First Published: Challenge, January 13, 1977.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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President Ford’s recommendation to the Congress to make Puerto Rico into a state has exposed the myth behind the Commonwealth status of the island: it is nothing but a fancy cover for colonialism. Ford based his recommendation on the electoral victory of the pro-statehood New “Progressive” Party (PNP) and its candidate, reactionary Carlos Romero Barcelo. The PNP defeated the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) and incumbent Governor Hernandez Colon. The PPD is the force behind the Commonwealth status of the island.
ROMERO BARCELO WON THE ELECTION because the Hernandez Colon rule only created mass unemployment, strikebreaking, union-busting and general misery for the working class. The Colon governorship was also very corrupt. Unemployment is almost 50 per cent? the income level of 60 per cent of the Puerto Rican families is below the federally-defined poverty level (NY Times, Jan. 1). The electoral campaign of Romero Barcelo was based on attacking the policies of Hernandez Colon and promising jobs, and respect for the government employees union, which Colon tried to bust. The PNP did not make an issue of the status of the island. The vote for the PNP was not a vote for the island to become a state. But the new Governor won’t change in any way the situation of the working class. As a matter of fact, given the decadence of U.S. imperialism, things will only worsen.
The elections also gave a big blow to the opportunist dreams of the Socialist Party (PSP) and the Independence Party (PIP). Both played the electoral game of the imperialists and got badly beaten. The PIP based its election on pure anti-communism, while the so-called Marxist-Leninist PSP misunderstood its links with some union leaders as support from the rank-and-file, and also used the false notion that electioneering, and not the class struggle, based on revolutionary politics, brings class consciousness to the working class. The PSP got only 10,000 votes, less than half of what it expected. Opportunism never pays-. The only true liberation for the workers of Puerto Rico will come through an armed revolution for socialism, for the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Why is Ford recommending statehood? Partly to please his allies in the PNP, but there are other reasons. The Caribbean is an important geopolitical and economic area for controlling this continent. The NY Times (Jan. 1), makes it clear: “One White House aide said that an additional motive for proposing statehood for Puerto Rico was to send a message to Castro and Cuba that the U.S. has a deep and active interest in the island and in the Caribbean as a whole.” Puerto Rico is becoming an important pawn in the struggle of the U.S. imperialists against the Soviet Union.