Puerto Ricans Need a Party for Socialism and Independence

Schools dilapidated beyond repair leave children out of classes for months at a time. Power grid failures bring rolling blackouts. A fiscal control board (La Junta) devastates the national economy as it extracts millions of dollars in resources from Borikén. This is just a glimpse into the Boricua masses’ everyday lives, made worse by tropical storm Ernesto in August. Every aspect of the situation is the result of brutal colonial subjugation that can only be resolved through anti-imperialist struggle.

With the crushing of Puerto Rico’s economy, many of its citizens are looking for an alternative to the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) and the New Progressive Party (PNP), which are both seen as corrupt parties committed to the oppressive status quo. Riding on the anti-corruption wave, the Puerto Rican Independence Party’s (PIP) Juan Dalmau received 13.5 percent of the vote in the 2020 election for governor, with the newly formed Citizen’s Victory Movement (MVC) winning 14 percent. In November 2023, the PIP (which claims to be for independence) and the MVC (which takes no position on independence at all) decided to join forces and create a rotten bloc called Patria Nueva de País, also known as La Alianza (the Alliance). While both groups claim to want eventual “decolonization”—an incremental fight for crumbs from U.S. imperialism—the purpose of this new coalition is to fight “bipartisanism” and end corruption. None of this does anything to challenge the colonial oppression of Puerto Rico. It simply allows La Alianza to present itself as a lesser evil to the PNP and the PPD.

The left in Puerto Rico and liberals in the U.S. have painted La Alianza’s candidacy as drawing a fundamental line against colonialism. But La Alianza has made it clear that it is not fighting for independence in the current elections and will not step on the toes of the imperialists. The whole setup of the gubernatorial elections is about pushing the illusion that Puerto Rico can make economic advances under imperialist overlordship. All the candidates, from the most “left” to the most right, are competing over who can be the best stooge for U.S. imperialism and get more crumbs for the island. None of these candidates is the answer. The task of the left in this election is to put forward an anti-imperialist option to counter all the major parties.

Most of the left sees La Alianza as fundamentally different from the PPD and the PNP. The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), which exerts some influence on the left, takes it one step further in its article titled “Puerto Rico’s New Leftist Alliance Poses a Threat to US Imperialism.” This isn’t the case at all. This rotten bloc lines itself up with U.S. imperialism, just like the two main parties. In interviews with Dalmau, he said that La Alianza wants to promote a process of decolonization to undo the current “colonial status” requiring the participation of the U.S. Congress, which will tell the Puerto Rican people what political status is possible under the Constitution.

While Dalmau and La Alianza recognize the colonial oppression of Puerto Rico, their answer is to completely suck up to the imperialist masters. The idea that the U.S. will come to its senses and decolonize Puerto Rico is a deadly illusion that can only kill any real movement threatening U.S. imperialism. For a party with “independence” in its name, wanting input on the island’s colonial status from the very force that benefits from Puerto Rico’s exploitation and subjugation completely undermines the struggle for independence. For the PIP, pushing “decolonization,” a consciously vague term for either statehood or “free association,” is a cover for dropping the fight for independence, while at the same time proving to the imperialists that the PIP will not threaten their interests on the island. It’s also meant to deceive the Puerto Rican masses into thinking that the PIP is going to fight their colonial subjugation.

The MVC is a lash-up of socialists, academics and others who don’t adhere to any political tendency at all and take it as a point of pride that they don’t have any status position. This has allowed supporters of statehood and even the current colonial status to join their organization. Current senator and MVC candidate Rafael Bernabe, while claiming to be the most left in La Alianza, has the same position on “decolonization” as Dalmau. In a Jacobin interview (15 March), he says: “The MVC as such is not a socialist movement,” while looking for the MVC to “begin the process of self-determination” and “sort of serve notice to the US Congress…[on] how we are going to decolonize Puerto Rico.”

The only way to free the island from the grip of the U.S. is to fuse the struggle for socialism with the struggle for independence. There is no other option. Without a program linking the two struggles, one cannot advance any interest of the working class and oppressed Boricua masses and instead will wind up negotiating the terms of their oppression. It’s no different from the current administration, which helps execute the will of imperial domination.

