NEW YORK — Supporters of independence for Puerto Rico from U.S. colonial rule demonstrated here and in several other cities Aug. 31. The actions coincided with a march of several thousand in San Juan, Puerto Rico, sponsored by a coalition of pro-independence organizations. Puerto Rico has been under the U.S. imperialist boot since 1898.
Some 200 people marched through Harlem’s El Barrio, a center of the Puerto Rican community. Demonstrators called attention to the economic and social crisis facing the Puerto Rican people, from blackouts and water shortages to a devastated health care system. They condemned the so-called fiscal control board imposed by the U.S. government since 2016. The widely hated junta, as the board is known, has enforced cuts in public employee jobs, retiree pensions and other social protections, as well as hikes in utility rates — all to ensure payments to wealthy bondholders on a multibillion-dollar debt.
“La junta is an example of the unbridled power the U.S. has over Puerto Ricans,” Davina Resto, from the Puerto Rican women’s group Adolfina NYC, told marchers. “The occupation and colonization of our land is leading to more Boricuas being forced into the diaspora.” More Puerto Ricans live in the U.S. today than on the island.
Protesters also called for an end to stepped-up ICE deportations of Dominican, Haitian and other immigrant workers in Puerto Rico.
Participating organizations here ranged from Call to Action on Puerto Rico to the Frente Independentista Boricua, Puerto Rican Independence Party, Youth United for Independence (JUPI), and Las Lolitas, among others.
Paul Mailhot, Socialist Workers Party candidate for New York mayor, and campaign supporters joined the march. Mailhot called on Washington to cancel the debt imposed on Puerto Rico. “Workers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. face the same enemy — the capitalist ruling families and their governments,” he told marchers. “A successful struggle to free Puerto Rico from U.S. colonial rule will also strengthen the hand of working people in this country.”
Marches were also held in Chicago; Cleveland; Philadelphia; Orlando, Florida.; Jersey City, New Jersey; and Worcester, Massachusetts.