https://iclfi.org/pubs/slus/2025-puerto-rico
A coalition of numerous political and social organizations will march on Sunday, August 31, in San Juan to demand Puerto Rico's independence. Diaspora groups in the U.S. (¡Alianza Liberación Boricua!), have also called for solidarity marches.
As supporters of Puerto Rican national liberation and opponents of U.S. imperialism, we endorse the August 31st protests.
While we disagree with the assertion in the Solidarity Sign-On Letter that says "As Puerto Rican workers are left to fend for themselves under Puerto Rico's colonial status, those within the U.S. benefit from the exploitation of workers and resources of the archipelago," we call on the rest of the American left to endorse these protests, the Solidarity Sign-On Letter, and join us on the 31st.
The only people who benefit from exploitation is the U.S. ruling class. American workers and the Puerto Rican masses are natural allies and have a common enemy in U.S. imperialism, as both are attacked by the colonial masters. We fight to link the struggles of the working people of these two countries and form an anti-imperialist alliance.
As part of this struggle, we fight against the treachery of the AFL-CIO bureaucracy, which supports the depredations of U.S. imperialism in Puerto Rico, Latin America and the rest of world. The only way to break the U.S. stranglehold of Puerto Rico is to fuse the fight for independence with the fight for socialism.
March for PR Independence Solidarity Sign-On Letter
For over 127 years, the United States has kept Puerto Rico, both the archipelago and the diaspora, in colonial chains. The implementation of the Fiscal Control Board, which was installed by President Obama in 2016 under the PROMESA Act, is an example of the power the U.S. has over Puerto Ricans. Austerity measures continue to intensify and the material conditions for Boricuas are only getting worse. From the privatization of essential services and basic necessities like education, healthcare, water, and electricity, to the high rate of femicides and police brutality in our communities, the occupation and colonization of our land is leading to more Boricuas being forced into the diaspora, where many continue to face poverty, racism, xenophobia and state violence. Furthermore, Puerto Rican lands are being increasingly militarized, with ICE conducting frequent raids in the San Juan Metro area and the recruitment of Puerto Rican youth into the military being subsidized by Law 69. Meanwhile, mega-development projects like Esencia and Moncayo threaten Puerto Rico's ecological and cultural heritage for the benefit of the ultra wealthy whose vision of the future is a Puerto Rico without Puerto Ricans.
U.S. based organizations and all people of conscience have a duty to support the Puerto Rican struggle for independence. As Puerto Rican workers are left to fend for themselves under Puerto Rico’s colonial status, those within the U.S. benefit from the exploitation of the workers and resources of the archipelago*. Because of the colonial relationship, workers from the United States are enticed to come into Puerto Rico and work for double or triple the amount of what a Puerto Rican worker is paid, used to break up local union struggles, and used to continue the blockade on Puerto Rico in the form of the Jones Act (1920). Those within the United States committed to internationalism must conduct education work among the working class in the United States to heighten the consciousness of the role of colonialism in dividing the international proletarian class.
As the billionaires work on mega-projects like Esencia and Moncayo, to utilize the land and its resources as their playground, the struggle against the billionaires and the wealthy ruling class is a struggle for all of us from Borinquen to Turtle Island.
We see clearly that it is also not only Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans who are impacted by this unjust colonialism. Puerto Rico continues to be used as a launching pad for imperialist espionage on their Caribbean and Latin American neighbors, particularly Cuba and Venezuela. The fight to free Puerto Rico is a fight to weaken U.S. imperialism in the Western Hemisphere. Puerto Ricans have taught us through the struggle for Vieques, that no enemy is too large to defeat. As people who believe in the creation of a better, equitable world where oppression and exploitation no longer exist, our principal task is to defeat US imperialism. As such, we support the fight for the liberation of Puerto Rico to be achieved by any means necessary, as dictated by the Puerto Rican people themselves.
On the 9th anniversary of the implementation of La Junta, we join Puerto Ricans in their call for independence and sovereignty, free from the colonial chains of the United States. Puerto Rico is a nation, and Puerto Ricans possess the right to self-determination free of imperialist intervention. We support the Puerto Rican nation in the demand for an independent and sovereign Puerto Rico and the program for their liberation as outlined in the demands below:
- For Puerto Rico to be truly free and independent, without subordination to the United States or any other empire. We will use our sovereignty to participate equitably and in solidarity with other nations in facing humanity's challenges.
- A halt to privatization policies and the beginning of a plan so that essential services such as health, education, public transportation, water, and electricity are rights within reach of our people and a cornerstone of the Independence we aspire to.
- A Free Homeland to develop an economy oriented toward our interests and a responsible relationship with the environment. Cooperative models, state-owned enterprises, and worker-owned companies will be the main pillar of our economy; a planned economy with the direct input of the People where the accumulation of wealth is oriented toward the common good and its fair distribution.
- A Free Puerto Rico where broad rights of the working class, such as the right to organize a union and strike, are recognized; the right to a dignified retirement; and recognition through compensation for domestic work that has historically fallen to women.
- An excellent and accessible education system from preschool to university. May the national project we decide upon guide the approach to our educational system, not the politicking of corruption and plunder that permeates the colony.
- The Free Puerto Rico we aspire to is one of full recognition of women's rights and the need to take proactive measures to overthrow the patriarchal system that operates within and outside the state: educating with a gender perspective; promoting the inclusion and participation of women and members of the LGBTQ+ community in the most diverse spaces; ending gender-based violence by investing in the new generations we are responsible for educating.
- We want a Free Country where housing is an accessible right. To achieve this, housing development cannot be left in the hands of the market and speculation.
- We need a Free Country to stop turning our backs on the countryside and promote our agriculture to its full potential. We must aspire to food sovereignty based on the application of science, technology, and ancestral knowledge in solidarity with other peoples of the region.
- We demand a Free Puerto Rico to build a truly democratic republic. In addition to breaking the colonial yoke, we will build participatory democracy at all levels of governance, economic development, and cultural activity. Let those of us who sweat for the homeland decide.
- We want a Free Puerto Rico to join the most advanced global movements, so we can help build the Antillean Confederation of Betances and the Gran Colombia of Bolívar. We want to develop international relations with all peoples who respect us and can contribute their resources and experiences, just as we can contribute to them. Puerto Rican independence and the republic we aspire to will always be part of the anti-imperialist struggles of the peoples of the world.
- We want a Free Puerto Rico where we recognize that more than 500 years of colonialism have left a particular mark on Black Puerto Ricans. The system of slavery and racial oppression continues to permeate the culture, economy, and institutions, so affirmative measures are required to redress these historical grievances.
- The Free Puerto Rico we want is one that places collaboration, solidarity, and the happiness of our people as principles in all social relations. As a colonized people, we want to break with the competition that oppresses us, with the hierarchies of class, race, sex, gender, and national origin that divide us, and with the individualism that sinks us.
- Rematriation and the Right of Return. We want programs to facilitate rematriation for Puerto Ricans in the diaspora to reverse more than a century of forced displacement and to mobilize the totality of our people to build, defend, and reap the fruits of a free and independent Puerto Rico.
Long live a free Puerto Rico! Long live a world free from U.S. Imperialism!
Long Live International Solidarity!