The leadership of La Alianza purposely makes no link between socialism and independence because it understands that a real anti-imperialist struggle requires unleashing the power of the working class. This would threaten their own class aspirations: to be the main exploiters of the workers on the island. With the decline of U.S. imperialism, the colonial masters will not just give up Puerto Rico, but rather squeeze its main colony even tighter and bring the island down with it. That is why there cannot be a fight for independence without a fight against imperialism.

Since its inception, the PIP has pushed the illusion that an independent Puerto Rico can have some peaceful coexistence with U.S. imperialism. This illusion ignores the real concern of the Puerto Rican masses that an independent Borikén under capitalism will wind up like the Dominican Republic or Haiti. This very real fear exists because the Boricua masses know that the U.S. will still economically dominate and oppress a formally independent Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico is of strategic importance to the U.S. financially and militarily. The island is the first step from the mainland into the Caribbean and South America. The U.S. holds onto the island as a counter to Cuba and to strengthen its global position through the development and exploitation of Puerto Rico and the rest of Latin America. That’s why the fight for independence cannot happen in coalition with the very force that keeps the island subservient to maintain its world domination. The fight for independence must be linked to the struggle for socialism in order to advance the anti-imperialist struggle in Borikén and break through the imperialists’ economic blackmail. This struggle must be spread to the rest of Latin America and into the U.S. itself—something La Alianza has no program for.

La Alianza Paves Way for González

The inability of La Alianza and the left to answer the burning needs of the working class has led to the rise of politicians like Jenniffer González. The “surprise upset” during the PNP primary election shouldn’t be a surprise at all. Governor Pedro Pierluisi, who backs the Democratic Party, is widely seen by the population as responsible for furthering Puerto Rico’s economic decline. González, currently Puerto Rico’s non-voting Congressional representative, who backs the Republicans, has seized on this to criticize Pierluisi for how he’s governed. She has gained support for wanting to fight corruption, end violence against women and create incentives to keep doctors in Puerto Rico. All these points are also part of La Alianza’s platform. So, why is González polling at 43 percent and Dalmau at 24 percent? If the working class sees that the only plan being put forward by all candidates is to beg the U.S. for crumbs, then the masses will go with the option that they think will be most likely to achieve results.

As Congressional representative, González was able to secure $117 billion in financial aid after hurricanes Maria and Irma. She speaks to the felt needs of the working class, even saying that the current status prevents investment from coming in and crippling the island’s economy. But her solution is for Puerto Rico to become a state. This will only deepen its national oppression, while doing nothing to resolve its economic subordination to Wall Street. The crisis in Borikén is due not to a lack of investment, but rather to U.S. imperialism and its finance capital.

The U.S. ruling class—including Trump, who González appeals to—does not want Puerto Rico to become a state because it is far more valuable as a colony. With Borikén as a colony, the U.S. rulers can impose austerity measures and taxes that drain the island of millions of dollars. In 2022 alone, Puerto Ricans paid $4.8 billion in taxes as the island’s basic infrastructure was falling apart. González has used Hawaii as a “positive” example, stating that Hawaii’s economy tripled after it became a state. It is true that Hawaii’s economy did see a boost after statehood. But unlike today, in 1959 U.S. imperialism was in a position of strength and able to pour millions into Hawaii to counter the Soviet Union and China, just like it did with Puerto Rico to counter Cuba. With U.S. hegemony in decline and Cuba suffering an economic downturn, the imperialists see no need to prop up Puerto Rico’s economy or invest in industry. To this day, the conditions of the native Hawaiian population are that of displacement, destitution and homelessness, and their culture and language have nearly been wiped out. The prospect of assimilation into the English-speaking U.S. provokes a visceral reaction from most Boricuas.

