Socialist Workers Party joins protest in Puerto Rico

Militant/Cynthia Jaquith

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A delegation headed by Alyson Kennedy, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. president, arrived here Sept. 19 for a weeklong fact-finding and solidarity visit. One of the first stops was to an encampment outside the U.S. federal court, above, where young people have protested daily since June. They are denouncing Washington’s establishment of a “fiscal control” board to enforce payment of the U.S. colony’s $70 billion debt to capitalist bondholders, including through a lower minimum wage for youth. The sign says, “The future of Puerto Rico doesn’t work for $4.25.”

Kennedy has been invited to give greetings to the Sept. 23 Grito de Lares celebration, organized by pro-independence groups here to commemorate the 1868 uprising of Puerto Ricans against Spanish colonial rule.

In addition, Kennedy will speak at the University of Puerto Rico, join a march to demand the release of Puerto Rican independence fighter Oscar López Rivera, meet with trade unionists and visit working-class neighborhoods, going door to door to exchange experiences on what working people face in Puerto Rico and in the United States.

Kennedy is accompanied by Jacob Perasso, Cynthia Jaquith and Martín Koppel. Jaquith and Perasso are the SWP’s candidates for U.S. Senate in Florida and New York, respectively.

— CYNTHIA JAQUITH