Statement by Paul Mailhot, Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of New York, to the U.N. Special Committee on Decolonization annual hearing on the status of Puerto Rico June 22. Mailhot was one of nearly 60 people who spoke, the vast majority supporting independence for Puerto Rico. The next issue of the Militant will report on the hearing.
Distinguished chairperson and committee members:
My name is Paul Mailhot, speaking on behalf of the Socialist Workers Party. I am the party’s candidate for governor of New York.
The Socialist Workers Party, since its founding in 1938, has championed the fight for Puerto Rico’s independence from U.S. colonial rule.
Today, the U.S. rulers are once again using Puerto Rico as a base for military aggression in Latin America. We saw this vividly with the January 3 U.S. attack on Venezuela, and the subsequent stationing of an armada of warships off Puerto Rico to threaten Cuba. And U.S. imperialism will keep pressing for the sons and daughters of working people in Puerto Rico to fight Washington’s wars abroad.
We join with others here to say: U.S. military out of Puerto Rico and all of the Caribbean! U.S. hands off Cuba!
For the past decade Washington has imposed a so-called financial oversight board to squeeze workers and farmers in Puerto Rico in order to guarantee debt payments to wealthy U.S. bondholders. This junta has imposed cuts in jobs and pensions, school closures, hikes in utility rates and university tuition, and much more.
We demand: Washington, cancel Puerto Rico’s debt now!
Workers in the United States are fighting against these same conditions. Tens of thousands of nurses in New York, meatpackers in Colorado, railroad workers, auto-parts workers and others have turned to their unions this year to fight for wage increases that are adequate to raise a family; for safe job conditions; for schedules that make it possible to have a life outside of work.
The employer class protects its profits at the expense of working people. Neither in Puerto Rico, nor in the United States, can workers rely on the parties of the bosses. We have to build revolutionary parties that will fight for workers power.
The class conflicts sharpening in both Puerto Rico and the U.S. are part of a world capitalist disorder. Today’s cutthroat rivalries among imperialist powers and other capitalist challengers are once again marching humanity toward social catastrophes, another Holocaust against Jews and a third world war.
The working people of Cuba led by Fidel Castro and the Rebel Army overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in 1959 and took state power, demonstrating that a transformation in the lives of the toiling majority is possible. The capitalists of this country have never forgiven the Cuban people for taking control of their country — just 90 miles from U.S. shores.
The powerful example of Cuba’s socialist revolution, where workers and farmers mobilized in their millions to fight in their own interests under a revolutionary leadership, shows the road to genuine freedom and independence. It is an example for working people in Puerto Rico, in the U.S., and in the world.
Today, the fight for the independence of Puerto Rico, the struggles of U.S. working people and defense of Cuban sovereignty are more closely tied than ever.
The Socialist Workers Party adds its voice to those here who are fighting to end Washington’s colonial domination of Puerto Rico.
Thank you.