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...
...Of the others, about 30 or 35 percent are full- time Party workers and the rest are students, with a few professionals, very few...
...Los Angeles Times, "Phoenix: A Controversial Viet Program," by Stewart Kellerman, UPI Staff Writer, Thurs., November 25, 1971, p. 1. 14...
...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...
...To keep abreast with recent events the text has been annotated where necessary...
...In the first place, its electoral aspect is not the most important part...
...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...
...This is all that can be hoped for at the present moment...
...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...
...But at the same time we recognize that there is a patriotic segment of the petty bourgeoisie, the professionals and so forth...
...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...
...agency had any connection with...
...Times, p. 3. 15...
...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...
...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...
...If this was all that was happening in Puerto Rico in the struggle for independence it would be a disaster...
...There are five people in an average family...
...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...
...Juana Carrasco Granma PUBLISHED: 3/6/72...
...this put us in contact with from 27 to 30,000 workers -- industrial workers -- in Puerto Rico...
...Congress...
...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...
...Westmoreland...
...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...
...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 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...
...Of these foreigners, most are North Americans and Cuban gusanos...
...Its interests lie either with the complete annexation of Puerto Rico to the United States or with the maintenance of the present relation...
...This part of the reply is a translation of sections from "Unity Without Despair" by Juan Mari Bras, Claridad, May 16, 1972...
...NACLA: Are these exiles also used a great deal in the labor movement and in the media...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...Last week there was an important vote...
...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...
...branch primarily among students, workers or a combination of both...
...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...
...It will be one of the unions affiliated to the Central Unica...
...Do you think that in the coming year or so the participa- tion of women will increase and, if so, how will that happen...
...This operation is still very primitive because it does not have much power...
...V, No...
...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...
...We won the election there with the affiliation of about 34 workers...
...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...
...We work on three levels: first, we make contact through the distribution of Claridad* and other literature...
...They would then begin recruiting personnel...
...The Puerto Rican bourgeoisie is an intermediary bourgeoisie, always dependent on the North American capitalists...
...In the past they have played a central role in the struggle for independence...
...The method of organizing workers in New York City will differ from the method used in Puerto Rico...
...ment situation...
...citizens and established strict control over the island's foreign relations, trade, communications, transportation, postal service, currency, education, economy and legal system...
...Party organization will be autonomous...
...NACLA: Recently, the Independence Party (PIP) refused your proposal for a united front...
...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...
...9. U.S...
...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...
...As of our publication time, the Puerto Rican branch has refused to comply...
...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...
...Yvyyvvyyvyvvy vyvvvvvv1) IS PUERTO RICO A YANKEE COLONY...
...This includes about 30 factories and they work in conjunction with us too...
...Several days after the interview, Juan Mari left for a tour of Cuba and other socialist countries...
...continued of page 26...
...At the same time, we must keep open the routes toward future unity...
...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...
...However, it took three years to develop the basis for that...
...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...
...Puerto Rice is Yankee tions, more than 90 percent of the insurance policies and a large part of.the other important services...
...11-22...
...labor programs, such as the AIFLD (American Institute for Free Labor Development), played an important role...
...Congress, Senate, United States Policies and Programs in Brazil, p. W. 19...
...6) December, 1971, pp...
...It even appears that what occurs in November will be the start of a higher phase of the struggle...
...We are establishing the basis for-a future Central Unica in Puerto Rico...
...Westmoreland, p. 10...
...Westmoreland, p. 11...
...agen- cy," or "No U.S...
...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...
...We are now working at those three levels in 130 factories...
...We even started a basic course on political education for members of MPI...
...Its form of organization has to be different...
...One international union, the Boiler Makers, for instance, is doing a good job...
...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...
...NACLA: Have you found any already existing caucus here with which you can work...
...Congress, Senate, United States Policies and Programs in Brazil, p. 89...
...These signs indicate the strength of the Movement and support the conclusion that the independence program has a growing popular base...
...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...
...He then tries to establish a relationship with these people, meeting with them in a sort of informal study circle...
...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...
...The pur- pose of the Academy is "To impart, to police lead- ers of the free world,...[courses] on countering subversion and insurgency...
...In 1968, we began raising more money and spending more money in full-time organizing...
...As quoted and inserted in Brazilian Information Bulletin, No...
...Times...
...In those places where there is greater political development you see more women in positions of leadership...
...We see it in the increase in the amount of money we can raise...
...1, Berkeley, Calif., 1971, p. 9. * Alarcon is the Cuban Representative to the United Nations...
...A member of our Party was getting gasoline in the vicinity, saw the entire incident and helped to identify this person...
...Armed Forces the history of Puerto Rico wasu looked down upon or aMlld a secondary place...
...Thus, this leftist leadership practically disappeared, enabling the AFL-CIO to take over...
