Toward Independence and Socialism: An Interview with Juan Mari Bras
The Puerto Rican struggle for independence and socialism has intensified over the last few years. One important indication of this growth was the transformation of the Pro-Independence Movement...
...agency had any connection with...
...Just a few months ago we started a campaign in a small factory where we have a nucleus of workers...
...We must work for the future...
...Congress...
...This operation is still very primitive because it does not have much power...
...They add that "The rorts of the Government of Puerto Rico do not reflect the real unemploy...
...It is for this reason we stated in the Declaration and in the Statutes of the Party that the U.S...
...JMB: Well, the contradictions in the system are growing...
...IPA, originally known as the Inter-American Police Academy, is op- erated by the Office of Public Safety...
...The national symbols were also eliminated...
...Exchanges were made with student organizations in the Dominican Republic and several other countries, These factors significantly influenced the development of a Marxist perspective as a basis of the Movement...
...The fact is that in the past the participation of women in political activities as a whole and in the revolutionary struggle in Puerto Rico was practically nil...
...Washington has controlled the educational system since 1898...
...We are now working at those three levels in 130 factories...
...However, it took three years to develop the basis for that...
...In the past they have played a central role in the struggle for independence...
...In addition, we have a sort of caucus within the labor union council that operates on a national scale...
...that is, into a Marx* Claridad is the newspaper of the PSP-MPI...
...The facts are that there were only 746 000 people working in Puerto Rico out of an able-bodied population of 1073000 in June 1970.=4) WHY THE TALK ABOUT A CRISIS OF IDENTITY Don Pedro Albizu Campos once said, "either Yankee or Puerto Ricans...
...The worker finds he is agreeing to be represented by the ILGWU...
...and the Armed Commandos for Liberation, the organization which calls for armed struggle u the only solu- tion and whose activities have resulted in millions of dollars being lost by the Yankees a a result of buildings that have been destroyed, have all been formed in the batt against Yankee imperialism...
...As of our publication time, the Puerto Rican branch has refused to comply...
...The Industrial Development Administration has estimated that these foreign companies have made a net profit of 40 percent over and above their investments...
...We then realized the need to do vanguard work in Puerto Rico, for we saw no possibility of unifying the proindependence forces without such a vanguard...
...Recently, the Boiler Makers Union in the United States ordered the Puerto Rican branch to cease its militant activities...
...Parallel to its ideo- logical radicalization, our membership changed (although more slowly -- the ideological radicalization coming first...
...We had then intended to act as a sort of rallying point for all independence forces on the Island...
...Fiscal Years 1959-1970) Country Amount (U.S...
...To continue insisting on unity in the coming Novem-14 ber elections is illusory...
...This makes Brazil the largest recipient of OPS funds in La- tin America...
...In relation specifically to the Puerto Rican issues, we believe that the main objective, from our standpoint, is the knowledge of the whole Puerto Rican situation by more and more people on the left and in the progressive forces of this country...
...Then, you start the study circle there, in a very in- formal way...
...It is our hope that the PIP and the PSP, each on its own road, will move towards consolidating themselves as independent political forces this year...
...We started organizing the MPI in every town in Puerto Rico just as if it were a political party...
...This analysis is backed by the following data: in 1966 Yankee capital controlled 77 percent of the active sector of the manufacturing industry...
...Support for independence continues to increase...
...The organization here has always centered around workers...
...These political prisoners have been Joined by other young people who are participating to the hilt in the battle against Yankee domination by refusing to serve in the U.S...
...In 1945 it split along anti-Communist lines and since that date all resources have been used to eliminate those unions influenced by former members of the Communist Party of Puerto Rico...
...Several days after the interview, Juan Mari left for a tour of Cuba and other socialist countries...
...What role do they play in the political struggle...
...At that time, the PSP issued a General Declaration that described the development of the independence movement, analyzed the Puerto Rican reality and explained the PSP program for revolutionary social change see NACLA's Latin America and Empire Report (Vol...
...However, report which was published in October 1970 says that "Statistical experts (of the U.S...
