Only Anti-Imperialist Struggle Can Defeat Trump/González

The following article is an English-language translation of Workers Vanguard suplemento en español (No. 16, 8 February).

The results of the recent election for governor of Puerto Rico and the nonbinding status plebiscite signify growing discontent with the status quo on the island—the intolerable conditions imposed by colonial subjugation. All aspects of everyday life, whether energy, housing, healthcare or education, are dictated by U.S. imperialism. The masses are tired of their subjugation and looking for an answer. While five candidates were on the ballot, the race was really between Jenniffer González and Juan Dalmau of La Alianza, who both presented themselves as a break from the status quo.

Although González, a pro-statehood Trump supporter, won with 39 percent of the vote, what made the election unusual was Dalmau taking 33 percent. In the status plebiscite, 58 percent of valid ballots favored statehood, while independence received its highest level of support in decades. Clearly, the Boricua masses are desperate for change. Just as clearly, to make progress on any front is going to require a confrontation with U.S. imperialist interests. But none of the options on offer in the elections were proposing to do this.

La Alianza’s Half Measures Open Door to Right

The 24-hour LUMA blackout in January and the announcement of education cuts at UPR are just a couple of examples of how the devastating attacks against the Boricua masses have been sharpening. There is no room for half measures when only a serious fight against imperialism can stop the devastation. Gentle persuasion is not going to convince the colonial masters to act against their interests and let up on their subjugation of the island, much less let Puerto Rico be free.

Puerto Rico is of financial and military importance as a colony to the U.S. colossus. Washington keeps a tight grip on the island to counter Cuba and prop up its flagging global position through plunder of Puerto Rico. This gives the U.S. greater ability to pursue its imperialist appetites in the rest of Latin America and the Third World. The U.S. will not grant anything of value unless a counterforce is mobilized to seize what is needed and break Borikén’s colonial chains.

The overarching question is: Will Puerto Rico fight against or submit to its colonial oppression? The election results indicate a growing polarization on the island. But those looking to fight did not have an actual anti-imperialist alternative on the ballots. Since Dalmau wanted to wrest concessions from the U.S. without a determined and realistic plan to confront U.S. imperialism and win, the choice posed was between a halfhearted fight (Dalmau) and full submission (González). González came out on top because she had the connections and commitment to convince voters that her reactionary path of submission might get them a few more crumbs from Washington.

The left widely promoted Dalmau as the pro-independence candidate, but he abandoned the cause to form La Alianza with the MVC. Dalmau advocated a series of progressive social reforms: universal health insurance, retirement pensions, reversal of the privatization of education and so on. Most Puerto Ricans know on some level that winning any of these reforms would require fighting against the U.S. A sustained fight for the burning needs of the Boricua masses would sooner or later come up against pillars of U.S. imperialism like the Wall Street vultures, real estate developers or Big Pharma. But far from attempting to prepare such a fight, Dalmau’s strategy poses no threat whatsoever to U.S. interests.

For Dalmau, everything from funding his proposed reforms to the process of “decolonization” relies on getting the U.S. Congress on board. But seeking a sympathetic hearing through moral suasion from this core institution of U.S. imperialism is a guarantee of failure. It is impossible to loosen imperialism’s hold while warmly embracing its very representatives. Although Dalmau’s rising poll numbers reflect a growing pressure to push forward anti-imperialist struggles, he is channeling that discontent into collaboration with the same force responsible for the immiseration and oppression of the Boricua masses.

For example, La Alianza calls for “decolonization” through negotiation and dialogue with the U.S. This perspective completely undermines the struggle for independence. The U.S. is not about to “decolonize” Puerto Rico. The imperialist power holds the island in colonial bondage due to the distinct material advantage it gains from doing so. It is not about to sit down at some table and negotiate the freedom of its subjects.

Dalmau is conscious of this, but still wants to head down the dead-end road of liberal decolonization, which can only restrain rather than push forward the progressive impulse of the Puerto Rican masses. The vague term “decolonization” is used purposely to cover for dropping the fight for independence. At the same time, it proves to the imperialists that La Alianza will not challenge their stranglehold on the island, while deceiving the Puerto Rican masses into thinking that the coalition is going to fight their colonial subjugation.

The inability of La Alianza and the left to present an anti-imperialist option is what tipped the scales just enough in favor of González. As a result, a sizable section of the population viewed her as more likely to be able to alleviate their impoverishment and viewed statehood as more viable than independence. In the past, González has been able to secure federal funding while making deals for companies to invest in Puerto Rico. She became a more attractive option as the likelihood of a Trump presidency became more evident. The hope of González voters is that a pro-Trump governor in office during the second Trump presidency might bring desperately needed aid.

But placing hope in Trump will prove disastrous for Puerto Rico. He has not even claimed that he will provide any relief for the island. In fact, his plans are entirely geared toward “Making America Great Again,” which can only come at the expense of the Boricua masses and Latin America as a whole. The national oppression of Puerto Rico is only going to get worse with U.S. imperialism in decline, as it looks to further tighten the screws on the island in order to slow its own slide. Trump is already threatening to slap 25 percent tariffs on Mexico—a major attack on the working and toiling masses of U.S. imperialism’s main neo-colony and a foretaste of what is in store for Puerto Ricans.

