‘Independence for Puerto Rico is in interest of workers in US’

Below is the statement presented June 20 by Alyson Kennedy, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. president, to the U.N. Special Committee on Decolonization.

The Socialist Workers Party stands shoulder to shoulder with all those fighting for an end to U.S. colonial domination and for the independence of Puerto Rico.

Across the United States, we have been urging working people to join the campaign to tell the U.S. government: Free Oscar López now! In Chicago, where I live, and in New York I have participated in protests demanding freedom for Oscar — now imprisoned for more than 35 years because of his actions in favor of a free Puerto Rico.

My sisters and brothers here have described, with an abundance of facts, the consequences of U.S. colonial rule for the people of Puerto Rico. They have explained why independence is a necessity if the people of that nation are to freely determine their future.

I would like to add that the fight for Puerto Rico’s independence is also in the interests of the vast majority of the people of the United States. From its founding nearly eight decades ago, my party has championed this struggle.

I and my campaign supporters have been knocking on doors in working-class neighborhoods across the U.S. We have been discussing with fellow workers the way forward in face of the worldwide capitalist economic and social crisis. We discuss the need to organize a working-class movement — independent of all the capitalist parties — to fight to defend our interests, and eventually to take political power.

We get a good hearing for this perspective because working people are angry about the worsening conditions in the U.S. and around the world. Two weeks ago I joined the picket lines of Machinists in Spokane, Washington, who are fighting to end the divisive two-tier wage scale and the bosses’ attempt to eliminate pensions and gut health insurance. I recently joined with workers in Montreal, on strike to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The people of Puerto Rico and working people in the U.S. have common interests, a common enemy, a common struggle. It’s the U.S. government and the capitalist system it defends that are responsible for the deepening crisis both here and in Puerto Rico. We are stronger when we fight together.

Many workers in the U.S. can see how the $70 billion debt crisis in Puerto Rico is used as a club to benefit banks and bondholders while working people are squeezed dry — a glaring example of how colonial domination works. Because of their own struggles and experiences with the capitalist “justice” system, many in the United States can identify with Oscar López and his fight for freedom.

Today 5 million Puerto Rican women and men live in the United States. We embrace the tens of thousands of fellow workers who are being forced to migrate here because of the devastating crisis on the island. We will find ourselves fighting side by side, and they will help strengthen the solidarity between workers in both countries.

I recently visited Cuba as part of a delegation of workers from the U.S. who have had sons killed by the cops and who have helped lead protests against police brutality. We learned firsthand about a society that, as a result of a deep-going social revolution, is rooted in solidarity, not the dog-eat-dog relations of capitalism. On May 1, International Workers Day, we marched with hundreds of thousands of workers and youth in a massive expression of pride, confidence and support for the revolution. It was the first time we had seen workers marching through the streets without being surrounded by police in riot gear!

The U.S. rulers try to convince the Puerto Rican people that they cannot survive without dependence on Washington — just as they try to convince working people here that we need them in order to run society. That’s a lie.

Cuba’s socialist revolution is living proof that when workers and farmers take political power out of the hands of the capitalist minority, we can use it to win genuine independence and begin to reorganize society in the interests of the vast majority. The Cuban Revolution is an example for working people worldwide — including in Puerto Rico and right here in the United States.

Mr. Chairman, this committee’s condemnation of U.S. colonial rule over Puerto Rico will serve the interests of those everywhere who fight for self-determination and against oppression.

Related articles:
‘US colonial exploitation of Puerto Rico has not changed’
Who is Oscar López Rivera?

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