Organizing against U.S. colonial rule in Puerto Rico

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Socialist Action reporter Ernie Gotta recently inter­ viewed Francisco A. Santiago of Juventud Hostosiana (JH), a youth group for Puerto Rican independence affiliated with the Movimiento Independista Nacional Hostosiano (MINH).

This article continues a series that Socialist Action is publishing on the movement against the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA). You can search for JH on Facebook and see photos and videos of the recent protests. A member of JH will also be traveling to participate in Youth for Socialist Action’s regional conference, “The Solution is Socialism” on Oct. 22 at Central Conecticut State Uni­ versity. Find out more at Facebook.com/CCSUYSA.

Socialist Action: What does PROMESA mean for the future of workers and students in Puerto Rico?

Francisco Santiago: The PROMESA bill is basically the culmination of the neoliberal economic imple­ mentation process in Puerto Rico, which goes side by side with the enforcement of the colonial rela­ tions in the island. First of all, it is necessary to as­ sert that Puerto Rico never went through a decolo­ nization process with the establishment of the Com­ monwealth since its position as a non-incorporated territory was maintained. This meant then, as it does now, that Congress has plenipotentiary powers over the island, its people, and its future.

Puerto Rico is “owned by but is not part of” the United States, which means that it is just a piece of private property that is being used by the U.S. gov­ ernment as it sees fit at the expense of the opinion in the island. The PROMESA Act arrives as the U.S. government’s response to the Puerto Rican govern­ ment debt crisis. This debt crisis had its first signs at the turn of the century and manifested itself with the start of the economic depression in 2006.

Since 1990, the Puerto Rican government under the Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) and Partido Popu­ lar Democratico (PPD) have privatized the health system, the communications system, the only inter­ national airport, key highways, and other sectors of the main government. It has fired thousands of gov­ ernment employees, raised tuition in the public uni­ versity, begun cuts in services, and closed hundreds of schools, among other actions in detriment of the people.

In the meanwhile, it has liberated the movement of capital, lowered progressive taxes in favor of regres­ sive taxes, and created a scheme of “economic recov­ ery,” exemplified by Law 20 and Law 22 of 2012. This law gives complete tax exemption to millionaires who move to the island and have a minimum of five employees hired by them. All of this was completed under great scandals of corruption under all levels of government by both parties. In conjunction with the cuts, depression, colonial limitations in government, and elimination of possible areas of fiscal resources, we have the government debt crisis.

PROMESA is the neoliberal technocratic dream. Its main goal is the complete payment of the debt de­ fended by vulture funds. Its members are appointed directly by the president of the United States. It can’t be judicially reviewed or prosecuted. It will have pow­ ers over all of the government and can receive politi­ cal gifts. If you combine these characteristics with the ability to change local legislation, be it labor themed or environmental, to sell all activities of government at will, you have the epicenter of the continuation of corruption in detriment of the people and in the ben­ efit of vulture funds and big capital.

So how is this detrimental for the future of workers and students? First of all, as long as the colonial re­ lation persists, Puerto Rican workers and youth will always have a limited stake in the economy and will be faced by an abnormal level of unemployment and underpaid jobs, [and] our inability to have relations with other countries and to decide our collective fu­ ture based on our own interests. This limits our abil­ ity to develop in the future.

In terms of the PROMESA bill, by reading the pream­ ble it can be quickly pointed out that its only reason for existence is the payment of the debt. Puerto Rican economic development is not mentioned, nor is the progress of the Puerto Rican people.

But it is necessary to emphasize that PROMESA is not the sole creation of the U.S. government, but also of local economic forces aligned with the U.S. govern­ ment that want to use the situation in benefit of their own individual interests. In that sense there are big sectors in Puerto Rico that right now, even in the eco­ nomic depression, are benefiting from the situation.

We must ask ourselves what type of development we want and for whom? The Juventud Hostosiana stands for the real development that comes with so­ cial justice and participatory democracy, which means that we will only construct alternatives that benefit the workers and the marginalized in our society.

S.A.: Can you briefly describe the protests?

F.S.: Many of the people that are now participating in the protests come from past experiences, and in the case of the movement in the capital area, these experiences are intertwined with the 2005 and 2010 public university students’ strike.

It has a starkly young demographic tone, which in part is product of the overwhelmingly bleak perspec­ Reuters (Above) Protester confronts a delegate to the Aug. 31 PROMESA conference in San Juan, P.R.

tives of the future. In terms of the fight against the PROMESA bill, protests started in early April with the announcement of the bill.

A group of organizations—which included Juventud Hostosiana (JH), Juventud Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (JPIP), Juventud Partido del Pueblo Trabajador (JPPT), Coalición Playas Pal’ Pueblo, Mov­ imiento Socialista de Trabajadores (MST), among oth­ ers—partially paralyzed the Federal District Court of Puerto Rico two times and completely paralyzed the Federal Court, the Quiebras, once. Also in the process, sectors of the civil camp organized in the Coalición Contra la Junta de Control Fiscal Federal.

With the signature of the PROMESA bill by President Obama in June, a group of protesters started a civil disobedience camp in front of the Federal District Court of Puerto Rico, which has served as a school for new people that want to get involve in the fight against colonialism and PROMESA. It has also signi­ fied a symbolized resistance against the newest act of imperialism by the United States.

In this process we also had protests in sections of Homeland Security and other federal government sites across the island. These actions gave way to the creation of other groups and the Jornada Se Acabaron las Promesas, which was the main coordinator of the protests that stopped the first PROMESA Conference for the rich on Wednesday, Aug. 31. They also stopped Grupo Ferrer Rangel Media (GFR Media) a few days earlier, which is the only daily newspaper in the is­ land and is aligned with big corporate interests. This protest was of definite importance because of the tone that it set in the protests.

The combativeness, the coordination, and the moral force that characterized the whole day has given way to the possibility of dreaming, and that is one of the (continued on page 5, in “Labor Briefing”)

AFL’s official statement soon followed this scurrilous