A La Alianza Victory Would Not Have Been Better

The left and young activists have rejected the election of González, who promised to end basic services like Medicaid and keep the electrical grid privatized. These looming attacks need to be fought. But to wage an effective struggle, the left must draw the right lessons from the elections in order to pursue a course that can get to the root of the problem: U.S. imperialism.

Most left groups have weighed in with their own analysis of the elections, and what’s absolutely clear is their massive disorientation. They have been hysterical, saying that González’s win signals a rise in fascism in Puerto Rico. Calling González a fascist is a way to obscure the fact that Dalmau’s program is an obstacle to fighting both right-wing reaction and colonial subjugation—and the very reason for his loss. La Alianza is not for independence, but many on the left promoted the coalition anyway as “a step in the right direction” and a lesser evil that could stop the PNP. Dalmau is a lesser evil, but that does not make him a step in the right direction—far from it.

A La Alianza victory wouldn’t have put the masses in a better position. Dalmau winning might upset the status quo, but his election would have led the masses down an illusory path of collaboration with the U.S. and liberal decolonization. His attempts at social reform would hit a wall, and launching a half-baked battle against U.S. imperialism without the aim of winning is an invitation to disaster. Think David provoking Goliath despite having left his slingshot at home. It’s not going to end well for David. The inevitable defeats from this program—the reinforcement of national oppression or even bloody repression against those left unprepared to fight—would only demoralize the left and embolden the right.

Dalmau isn’t even looking to get rid of La Junta. His plan to manage PREPA’s debt is to pressure La Junta to disperse the financial aid pledged in the PREPA Trust agreement to Puerto Rican workers. La Alianza wants La Junta to make good on its promise to pay into retiree pensions and reconstruction obligations and only after that pay the bondholders. The coalition claims that “this approach, based on justice and financial rationality under bankruptcy law,” is the way to balance the fiscal responsibilities of PREPA and the needs of the population.

La Junta and the debt hanging over the Boricua masses is a brake on the island’s national development. It is a widely felt need to drive these parasites out. But Dalmau’s program is to keep them around and make sure they get their money! The austerity measures imposed by La Junta have funneled millions out of Puerto Rico and into the pockets of U.S. bondholders and hedge funds, which have been bleeding the island dry. Not only is the debt crippling and preventing any advancement of working people, but also every cent paid deepens the subordination of Borikén to the imperialist rulers and further weakens the Boricua masses. Any organization that utterly lacks a perspective to expel La Junta and defeat Yankee imperialism is not a “step in the right direction.”

In fact, Dalmau and La Alianza are roadblocks to the anti-imperialist struggle. Puerto Rico doesn’t need halfway measures, it needs a party and a leadership with a plan that will tie the day-to-day struggles of the working class to the fight for independence. This requires confronting Yankee imperialism and its lackeys in the Puerto Rican government, instead of conciliating them like La Alianza does. This step—and only this step—will take Puerto Rico in the right direction. La Alianza understands that a real fight for independence will require unleashing the revolutionary energy of the Boricua masses and proletariat, which would threaten the coalition’s own class aspirations to administer the colonial will of the U.S.

The Left Boosts Would-Be Colonial Administrators

Socialists should take the opportunity presented by elections to further the building of a genuine independentista party. To this end, one might consider critically supporting candidates who are not revolutionary Marxists. But the minimum basis for supporting any candidate must be that they are for independence and committed to radically challenging the economic and political interests of the U.S. If Dalmau and La Alianza aren’t organizing any real struggle against the island’s subjugation, then what was there to support? Any serious leftist knows that the U.S. will never willingly decolonize Puerto Rico, yet most support Dalmau anyway.

Democracia Socialista—Fourth International has an 11-point program stating that they’re for Socialism, Independence, Internationalism and the Transitional Program. But they are among the main players behind the creation of La Alianza and have been totally disoriented in what the next steps for the Boricua masses should be. Their article “A Collective Grief: Reflection of the 2024 Elections” says: “The Alliance was that vessel that reflected to the Puerto Rican people their desire to begin dismantling old, corrupt and obsolete political and administrative structures.” True, the desires of the Puerto Rican people were real, but La Alianza was nothing more than a vessel to frustrate those desires given the impossibility of dismantling those structures through the U.S. Congress.

While claiming the mantle of the Fourth International, Democracia Socialista’s program says nothing of the need to fuse the struggles for independence and socialism in order to break the U.S. imperialist machine. Trotsky’s Fourth International made this task central to its program—that the fight for national liberation requires an all-out struggle against imperialism with the working class in the lead. Trotsky, in his interview with Comrade Fossa, says: “It is clear to me at any rate that the internal tasks of these countries cannot be solved without a simultaneous revolutionary struggle against imperialism.” The task of Boricua revolutionaries during the elections was not to push half measures, but to rally opposition to U.S. domination.