...Brazilian police personnel were brought to the In- ternational Police Academy (IPA) in Washington, D.C., a training center for senior police officers from the entire Third World...
...In addition, he would bring the labor union, one of the so-called international labor unions such as the ILGWU (International Ladies Garment Workers' Union...
...Alarcon* again tried to talk about Puerto Rico in the General Assembly...
...Our goals have nothing to do with the 1972 elections...
...They say, for example, we are going to meet every Thursday afternoon after we get out of the factory and we will discuss current events and matters that are important for us all...
...Puerto Rico was exempted from the wage freeze only last week...
...The educational system reflects the ambiguous nature of the problems facing this country, which has three alternatives for its future: independence, associated free state or annexation...
...He was taken to the police and for the first time, they were forced to indict one of those people because he was caught in the act...
...of course, it was also exempted from the price freeze...
...For details on what goes on in these Cen- tros de Operacoes de Defesa Interna (Internal De- fense Operations Center) see Washington Post, "Tortures in Brazil Leak Out Despite Rebuff of OAS Probe," March 7, 1971, as inserted in U.S...
...agen- cy," or "No U.S...
...Armed Forces the history of Puerto Rico wasu looked down upon or aMlld a secondary place...
...Westmoreland...
...JMB: That is what we are trying to do here...
...The Secretary-General has been active in the independence movement since his university days in the 1940's, after which he became a lawyer...
...A revolutionary culture is needed to contact the Yankee cultural base which has been impqaed on the island...
...agency had any connection with Operation Bird Cage...
...The daily newspapers are mostly dominated by Cuban exiles and North Americans...
...Five of these fighters are still in prison in the jails of the United States: Lolita Lebrdn Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irvin Flores, Oscar Collazo and Andrs igueroa Cordero...
...This part of the reply is a translation of sections from "Unity Without Despair" by Juan Mari Bras, Claridad, May 16, 1972...
...Luis A. Ferr6, the present Governor, who shamelessly callsI for the annexation of the island by U.S...
...In these statements the fist sentence always reads, "No U.S...
...AID ex- penditures in fiscal 1970 were $732,000, and re- quests for fiscal 1971 were $756,000...
...destroy Puerto Rico's cultural heritage as Latin- American nation, the Yankees have not obtained their objective...
...The bi-weekly Spanish edition is available for $15.00 from Claridad, Toscania 1153, Urbanizacion Villa Capri, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico...
...The National Union, on the other hand, is a collective bargaining agent, the most radical in the Island...
...It even appears that what occurs in November will be the start of a higher phase of the struggle...
...However, they are not as articulate as those in Puerto Rico...
...We see it in the increase in the amount of money we can raise...
...Ibid...
...In view of the prolonged U.S...
...continued of page 26...
...Bush, objected saying Alarcon was out of order as it had been decided already that Puerto Rico was not an issue on the agenda...
...What are the problems faced here as distinct from those faced in Puerto Rico...
...What are the PSP's reasons for advocating the united front and what do you think will be the effects of the PIP position?* JMB: We say in our Declaration that the workers, industrial workers in particular, should be the ones who direct the struggle for independence, because the working class forms the social basis of the independence movement in Puerto Rico...
...The North American delegate, Mr...
...In most of those factories we won control from the Seafarers International Union, one of those puppet unions used by the capitalists...
...NACLA: Are these exiles also used a great deal in the labor movement and in the media...
...Our interview concentrated on the formation and functions of the PSP, the current role of the united front in the Puerto Rican struggle and developments in the labor movement...
...Nationalist Party members attended, as did Communist Party members and representatives of the various dissident groups within the Independence Party...
...We can see this in the increasing number of people attending pro-independence rallies and demonstrations and participating in meetings at the local level...
...This includes about 30 factories and they work in conjunction with us too...
...THESE ILSt to murder Vietnamese in Asia...
...In the second place, next November will not determine either the history of Puerto Rico or the outcome of the independence struggle...
