puerto Rico: Independence Is a Necessity.

Cancel Miranda, 76, spent 25 years in prison after he and three other independentistas carried out an armed attack on the U.S. Congress in 1954 to draw attention to the anticolonial struggle. They were released in 1979 after a broad international defense campaign.

Prior to 1954, Cancel Miranda had been sentenced to two years in prison for refusing to serve in the U.S. Army for the Korean War.

"Our country was invaded in 1898, and since that year my people have been used for their [Washington’s] interests," he said. "When I was 18 they wanted to send me to fight my Korean brothers. Can you imagine that? I refused."

After the attack on Congress, "I was sent to Alcatraz, the jail where the most feared prisoners were sent. This was an honor for me," he said.

Cancel Miranda described his identification with the Cuban Revolution. "I would give my life for the Cuban Revolution," he said. Cuban president Fidel Castro "dignifies us," he continued. "Cuba dignifies us. Because we know that Cuba is the only territory that the U.S. interests don’t control. It is the only country where the people have control over their own means of production and communication."

Koppel said U.S. working people don't benefit from holding Puerto Rico as a colony, and “we have a common enemy: the U.S. capitalist rulers.” Colonialism is part of the capitalist system and “is enforced by both the Republican and Democratic parties."

Working people in the United States resisting the bosses' attacks, like the millions who have mobilized over the last year demanding legalization of all immigrants, are among the best potential allies of those fighting to liberate Puerto Rico and to free the Puerto Rican independentistas in U.S. prisons, Koppel said.

"To those who argue that independence for Puerto Rico is impossible, we say Cuba proves them wrong. The Cuban Revolution points the road forward on how to transform society, not just in Puerto Rico but in the United States too."

Koppel and Cancel Miranda urged those present to join the campaign to free five Cuban revolutionaries locked up in U.S. prisons on frame-up charges. Afterward students stopped by the Young Socialists’ informational display on the Cuban Five.

Roxana Zúñiga, a WSU student who chaired the meeting, said the turnout and political discussion the event generated showed that "it was a success."

Ruben Andrade, a WSU student who attended the event, told the Militant, "I came to the meeting because I support the fight against oppression. I didn't know anything about Rafael Cancel Miranda before tonight. But I now feel more inspired and motivated to fight injustice."

After the meeting, several students signed up to find out more about the Young Socialists. Audience members bought 10 copies of Puerto Rico: Independence Is a Necessity, two other pamphlets, as well as 20 copies of the Militant and six subscriptions to the socialist paper.

Marshall Lambie, a WSU student and YS organizer in Detroit, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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