Other left groups, like MST, are more critical of La Alianza, but still end up supporting the coalition. In their article “The Anti-Communist Campaign of Jenniffer González,” the MST recognizes that “Dalmau, the PIP, MVC and their candidacies do not seek to establish a communist republic in Puerto Rico, but rather to administer the few and tiny instances of power that the colonial government has.” The MST knows exactly what Dalmau and La Alianza are about and yet still gave critical support to him as a way “to snatch from neoliberalism the rights it has taken from us.” But any support to La Alianza, no matter how critical, can only sidetrack the necessary fight against neoliberalism.

The Tasks of the Left in Puerto Rico

Recent events at UPR have forced Dalmau back out into the public. It is very apparent that he plans to further channel into La Alianza the justified anger of youth, who feel like they have no future in Puerto Rico. Dalmau also wants to make a reorientation toward the unions. But his aim is not to use their social weight to anchor a fightback against the attacks at UPR, González and imperialism, but rather to simply build electoral support for the next election in 2028!

The push to cut 64 programs at UPR is a huge attack against the working class and oppressed masses in Puerto Rico. The goal is to further dismantle the universities and destroy public education. Hundreds of students, teachers and workers have protested, and students have held mass meetings and passed motions to reject the cuts. Their demands for university autonomy, reduced tuition costs, restoration of student residences and the removal of the university president speak to the needs of youth who don’t want to have to leave Puerto Rico in search of higher education.

The gutting and privatization of education, La Junta’s austerity measures and the assault on living and working conditions are all dictated by U.S. imperialism and executed by its lackeys in the Puerto Rican government. It couldn’t be clearer that the needs of both students and workers clash with U.S. interests. The two must join forces to be successful in the fight against the imperial overlords.

A successful fight at UPR could be the first step in reversing years of devastation on the island. This would strengthen the position of all Boricua workers against González and the imperialists. But how to succeed? The only way forward is to take a stand against the source of the problem: the colonial subjugation of Borikén. Plenty of groups on the left back the students and their demands but are not pointing them in the right direction.

For the students to win their demands, the UPR protests must be escalated into a strike organized to pull in wider layers of society as part of an anti-imperialist movement. Such a strike could land a much-needed blow against the imperialists. But this will never happen while attempting to build La Alianza. Instead, the coalition must be split by driving a wedge between the genuine anti-imperialist fighters in its midst and those committed to conciliation. Through cohering an anti-imperialist movement, the most consistent fighters against the colonial oppression of Borikén can begin to be regrouped into a party that fights to advance the struggle for national liberation toward socialist revolution.

To accomplish this, the left must also look to the working class, which has every reason to repel the right and end imperialism. In recent years, the unions in Puerto Rico have been systematically dismantled through backroom deals made between labor leaders and U.S. and local bosses. Where strong unions like UTIER and FMPR once stood, you now see weakened unions and high unemployment, which has forced many to flee the island. In turn, the absence of a working-class counterweight has fueled the privatization of education, energy and some ports and the slashing of many pensions, all in the name of paying back the debt. Huge profits are hoarded and siphoned back to home offices in the U.S. As part of the fight against U.S. imperialism, what is needed is reindustrialization, employment drives and union organizing in all industries.

The working class in Puerto Rico must be provided a way forward—one that can not only improve their immediate situation but also bring their full liberation. With this in mind, the left must look to link the struggles of the Boricua masses to those of the proletariat in the U.S., where workers are also slated for deep attacks. Trump is already moving to slash federal employment and deport immigrants en masse. The Democrats paved the way for these attacks through sowing racial and other divisions in the U.S. working class to keep everyone’s conditions down. These divisions extend internationally, as Puerto Rican workers are suspicious of their class brothers and sisters in the U.S. and don’t believe they can be won over to the liberation of Borikén. The failure of the left in both the U.S. and in Puerto Rico to call for the revolutionary unity of the working class has only contributed to this divide.

The Boricua working class also shares a common enemy in U.S. imperialism with the rest of the working and toiling masses of Latin America. Since taking office, Trump has been busy bullying one Latin American country after another. To defend against these attacks and loosen the master’s grip on the region, an anti-imperialist alliance of Latin America is essential. A struggle by the oppressed Latin American masses to throw off imperialist domination would inspire U.S. workers to fight against their own rulers, who are screwing them too. A fight in the belly of the beast would cause a crisis in the already unstable U.S., giving more breathing space to Puerto Rico and all of Latin America. This is why it is not only in the material interests of these proletariats to support one another’s struggles, but also the only way to bridge the divide that exists between them. The anti-imperialist struggle is the motor force for revolution.

• Throw LUMA out! Nationalize the electrical and all other industries!
• Defeat the attacks at UPR! Abolish all tuition fees!
• Cancel the debt and expropriate the banks!
• Throw out La Junta and the Yankee imperialists!