...Thus, the objective of the Puerto Rican vanguard in the United States must be dual -- to aid in the independence struggle for Puerto Rico and at the same time participate in the struggle for social change in the United States...
...A working document has been approved to be used as a guide in the development of a program throughout the coming year for the Party in the United States (see page2o ). A regional committee will direct the Party in the United States, while at the same time members of the Party in the United States have been elected to the Central Committee of the Party in Puerto Rico...
...The Puerto Rican bourgeoisie is an intermediary bourgeoisie, always dependent on the North American capitalists...
...I think it is the only paper in the world directed by a person who doesn't know the language in which the paper is written...
...Originally, the main component of the MPI was the petty bourgeoisie: small merchants, professionals and students...
...Puerto Rice is Yankee tions, more than 90 percent of the insurance policies and a large part of.the other important services...
...If we can break the barrier of silence that has existed in the North American mass media in relation to the Puerto Rican case and if the people learn the ABC's of the Puerto Rican situation, I am sure we can develop a great deal of support among progressive North Americans...
...There is now no possibility that unity will materialize for the 1972 elections...
...We pursued this course from 1959 to 1961...
...The piratical military occupation was legalized by the Treaty of Paris, signed by Spain and the United States, in which Spain "ceded" Puerto Rico to the United States and the island became a colonial possession of the United States...
...JMB: Sure...
...We began the struggle for independence in Puerto Rico with continuous programs of political education, holding seminars and forums...
...Of the others, about 30 or 35 percent are full- time Party workers and the rest are students, with a few professionals, very few...
...They would make a contract to meet the needs of the capitalists, not those of the laborers...
...Their participation is a recent development and I think we have been in the vanguard on that issue...
...NACLA: We notice that in the Central Committee there are eight women out of 65 members...
...This poverty hag resulted in 850 000 people living on relief - that is, about 35 percent of the population of Puerto Rico receives Yankee srplus food to survive...
...In others we are in the intermediary phase of study circle, while in still others we are just beginning our work...
...And he is the person appointed to lead the AFL-CIO in Puerto Rico...
...The problem is that the Independence Party, which more or less conforms to this definition of the patriotic petty-bourgeoisie of Puerto Rico, has so far refrained from entering into that united front with our Party...
...Of these foreigners, most are North Americans and Cuban gusanos...
...The editor of this paper is a North American who doesn't know Spanish...
...labor programs, such as the AIFLD (American Institute for Free Labor Development), played an important role...
...No elections were held...
...In 1971, the MPI budget was $85,000, excluding revenue from Claridad which operates independently...
...It is unfortunate because it is clear to us that the base of the independence movement strongly desires unity...
...1, Berkeley, Calif., 1971, p. 9. * Alarcon is the Cuban Representative to the United Nations...
...NACLA: Have anti-Communist U.S...
...The disastrous state of agriculture has been recognized: in 1970 only four percent of the net income came from this sector...
...In 1960 we held a convention, the second convention of the Movement...
...For, in- deed, "Under the auspices of the Alliance for Pro- gress, the Brazilian and American governments ini- tiated project #512-11-716-070 (in early 1960...
...It will be a difficult job to organize them into a federation of students, such as exists in Puerto Rico, but that is a plan for the near future...
...JMB: Well, they are allies of the extreme right in Puerto Rico...
...We are now developing campaigns for elections in about 15 more factories in Puerto Rico and if the same pace continues, we expect that the National Union will have, more or less, 4,000 affiliates by the end of 1972...
...Yankee imperialism has tried to destroy Puerto Rican nationality because this would represent its total victory over the island...
...It will be one of the unions affiliated to the Central Unica...
...If you tell the worker he is going to be enrolled in a study circle, that's very intellectual to him and it scares him...
...9__ NACLA: How can the left and forces in this country support the struggle ? progressive Puerto Rican JMB: I think that the best support we can expect from the North American progressive forces is their own struggle against the system and against imperialism in all its manifestations here...
...Questions about the growth of the Party in the United States and the differences between organizing in Puerto Rico and in the United States were also discussed...