...Already more than 1,000 workers in 13 factories are affiliated with our union...
...We started organizing the MPI in every town in Puerto Rico just as if it were a political party...
...Congress, Senate, United States Policies and Programs in Brazil, p. 308...
...In our General Declaration.it is referred to as the Central Unica de Trabajadores...
...A revolutionary culture is needed to contact the Yankee cultural base which has been impqaed on the island...
...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...
...Alarcon* again tried to talk about Puerto Rico in the General Assembly...
...In the 1968 con- vention we formally adopted Marxism-Leninism as a guide for Movement action...
...NACLA: Is the strength of the Party in the U.S...
...mperialism, is a good example of this...
...JMB: Here, support is primarily among workers...
...What role do they play in the political struggle...
...In 1960 we held a convention, the second convention of the Movement...
...THESE ILSt to murder Vietnamese in Asia...
...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...
...However, there is no reason to despair due to the lack of electoral unity this year...
...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...
...Springfield, Massachusetts and Albuquerque, New Mexico...
...The bi-weekly Spanish edition is available for $15.00 from Claridad, Toscania 1153, Urbanizacion Villa Capri, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico...
...Our plan for the independentista united front doesn't lose its meaning even though the program wasn't concretized for these elections...
...Our objective is to develop the mass base of the revolutionary party of the working class...
...We had then intended to act as a sort of rallying point for all independence forces on the Island...
...Top Seven AID Public Safety Program Expenditures in L.A...
...However, they are not as articulate as those in Puerto Rico...
...If both parties fulfill these goals, a basis will be established for powerful unified action in the near-future...
...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...
...In other words, can there be double affiliation?JMB: We don't have the Central Unica yet...
...In addition, we decided that organizationally, the specific ob- jective of the Movement was its transformation into the revolutionary vanguard...
...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...
...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...
...In 1970 we approved a plan of action for 1971, naming it as the Year of Organization of the Workers...
...Yankee imperialism has tried to destroy Puerto Rican nationality because this would represent its total victory over the island...
...Most of the professionals, the merchants and the property owners left the Movement but stayed in its periphery without affiliation...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...NACLA: Have anti-Communist U.S...
...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...
...It would represent total annexation and assimilation...
...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...
...NACLA: Will there be any efforts to work in those unions in the United States which have Puerto Rican members...
...We have five district committees in the metropolitan area of San Juan...
...However, in spite of all the tricks used to...
...It had been campaigning against Nixon's wage freeze...
...And he is the person appointed to lead the AFL-CIO in Puerto Rico...
...In New York, for instance, there are several women on the Regional Committee...
...Ibid...
...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...
...We won't get any benefit, for the moment, in speculating on what could have been...
...If it fulfills these goals, the PIP will become a "third" party, in the electoral sense...
...305-307...
...There was a central labor organization in Puerto Rico in 1939...
...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...
...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...
...This eliminated multi-party affiliation...
...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...
...By 1967 Marxism guided our analysis in the documents that we wrote, in our interpretation of political reality and so forth...
...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...
...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...
...agency had any connection with Operation Bird Cage...
...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...
...We then started a program of developing campaigns and political education among the workers...
...We think there has been notable progress in the relation of forces with respect to Puerto Rico...
...Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia...
...NACLA: What is the source of this growing strength...
...The vote on the Cuban resolution at the United Nations was very significant...
...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...
...The problem lies in the fact that they are unorganized...
...For comparison, see the table below, which gives figures for the amounts received be- tween 1959 and 1970 by other Latin American coun- tries...
...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...
...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 MPI militant who works' in that particular factory finds out which workers are most aware...
...We can see this in the increasing number of people attending pro-independence rallies and demonstrations and participating in meetings at the local level...
...No elections were held...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...They have been used by those terrorist groups that burn places belonging to the independence organizations...
...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...
...tion of their historic values - is a great political force that can make the situation explode like a powder keg...
...It is not easy...
...destroy Puerto Rico's cultural heritage as Latin- American nation, the Yankees have not obtained their objective...
...Now the workers are beginning to see this and they are beginning to rebel...
...To continue insisting on unity in the coming Novem-14 ber elections is illusory...
...Government) agree that the unemployment tte In Puerto Rico is close to 80 percent...
...JMB: Such people work mainly in advertising, television, radio, the press...
...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...
...that meeting was chaotic...
...The organization here has always centered around workers...
...V, No...
...We must work for the future...
...In late December, 1971, NACLA's New York office had the opportunity to interview the PSP's Secretary-General Juan Mari Bras...
...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...
...Nationalist Party members attended, as did Communist Party members and representatives of the various dissident groups within the Independence Party...
...This is true, even though, in general, the labor movement here in New York is more progressive than it is in Puerto Rico...
...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...
...This is not tokenism...
