Vol. 81/No. 26 July 17, 2017
Workers in Virgin Islands face brunt of US
colonial rule
With a population of some 103,000, the territory is composed of three large islands — St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas — and some 50 small islets and cays.
Mounting debts owed to wealthy bondholders have saddled working people there with a debt equivalent to $19,000 per capita, on top of the effects of the 2012 shutdown of the colony’s largest employer, the Hovensa oil refinery. These have led to sharp cuts in basic services and workers’ living conditions. When investors didn’t buy into a new bond offering earlier this year, the government spent workers’ pensions instead to cover basic operations. At the same time fuel shipments for electricity on the island were halted for lack of payment.
In a country whose major industry now is tourism, Virgin Islands’ Gov. Kenneth Mapp imposed new “sin” taxes on alcohol, cigarettes and soft drinks.
The closing of the Hovensa refinery, jointly owned by the Hess Corporation and the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., one of the world’s largest, eliminated 2,200 jobs. The colonial government lost its main cash export and a key tax revenue source. The workers, represented by the United Steelworkers union, lost their jobs with no ready alternatives.
The government of the Virgin Islands owes current and former employees over $300 million in retroactive pay, dating back to 1989. The colonial regime tried to impose an 8 percent wage cut, but the move was overturned by the courts when the unions — the Steelworkers, St. Croix Federation of Teachers and others — challenged it.
Pension funds owed to some 18,000 workers have been gambled away on speculative investments by government authorities. One scheme put $50 million into life viatrical insurance policies, which involve betting that a select group of elderly people will die quickly.
Other U.S.-occupied colonies are mired in similar economic crises. In American Samoa, a big tuna cannery closed after being required to pay the federal minimum wage. In Mariana Islands, retirees have been fighting against government attempts to cut pensions by 25 percent.
Government officials in the Virgin Islands are discussing a Promesa law like that imposed by former President Barack Obama on Puerto Rico. Washington would impose a U.S.-government fiscal control board with dictatorial powers over the other colonies’ finances, tasked with implementing layoffs, wage cuts and other attacks on workers to assure the wealthy bondholders get paid.
Attracted by its use for defensive purposes as the first imperialist world war loomed, Washington bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917. But it wasn’t until 1970 that residents there were allowed by Congress to elect a governor. In 1976 the islands were given the right to draft a constitution, but it requires approval by the U.S. Congress and the president to go into effect. Despite five constitutional conventions making proposals to the U.S. Congress, they were all rejected. The latest was turned down by President Barack Obama in 2009.
“The Caribbean’s main problem is its unsustainable level of accumulated debt,” Rafael Zamora Rodríguez, Cuban Foreign Ministry interim director general for Latin America and the Caribbean, said Feb. 28, just prior to the opening of the First Association of Caribbean States Cooperation Conference. Revolutionary Cuba is spearheading the fight against colonial exploitation and oppression.
Cuba is also a member of the U.N. Special Committee on Decolonization, which met in Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, May 16-18 to discuss decolonization in the 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories — including the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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