...A group in Chicago is also interested in organizing a committee of the Party and has been working toward that end in the last few months...
...It has received the heritage of 100 years of battle against colonialism, the heritage of the patriots of Lares and of those who participated in the Jayuya uprising and of those who participated in the nationalist commando actions in 1950 and 1954 against Blair House and the U.S...
...English was imposed as the language used in the schools, and -5) WHAT ARE THE PEOPLE DOING TO OPPOSE The great mass of people that are exploited and alienated by this colonialist system, that suffer from the low wages and high cost of living and the unemployment, that do not have access to educa- tion as a whole - and the education they do get involves the nega...
...For the first time in 13 years there is a woman in the political commission of the Party...
...Congress, Senate, United States Policies and Programs in Brazil, p. 308...
...NACLA: Can you specify those contradictions that you consider most decisive...
...For comparison, see the table below, which gives figures for the amounts received be- tween 1959 and 1970 by other Latin American coun- tries...
...We work on three levels: first, we make contact through the distribution of Claridad* and other literature...
...JMB: Well, the MPI was founded in 1959 at a time when revolutionary activity in Puerto Rico was at a low level...
...If this was all that was happening in Puerto Rico in the struggle for independence it would be a disaster...
...JMB: I think so...
...In 1968, we began raising more money and spending more money in full-time organizing...
...Furthermore, the circulation of Claridad increased from 14,000 in 1968 to a present figure of 40,000...
...But more is happening...
...Juan Mari Bras, leader of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, has said that five basic economic problems face the people of Puerto Rico: 1) the alienation of the economic patrimony, 2) chronic in- flation, 3) the ruin of agriculture, 4) the underdevelopment of that part of the industrial sector which is in Puerto Rican hands and 5) the unfair distribution of resources among the social classes of Puerto Rico that share the riches that remain on the island...
...JMB: Here, support is primarily among workers...
...A vanguard is the instrument needed to mobilize and develop the ideological force that produces unity in the long run...
...Its interests lie either with the complete annexation of Puerto Rico to the United States or with the maintenance of the present relation...
...In the first place, its electoral aspect is not the most important part...
...JMB: For example, the labor movement, up to a few years ago, operated in the following pattern: when a capitalist came to the Island to start a factory he would bring all the equipment and all the executive personnel with him from the United States...
...The Friday edition plus a bilingual supplement, also $15.00, is available from Claridad, 30 East 20 Street, Room 602, N.Y.C., N.Y.13 Juan Mari Bras, third from left, being greeted by Prime Minister Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba in January, 1972...
...We have five district committees in the metropolitan area of San Juan...
...The MPI was seen as a sort of confederation of organizations...
...viva puerto rico libre12 NACLA: Can you tell us something of the history of the Pro-Independence Movement (MPI) and its transformation from a protest movement into a Marxist-Leninist socialist party and further, how political education aided in this process of trans- formation...
...You continue in this manner until you have developed a nucleus of the Party within the factory...
...In contrast, support in Puerto Rico used to be primarily among students...
...We even started a basic course on political education for members of MPI...
...NACLA: There are 40,000 Cuban exiles in Puerto Rico...
...This means they have one dollar and 37 cents with which to meet their daily needs - about the price or nine bottles of Coca-Cola...
...However, there is no reason to despair due to the lack of electoral unity this year...
...The Central Unica, although militant and progressive, is to be a united front, a federation, of different labor unions which have different programs and different working areas...
...Puerto Rico Is going through a profound process of decapitalization...
...The pur- pose of the Academy is "To impart, to police lead- ers of the free world,...[courses] on countering subversion and insurgency...
...In the 1968 con- vention we formally adopted Marxism-Leninism as a guide for Movement action...
...the Puerto Ric ndeebdm ce Party, which has changed its cadres.and is developing the Young Lords organization, which has carried the battle to the rtlad of the United States...
...We are looking to integrate into our Party the best men and women within the working classes of the country -- the most alert, conscious and able to struggle...
...To that end we have to develop here alliances, coalitions and so forth that are completely different from the ones we made in Puerto Rico...