Neither Dalmau nor González is an answer to the Puerto Rican working class. But there is a way forward. Militant Boricua workers and the anti-imperialist left must split La Alianza along class lines and build a communist party that fights to advance the struggle for national liberation toward socialist revolution. Such a party can only be built through the fight for leadership of the movement on a program to unleash the power of the working class against the U.S. imperialists. A genuine communist organization would place itself in counterposition to La Alianza and expose at every point how it betrays the Puerto Rican masses’ aspirations for liberation and continues their subjugation to U.S. imperialism. It is the obligation of communists to show how La Alianza’s class interests make it incapable of leading the struggle for national liberation to its conclusion and why the working class must lead it instead.

The Dead End of Self-Sufficiency

While part of the left is looking to cut deals with the imperialists, the other part aims for a self-sufficient Puerto Rico. The politics of self-sufficiency is not only a reaction to imperialism, but also a petty-bourgeois program born of the failure to link the fight for national liberation to the need for revolution in the region. It is a just desire of the oppressed Puerto Rican masses to control their own destiny. But they cannot go about it alone. From Operation Bootstrap, which left agriculture in ruins, to neoliberal reforms implemented after the Soviet Union’s collapse, which forced the island into perpetual debt, Puerto Rico’s economy was purposely decimated by Yankee imperialism to keep Borikén on its knees.

This economic strangulation has destroyed industry on the island and caused massive impoverishment and unemployment. One need look no further than the situation around LUMA. Thousands lost their jobs, including UTIER electrical workers, when the PREPA power authority was privatized six years ago. Today, Puerto Ricans pay one of the highest electricity rates out of all the U.S. territories and the 50 states. All told, Puerto Ricans spend 8 percent of their income on electricity, compared to just 2.4 percent for mainland residents. In 2022, the price of electricity increased seven times to cover LUMA’s rising costs for fuel, which is heavily imported from the U.S.

Dalmau has promised to cancel LUMA’s contract if elected. But canceling the contract without confronting U.S. imperialism cannot solve the electricity crisis. Simply canceling a contract of one company just sets the stage for another U.S.-based company to take control of the industry. The whole colonial relationship needs to be challenged, which is something that Dalmau and La Alianza are not willing to do.

What Borikén needs is massive public works to rebuild housing and schools as well as reindustrialization, all of which would require mass hiring. But that’s not what is offered by the program of self-sufficiency. None of these things can be achieved under imperialist domination, even if Puerto Rico is formally independent. An economically isolated Puerto Rico in the sphere of U.S. imperialism will face even more crushing impoverishment. This is the main reason why the Boricua working class has never been won over to the politics of self-sufficiency of an independent capitalist Puerto Rico—they rightly see it as a continuation of brutal poverty.

The politics of self-sufficiency look to the native bourgeoisie to carry out national development. But the native bourgeoisie is an obstacle to development, which requires threatening capitalist property rights, because it will only carry out measures insofar as its own interests are not encroached on. If they were to be, the native bourgeoisie, which keeps the oppressed masses tied to their U.S. masters, would quickly side with U.S. imperialism to smash any revolutionary sentiment among the oppressed. For any nation-building to take place, the Boricua working class must throw out the native bourgeoisie and link their just struggle for national liberation to the struggles of their class brothers and sisters in the U.S. and Latin America.

For all its talk of solidarity, the Puerto Rican left does not call for the revolutionary unity of the U.S. and Boricua workers, even though both have a common enemy in U.S. imperialism. At the same time that American capital is destroying Puerto Rico, the U.S. working class is suffering homelessness, unemployment, stagnant wages and deepening racial divisions at the hands of its rulers. The situation has become even more explosive, as each military operation pursued by the U.S. has come at workers’ expense. The U.S. working masses are a natural ally in the liberation of Puerto Rico. A real anti-imperialist fight on the island would inspire the U.S. working class, including its millions-strong Puerto Rican component, to fight against their own rulers, who are screwing them, too. This would cause a crisis in the already unstable U.S. to the advantage of its working class and loosen the master’s grip on Puerto Rico. This is why it is in the interest of both proletariats to form an anti-imperialist united front.

