San Juan, PR: Sign in demonstration: The government wants us dead while they hide what is ours!
PUERTO RICO—Puerto Rico is a US colony. Throughout its history, the Puerto Rican working class has suffered from government policies favoring US and local capitalists.
Since 1898, when it was invaded by the United States, Puerto Rico has been under the power of the US Congress and Wall Street. It has a local government with limited power because of its colonial status.
That limited local power has been further reduced because Congress created a Committee called the Fiscal Oversight Board, which decides the budget of the colonial government and how it is spent.
In recent months, the working class of Puerto Rico has been in the streets fighting against the abuses of the capitalist class. They have been receiving and resisting the blows of an economic depression over ten years long, and the anti-worker and imperial Board of Fiscal Supervision and corrupt politicians in charge of the government.
The working people in a short time have experienced the deterioration of the main basic needs of every human being, intensified by the effects of two hurricanes and recent earthquakes.
About 150,000 people in Puerto Rico have lost their homes, which were repossessed by the Banks. There are fewer quality health services, deteriorating the physical and mental health of citizens; increases in the rates of suicides and diseases due to poor quality of life and not having access to quality medicines and health services.
Public education is increasingly deteriorating, aggravated by closing hundreds of public schools and drastically reducing the budget of the University of Puerto Rico, the main university center in the country.
Jobs continue to be of lower quality. A large sector suffers from job insecurity. Many workers have two and three jobs to meet their obligations at the end of the month. To this is added a labor reform that reduces rights won in collective negotiations. It will reduce the number of unionized workers.
In the summer of 2019, working people participated in protests in the streets of San Juan for more than ten nights. The colonial governor resigned from his position under pressure because of the people’s demand. However, he was replaced by a governor who has followed the same policies.
Recently the protests in Old San Juan returned. They were provoked by the discovery of supplies—kept by the government in secret warehouses since the time of hurricanes Irma and Maria – which were supposed to be distributed to those affected. However, they kept them for use in the electoral campaign and to favor certain political interests, while a major sector of the working people lacked food and other basic necessities.
This caused the outrage of thousands of workers who marched and protested once more through the streets of San Juan. It showed that the mere change of a ruler is not the solution. It also showed once again the imperative need to fight for a change of the political and economic system not only in Puerto Rico, but also in the rest of the world.
For the Puerto Rican working class, the question arises of what should be done to permanently change the situation in today’s society. A change that results in eliminating the living conditions of this class. Where racism, sexism and other forms of inequality and discrimination are eradicated. Where we enjoy a better quality of life, with work for all, adequate health services, the right to housing and quality, public and free education for everyone.
It is not about who occupies the position of governor, or another position, because over the years, elections after elections, there have been different governors but no improvements in workers’ lives and wellbeing. Quite the contrary, these have worsened.
The only thing that can make real change happen is the struggle to eradicate the colonial capitalist system and achieve transformation to a society without the exploitation of the working class. For this, it will be necessary to elaborate the precise strategies to unite our class in a revolutionary communist organization and fight against exploitative capitalism. It is necessary for the majority to understand that the struggle between capitalists and wage workers is a life and death struggle. Because for a long time now, many people worldwide only survive. To live in a dignified way is something else entirely.
Workers of the World, Unite! Long live communism!
San Juan, Puerto Rico, January 2020
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