...Many Latin American countries abstained from voting, even though they are allies, in the general sense of the word, of the United States...
...All factions and groups within the independence movement in Puerto Rico attended...
...The colonial case of Puerto Rico is so primitive that in the long run, nobody wants to be identified with that situation...
...The problem lies in the fact that they are unorganized...
...They would then begin recruiting personnel...
...Most of the professionals, the merchants and the property owners left the Movement but stayed in its periphery without affiliation...
...Many of the students went to meetings in South America -- in Venezuela, in Chile, in Cuba...
...PUERTO RICO _= ~~~~~_ * The war of independence of the people of Puerto Rico against Spain began on September 23, 1868, in the town of Lares...
...I think there are many groups of Puerto Rican students in these universities who manifest solid political conscious- ness -- both class consciousness and national consciousness...
...Since then, through various laws passed by the Congress of the United States, Yankee imperialism has tried to snuff out the peoE2) WHAT IS ITS ECONOMIC SITUATION...
...It would represent total annexation and assimilation...
...NACLA: Is the strength of the Party in the U.S...
...II16 JMB: Even though we insist on the right of return to Puerto Rico for every Puerto Rican and will always maintain that as a principle, we know that most of the Puerto Rican people who live here are not going to go back...
...branch primarily among students, workers or a combination of both...
...In New York, for instance, there are several women on the Regional Committee...
...In 1959, shortly after the Cuban Revolution, he helped found MPI...
...The method of organizing workers in New York City will differ from the method used in Puerto Rico...
...It therefore made the Puerto Ricans U.S...
...This was the only occasion in which such terrorists against independence groups have been identified and it so happens he was a Cuban exile...
...Already more than 1,000 workers in 13 factories are affiliated with our union...
...They have one committee in one school and a different one in another...
...That participation doesn't happen in the interior of the Island, but we hope that it will occur throughout the Island in the future...
...this put us in contact with from 27 to 30,000 workers -- industrial workers -- in Puerto Rico...
...As imperialism is weakened from inside the United States, the struggle for independence and national liberation in Puerto Rico will strengthen...
...Since the 1968 elections, when Ferre was elected Governor and started his policy of pushing toward statehood, polarization has been accelerated...
...Such a development is, of course, very important to our struggle...
...In 1950 it invented the Associated Free State, by virtue of which the Yankee Governor was replaced by what the Puerto Ricans call a plynqul - that s, a Puerto Rican by birth and name but a pro-Yankee lackey in mind and spirit: A real freak...
...Government) agree that the unemployment tte In Puerto Rico is close to 80 percent...
...he has done several jobs for the CIA in South America in the last 15 years or so...
...But, as is to be expected, all these years of coloniaist domination have resulted in Puerto Rican society adopting habit, ways of tlnkia and forms of conduct that involve values alien to its culture: this s what they receive from the educational ystem and the mass media controlled by Yankee imperialism or that depends on Yankee sponsors...
...This decapitalization is accompanied by an unjust redistribution of the few riches that still remain in Puerto Rico, where the cost of living is 15 percent higher than in the United States, while salaries are three times lower The economic situation...
...In one case, a few weeks ago, a passer-by shot at the national headquarters of the Independence Party...
...We understand * The reply from paragraph three through nine has been updated...
...Congress, Senate, United States Policies and Programs in Brazil, p. W. 19...
...One international union, the Boiler Makers, for instance, is doing a good job...
...In our General Declaration.it is referred to as the Central Unica de Trabajadores...
...By 1967 Marxism guided our analysis in the documents that we wrote, in our interpretation of political reality and so forth...
...In 1970 we approved a plan of action for 1971, naming it as the Year of Organization of the Workers...
...All this is the result of the island's colonial status...
...the choices in this conflict are easier for people to see...
...We initiated the organization of a national labor union, backed by the PSP, called the Union Nacional de Trabajadores (National Union of Workers...
...During the last few years 90 percent of the profits from the foreign investments on the island have been sent abroad, and investors don't pay any taxes - corporate or personal - for a period that ranges from 12 to 17 years...