The 1938 founding conference of the Fourth International lays it out simply:

Opportunism and Sectarianism in the Elections

It is nearly impossible to find a left group in Puerto Rico that isn’t for independence and socialism. But how are they fighting for it in the context of the upcoming elections? They aren’t. No one on the left is putting forward any anti-imperialist option whatsoever. Much of the left, like Democracia Socialista (section of the Fourth International), supports La Alianza as a step in the right direction.

This is completely false. All aspects of everyday life on the island are controlled by U.S. imperialism. The decline of the U.S. Empire has had catastrophic effects on Puerto Rico. The U.S. has imposed austerity measures, which siphon resources out of Puerto Rico and into the pockets of bondholders and hedge fund groups. Not only is the debt crippling Puerto Rico, but also every cent paid will deepen its subordination to the imperialist rulers and further weaken the Boricua masses. That is why an organization that has no program to defeat U.S. imperialism is not a step in the right direction, but will only reinforce national oppression.

The Workers Socialist Movement (MST) has criticized La Alianza, including by acknowledging that its MVC half has no position on independence. But instead of exposing La Alianza as a rotten bloc that poses no threat to imperialism, the MST gives it critical support because “it raises the possibility of advancing the immediate fight to snatch from neo-liberalism the rights it has taken from us.” It is crucial to combat capitalism and neoliberalism. But it is impossible to do so without a program centered on the fight against colonial subjugation. Otherwise, the U.S. will continue to implement neoliberal reforms and introduce foreign capital into Puerto Rico, creating further immiseration. As La Alianza gains more traction, the MST and the rest of the left just tail it, ceding the terrain to La Alianza instead of planting an anti-imperialist pole in these elections.

A minority trend on the left refuses to vote for La Alianza because they know it is not fighting for independence. These leftists rightly see the bloc’s members as bourgeois politicians who want a shot at being administrators of imperialist will—but are completely paralyzed over what to do. One example is Communist Workers and Students for Social Change (TECCS), which produces frequent propaganda ranging from historical issues to the day-to-day problems of Puerto Rico. They correctly see the workers movement as key but do not pose an alternative for the working class in elections because their position is to abstain from elections altogether.

In their 2020 election article, TECCS says: “As revolutionary communists we reaffirm ourselves in the revolutionary process and we cannot believe in the deception and reformist trap of participating in a process where heads or tails the capitalist system wins and the workers lose.” Later, they denounce the MVC and PIP as “‘progressive’ organizations trying to monopolize the discontent of the people… and unfortunately many people fall victim to these false promises—that class conflict can be resolved peacefully within the framework of this society, thus perpetuating the system of exploitation.”

TECCS is right in their criticism of the MVC and PIP and in not voting for Dalmau or anyone else in the current elections. But it completely removes itself from the electoral process, and so fails to put forward an anti-imperialist option in counterposition to the PIP and Dalmau. This simply allows Dalmau to continue without challenge to push false promises that progress in Puerto Rico can happen under imperialist domination. The task of Boricua communists is to intervene in every arena to expose La Alianza for what it is and demonstrate in action to the working class that the only way to end this system of exploitation is in a struggle against imperialism.

Having an anti-imperialist option in the elections would facilitate the building of a party for independence and socialism, which workers desperately need but is missing from today’s Puerto Rican political terrain. Without this party, the oppressed masses will not be able to break the chains of their imperialist subjugation and advance the fight for independence. An abstentionist strategy in elections is a barrier to the “revolutionary process.”

A successful fight for independence from U.S. colonialism by the Boricua proletariat can be a motor force for revolution in the Caribbean and Latin American region. To stop the destruction of Puerto Rico and rebuild its industry requires getting rid of the debt, expropriating the banks and fighting against the national bourgeoisie, which chains the masses back to their colonial masters. With that in mind, the working class and oppressed masses should unite under the demands to:

• Nationalize the electrical and all other industries! LUMA out!
• Cancel the debt and expropriate the banks!
• Throw out the FOMB and the Yankee Imperialists! Down with La Junta!
• Fight for independence and socialism now!