...In these statements the fist sentence always reads, "No U.S...
...Bush, objected saying Alarcon was out of order as it had been decided already that Puerto Rico was not an issue on the agenda...
...Luis A. Ferr6, the present Governor, who shamelessly callsI for the annexation of the island by U.S...
...that is, into a Marx* Claridad is the newspaper of the PSP-MPI...
...There is now no possibility that unity will materialize for the 1972 elections...
...But more is happening...
...All this is the result of the island's colonial status...
...But let's make the difference between the Central Unica and the National Union clear...
...PUERTO RICO _= ~~~~~_ * The war of independence of the people of Puerto Rico against Spain began on September 23, 1868, in the town of Lares...
...You continue in this manner until you have developed a nucleus of the Party within the factory...
...The disastrous state of agriculture has been recognized: in 1970 only four percent of the net income came from this sector...
...In others we are in the intermediary phase of study circle, while in still others we are just beginning our work...
...This analysis is backed by the following data: in 1966 Yankee capital controlled 77 percent of the active sector of the manufacturing industry...
...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...
...Our goals have nothing to do with the 1972 elections...
...NACLA: There are 40,000 Cuban exiles in Puerto Rico...
...it is not comparable to a Central Unica or anything like that, but it has started to do things...
...The degree of "plausible deniability" is, however, decreasing...
...The independence movement has been growing stronger again during the last few years...
...We initiated the organization of a national labor union, backed by the PSP, called the Union Nacional de Trabajadores (National Union of Workers...
...For instance, "There is no connection between CODI and any U.S...
...However, report which was published in October 1970 says that "Statistical experts (of the U.S...
...JMB: That is what we are trying to do here...
...The constant struggle for independence has kept the battle for Puerto Rican nationality alive in the face of all the attacks it has suffered...
...AID ex- penditures in fiscal 1970 were $732,000, and re- quests for fiscal 1971 were $756,000...
...In view of the prolonged U.S...
...When someone came to ask for a job they would give him a card saying, "You sign this...
...According to statistics, in 1964 there were 112 00 families with annual incomes of less than 500 dollars a year...
...The daily newspapers are mostly dominated by Cuban exiles and North Americans...
...Students, particularly the university students, were very much influenced by the Cuban Revolution and the various revolutionary currents developing in Latin America...
...It is for this reason we stated in the Declaration and in the Statutes of the Party that the U.S...
...They have one committee in one school and a different one in another...
...About 40 percent of the members of the Central Committee elected at the convention are workers...
...At the same time, we are working with several of the most progressive existing unions -both international and independent unions...
...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...
...These abstentions reveal the extent to which these countries don't want to be identified with the colonial policy of the United States...
...Puerto Rico Is going through a profound process of decapitalization...
...he has done several jobs for the CIA in South America in the last 15 years or so...
...The MPI was seen as a sort of confederation of organizations...
...She was chosen because in fact she is a very good leader of the Party...
...Such a development is, of course, very important to our struggle...
...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...
...The National Union, on the other hand, is a collective bargaining agent, the most radical in the Island...
...In contrast, support in Puerto Rico used to be primarily among students...
...Puerto Rico was exempted from the wage freeze only last week...
...This was the only occasion in which such terrorists against independence groups have been identified and it so happens he was a Cuban exile...
...It will have autonomy in tactics, in campaigns, in every respect...
...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...
...Then, you start the study circle there, in a very in- formal way...
...NACLA: We notice that in the Central Committee there are eight women out of 65 members...
...Groups are also located in several places outside of New York, such as several towns in New Jersey...
...It therefore made the Puerto Ricans U.S...
...It is unfortunate because it is clear to us that the base of the independence movement strongly desires unity...
...Their participation is a recent development and I think we have been in the vanguard on that issue...
...For instance, MPI operated with a budget of $20,000 a year up to 1968...
...This makes Brazil the largest recipient of OPS funds in La- tin America...
...All factions and groups within the independence movement in Puerto Rico attended...
...Con- gress, Senate, United States Policies and Programs in Brazil, pp...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...Parallel to its ideo- logical radicalization, our membership changed (although more slowly -- the ideological radicalization coming first...
...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...
...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...
...AID Program and Project Data Presenta- tiots to the Congress for fiscal year 1971...
...cities or farms...
...Times, p. 2. 17...
...I have been visiting several universities and speaking in Puerto Rican Studies Departments this week...
...Thus, there was no basis for intelligent discussion of strategy...
...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...
...Fiscal Years 1959-1970) Country Amount (U.S...
...JMB: Well, they are allies of the extreme right in Puerto Rico...
...In some we are in the third stage, with the Party nucleus already organized and doing work...
...Since the 1968 elections, when Ferre was elected Governor and started his policy of pushing toward statehood, polarization has been accelerated...
...Women preside over three of the five committees...