...The degree of "plausible deniability" is, however, decreasing...
...In that sense, its militancy is doubled...
...They work in conjunction with the Party on several issues.* There is a confederation of independent labor unions in the Western part of the Island...
...If both parties fulfill these goals, a basis will be established for powerful unified action in the near-future...
...We approved a resolution that made membership in MPI incompatible with simultaneous membership in another organization...
...that meeting was chaotic...
...If it fulfills these goals, the PIP will become a "third" party, in the electoral sense...
...on the island has forced many to emigrate to the United States, and Puerto Rico - a Lattn-American nation - with a population of 4500000 has only 2 700 000 of its sons on its territory while the other 1 800 000 have gathered in New York and other U.S...
...1000) Period Brazil 7,562 1959-1970 Colombia 4,567 1963-1970 Peru 3,642 1962-1970 Ecuador 3,476 1962-1970 Panama 3,442 1959-1970 Dominican Republic 3,053 1962-1970 Venezuela 2,603 1963-1970 Source: U.S...
...In other words, can there be double affiliation?JMB: We don't have the Central Unica yet...
...A united front, utilizing such short-term objectives as electoral participation, could provide the necessary common denominator for both the workers and these non-Marxist patriots...
...E3) WHAT IS THE PEOPLE'S STANDARD OF LIVING...
...I explained to the people at Hostos College this afternoon that at El Mundo (the major daily paper in Puerto Rico), of the 45 executives, 43 are foreigners and only two are Puerto Ricans...
...ist-Leninist party...
...V, No...
...My emphasis...
...Thus, this leftist leadership practically disappeared, enabling the AFL-CIO to take over...
...Times...
...They are in a certain sense contradictory with those of the PIP -- but not antagonistic...
...In late December, 1971, NACLA's New York office had the opportunity to interview the PSP's Secretary-General Juan Mari Bras...
...9. U.S...
...In some we are in the third stage, with the Party nucleus already organized and doing work...
...NACLA: Will there be any efforts to work in those unions in the United States which have Puerto Rican members...
...NACLA: Point number 10 of the programmatic principles in the General Declaration of the Party speaks of the need for the organization of that third part of the Puerto Rican nation which lives in the United States...
...11-22...
...Juana Carrasco Granma PUBLISHED: 3/6/72...
...Times...
...The Chairman of the General Assembly agreed but Alarcon appealed to the Assembly for a vote on the issue...
...JMB: There are a few unions whose leaders work with the Party here...
...Simultaneously, we are working very intensely towards the development of a militant, progressive federation of labor unions to begin displacing the AFL-CIO in the Island...
...These abstentions reveal the extent to which these countries don't want to be identified with the colonial policy of the United States...
...We are establishing the basis for-a future Central Unica in Puerto Rico...
...She was chosen because in fact she is a very good leader of the Party...
...Women preside over three of the five committees...
...In addition, we decided that organizationally, the specific ob- jective of the Movement was its transformation into the revolutionary vanguard...
...This is not tokenism...
...in 1968 it controlled 78 percent of all retail sales, 65 percent of housing construction, more than 60 percent of the banking operapie's desire for freedom...
...About 40 percent of the members of the Central Committee elected at the convention are workers...
...However, in spite of all the tricks used to...
...Times, p. 3. 15...
...Westmoreland, p. 11...
...NACLA: Have you found any already existing caucus here with which you can work...
...V, No...
...Our objective is to develop the mass base of the revolutionary party of the working class...
...These can be summed up in three points: to survive as an electoral party, to elect parliamentary representation for the first time since 1956 and to accumulate the largest number of votes possible...
...And, of course, unity is indispensable to the independence struggle...
...cities or farms...
...I have been visiting several universities and speaking in Puerto Rican Studies Departments this week...
...But let's make the difference between the Central Unica and the National Union clear...
...That is why we present the idea of the united front in the program of our Party, since the Party is a party of the workers -- a Marxist party...
...In 1897 Spain was forced to grant autonomy to the island, but on July 25, 1898, it was invaded by the armed forces of the United States, who took over military control as a part of their expansionist policy in Latin America...
...JMB: Such people work mainly in advertising, television, radio, the press...
...There are five people in an average family...
...Los Angeles Times, "Phoenix: A Controversial Viet Program," by Stewart Kellerman, UPI Staff Writer, Thurs., November 25, 1971, p. 1. 14...
...But at the same time we recognize that there is a patriotic segment of the petty bourgeoisie, the professionals and so forth...
...The constant struggle for independence has kept the battle for Puerto Rican nationality alive in the face of all the attacks it has suffered...
...We think there has been notable progress in the relation of forces with respect to Puerto Rico...
...To keep abreast with recent events the text has been annotated where necessary...
...Top Seven AID Public Safety Program Expenditures in L.A...
...NACLA: Will the Central Unica be oriented towards workers who are already organized...
...Awareness of the political and economic situation of the island is needed in order to face up to the problem of colonial and assimilated Puerto Rico...
...the Movement for Puerto Rican Independence, which became the Socialist Party of Puerto Rico about four moths ago, with a strategy that calls for J6ining the independence movement to the struggles of the workers...
...It will have autonomy in tactics, in campaigns, in every respect...
...For PIP this process of consolidation takes the form of an intense electoral campaign and the fulfillment of the modest goals outlined by its leadership...
...and teach them how to improve the character and the image of their for- ces...
...6) October, 1971, pp.27-31...
...Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia...
...NACLA: What will be your strategy in the United Nations?17 JMB: Well, we will continue trying to rally support for discussion of the colonial case of Puerto Rico...
...Secondly, programs of political education and the level of militancy in several organizations have played a key role in raising the political consciousness of young Puerto Ricans...
...It is not easy...
...305-307...
...Organizations such as the Federation of University Students for Independence, which was established in 1956...
...According to statistics, in 1964 there were 112 00 families with annual incomes of less than 500 dollars a year...
...The leader of that union is a member of the Central Committee of the Party...
...A member of our Party was getting gasoline in the vicinity, saw the entire incident and helped to identify this person...
...At the same time, we are working with several of the most progressive existing unions -both international and independent unions...
...Official data in June 1970 revealed that the unemployment rate in Puerto Rico'was 11 percent - that is, 92 000 people without a job...
...As quoted and inserted in Brazilian Information Bulletin, No...
...Our objective was the incorporation of the most alert segments of the workers in Puerto Rico into the Movement: we started our work in about 25 factories throughout the Island...
...these so-called international unions were in collusion with the capitalist...
...We had a very broad program: our activities were conceived as a means to mobilize those people in the independence struggle who were engaged in activities at different levels but who had no strategic understanding of the struggle...
...They have been used by those terrorist groups that burn places belonging to the independence organizations...
...We are working to organize the National Union as a sort of embryo of this labor organization, the Central Unica...
...It isn't much, but it is something...
...This is all that can be hoped for at the present moment...
...that they have a role to play in this struggle because their interests are substantially contradictory to the interests of imperialism...
...It had been campaigning against Nixon's wage freeze...
...Our plan for the independentista united front doesn't lose its meaning even though the program wasn't concretized for these elections...
...We are trying to somehow get a way to start working...
...We won't get any benefit, for the moment, in speculating on what could have been...
...Times, p. 2. 17...
...About 6,000 people are organized in the Boiler Makers Union and have gained very good contracts...
...Thus, there was no basis for intelligent discussion of strategy...
...It was only fairly recently in Puerto Rico that the unions began to show signs of some militancy in favor of the workers...
...Yvyyvvyyvyvvy vyvvvvvv1) IS PUERTO RICO A YANKEE COLONY...
...In those places where there is greater political development you see more women in positions of leadership...
...Now the workers are beginning to see this and they are beginning to rebel...
...NACLA: What is the source of this growing strength...
...6) December, 1971, pp...
...We then started a program of developing campaigns and political education among the workers...
...AID Program and Project Data Presenta- tiots to the Congress for fiscal year 1971...