...My emphasis...
...and teach them how to improve the character and the image of their for- ces...
...The Secretary-General has been active in the independence movement since his university days in the 1940's, after which he became a lawyer...
...Thus, at our third convention we began organizing MPI as a party in itself...
...Organizations such as the Federation of University Students for Independence, which was established in 1956...
...In that sense, its militancy is doubled...
...the choices in this conflict are easier for people to see...
...these so-called international unions were in collusion with the capitalist...
...Washington has controlled the educational system since 1898...
...For the first time in 13 years there is a woman in the political commission of the Party...
...The Chairman of the General Assembly agreed but Alarcon appealed to the Assembly for a vote on the issue...
...Official data in June 1970 revealed that the unemployment rate in Puerto Rico'was 11 percent - that is, 92 000 people without a job...
...The national symbols were also eliminated...
...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...
...In 1959, shortly after the Cuban Revolution, he helped found MPI...
...Support for independence continues to increase...
...JMB: I think so...
...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...
...Many of the students went to meetings in South America -- in Venezuela, in Chile, in Cuba...
...In one case, a few weeks ago, a passer-by shot at the national headquarters of the Independence Party...
...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...
...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...
...During the year our work expanded to include about 130 factories...
...Originally, the main component of the MPI was the petty bourgeoisie: small merchants, professionals and students...
...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...
...He was a Cuban exile...
...In the second place, next November will not determine either the history of Puerto Rico or the outcome of the independence struggle...
...We are trying to somehow get a way to start working...
...About 6,000 people are organized in the Boiler Makers Union and have gained very good contracts...
...We pursued this course from 1959 to 1961...
...ist-Leninist party...
...A vanguard is the instrument needed to mobilize and develop the ideological force that produces unity in the long run...
...In 1971, the MPI budget was $85,000, excluding revenue from Claridad which operates independently...
...JMB: There are a few unions whose leaders work with the Party here...
...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...
...Recently, the Boiler Makers Union in the United States ordered the Puerto Rican branch to cease its militant activities...
...They are in a certain sense contradictory with those of the PIP -- but not antagonistic...
...The North American delegate, Mr...
...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...
...JMB: Well, the MPI was founded in 1959 at a time when revolutionary activity in Puerto Rico was at a low level...
...NACLA: Can you specify those contradictions that you consider most decisive...
...As imperialism is weakened from inside the United States, the struggle for independence and national liberation in Puerto Rico will strengthen...
...It isn't much, but it is something...
...In addition, we have a sort of caucus within the labor union council that operates on a national scale...
...6) October, 1971, pp.27-31...
...Just a few months ago we started a campaign in a small factory where we have a nucleus of workers...
...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...
...We understand * The reply from paragraph three through nine has been updated...
...The leader of that union is a member of the Central Committee of the Party...
...The worker finds he is agreeing to be represented by the ILGWU...
...that they have a role to play in this struggle because their interests are substantially contradictory to the interests of imperialism...
...We are working to organize the National Union as a sort of embryo of this labor organization, the Central Unica...
...Furthermore, the circulation of Claridad increased from 14,000 in 1968 to a present figure of 40,000...
...Hartford, Connecticut...
...And, of course, unity is indispensable to the independence struggle...
...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...
...That participation doesn't happen in the interior of the Island, but we hope that it will occur throughout the Island in the future...
...They add that "The rorts of the Government of Puerto Rico do not reflect the real unemploy...
...The Industrial Development Administration has estimated that these foreign companies have made a net profit of 40 percent over and above their investments...
...E3) WHAT IS THE PEOPLE'S STANDARD OF LIVING...
...The PSP also has goals for this year...
...IPA, originally known as the Inter-American Police Academy, is op- erated by the Office of Public Safety...
...It was only fairly recently in Puerto Rico that the unions began to show signs of some militancy in favor of the workers...
...They would make a contract to meet the needs of the capitalists, not those of the laborers...
...We began the struggle for independence in Puerto Rico with continuous programs of political education, holding seminars and forums...
...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...
...of course, it was also exempted from the price freeze...
...JMB: Well, the contradictions in the system are growing...
...Times...
...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...
...We approved a resolution that made membership in MPI incompatible with simultaneous membership in another organization...
...JMB: Sure...
...NACLA: Will the Central Unica be oriented towards workers who are already organized...
...The colonial case of Puerto Rico is so primitive that in the long run, nobody wants to be identified with that situation...
...In most of those factories we won control from the Seafarers International Union, one of those puppet unions used by the capitalists...
...What are the problems faced here as distinct from those faced in Puerto Rico...
...The editor of this paper is a North American who doesn't know Spanish...
...Many Latin American countries abstained from voting, even though they are allies, in the general sense of the word, of the United States...
...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...
Vol. 6 • May 1972 • No. 5