...Its form of organization has to be different...
...citizens and established strict control over the island's foreign relations, trade, communications, transportation, postal service, currency, education, economy and legal system...
...Party groups are functioning in the main boroughs of New York, including the Bronx and Brooklyn, on the Lower East Side and in the Barrio...
...He then tries to establish a relationship with these people, meeting with them in a sort of informal study circle...
...The vote was 34 in favor of the United States, 30 in favor of Cuba and 30 abstentions -a difference of only four votes [see NACLA Newsletter (Vol...
...The independence movement has been growing stronger again during the last few years...
...Con- gress, Senate, United States Policies and Programs in Brazil, pp...
...Students, particularly the university students, were very much influenced by the Cuban Revolution and the various revolutionary currents developing in Latin America...
...Through June 30, 1969, "self-help" con- tributions to the program by the Brazilian govern- ment total more than $25 million, mainly for con- struction, supplies, and related costs...
...Groups are also located in several places outside of New York, such as several towns in New Jersey...
...NACLA: Recently, the Independence Party (PIP) refused your proposal for a united front...
...domination with an educational system aimed at making every person born in Puerto Rico an unconditional advocate of the "American way of life," it is logical for the Puerto Rican to be suffering from a crisis of identity in which he even doubts the existence of his nationality...
...mperialism, is a good example of this...
...He was a Cuban exile...
...Congress, Senate, United States Policies and Programs in Brazil, p. 89...
...For instance, MPI operated with a budget of $20,000 a year up to 1968...
...Although all these patriotic segments of the Puerto Rican people -'- the petty-bourgeoisie for example -are not Marxist, they do have contributions to make in the struggle for independence...
...We won the election there with the affiliation of about 34 workers...
...One important indication of this growth was the transformation of the Pro-Independence Movement (MPI) into the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP) in November, 1971...
...By the end of 1971-, at the time of our convention (November 1971), we had enough support among workers to seriously declare ourselves a workers' party...
...Do you think that in the coming year or so the participa- tion of women will increase and, if so, how will that happen...
...Hartford, Connecticut...
...tion of their historic values - is a great political force that can make the situation explode like a powder keg...
...During the year our work expanded to include about 130 factories...
...At the same time, we must keep open the routes toward future unity...
...Westmoreland, p. 10...
...The MPI militant who works' in that particular factory finds out which workers are most aware...
...Last week there was an important vote...
...Furthermore, Keith Terpe, the president of the Seafarers' International Union of Puerto Rico and chairman of the State Council of the AFL-CIO in Puerto Rico, is a man directly connected with the CIA...
...For instance, "There is no connection between CODI and any U.S...
...The PSP also has goals for this year...
...There was a central labor organization in Puerto Rico in 1939...
...These signs indicate the strength of the Movement and support the conclusion that the independence program has a growing popular base...
...With them are Alberto Perez and Miguel Cabrera, first and second representatives of the PSP to the Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America...
...NACLA: Do you see the growing number of Puerto Rican Studies programs in the colleges as an important factor in developing Puerto Rican consciousness or do you see these programs as primarily a means of social control ? JMB: They have been intended as a means of social control, I suppose, but nonetheless there are some positive results...
...Thus, at our third convention we began organizing MPI as a party in itself...
...it is not comparable to a Central Unica or anything like that, but it has started to do things...
...Based on data provided by the Planning Board of the so-called Associated Free State, we can see that more than 300000 Puerto Rican families, or 74.4 percent, have annual incomes of less than 2500 dollars, which is the amount an average family should receive in order to meet its needs, according to the Board...
...This eliminated multi-party affiliation...
...When someone came to ask for a job they would give him a card saying, "You sign this...
...ment situation...
...Party organization will be autonomous...
...Springfield, Massachusetts and Albuquerque, New Mexico...
...This is true, even though, in general, the labor movement here in New York is more progressive than it is in Puerto Rico...
...The vote on the Cuban resolution at the United Nations was very significant...
Vol. 6 • May 1972 • No. 5
