How to Get the Working Class Behind Independence

Puerto Rico has been pushed to the brink as the masses face deepening poverty and basic infrastructure collapses. Now, as the Trump administration looks to strengthen U.S. imperialism’s global dominance, it will turn the screws on Puerto Rico even more. The masses are angry about their situation and want a way out of the misery. The August 31 “Marcha por la Independencia de Puerto Rico” brought out about 3,000 people, most of whom were young activists with no political affiliation. The depth of the crisis in Puerto Rico explains why people turned out to the first pro-independence demo in many years. This showed the desire to be free and control one’s destiny as the social and political decay makes the futures of Boricuas uncertain.

But while the pro-independence march was a step forward, it still fell short as a few thousand people in the streets is not enough to successfully fight the root cause of Puerto Rico’s dire situation. To push the struggle for independence forward and truly be free, there needs to be a massive movement of the Boricua masses against U.S. imperialism. Even those in attendance made the point that a larger turnout is needed. But they blamed the lack of numbers on people being “misinformed” about independence. If that’s the case, then how do you get people out?

Do Militant Work in the Unions

To wage a serious battle against imperialism requires the participation of the working class. But this key component was missing from the August 31 demo. Rumbo Alterno (the Puerto Rican affiliate of the Revolutionary Communist International) says in their demo leaflet “Why Do We Fight for Independence?” that “the great absence in this debate has been the working class.” And other left groups, from the Democracia Socialista (DS) to the Workers Socialist Movement (MST) and Communist Workers and Students for Social Change (TECCS), also talk about the need for the working class to be involved in the movement.

The reason the working class was not an organized force at the demo is that they do not see any connection between the cause of independence and their everyday lives. The labor leadership is largely to blame for this, as they continuously betray the day-to-day needs of the working class while talking militantly about independence, only to betray that struggle too. As for the left, let’s be real. The working class does not take the left seriously because the left has no real plan to fight U.S. imperialism and is incapable of giving workers answers to their daily issues. This needs to change—Boricua revolutionaries must make it their task to win the confidence of the working class.

The first step to winning this confidence is to show you have a clue. The main way to do this is to clearly demonstrate the connection between the fight for economic demands and the fight against imperialist domination. The union bureaucracy purposely keeps these separate. Making this connection is not difficult when the colonial masters control all aspects of everyday life and strip workers of good wages, pensions and jobs.

It is critical for revolutionaries to do militant work in the unions and set up anti-imperialist caucuses that oppose the capitulatory policies of the current labor leadership. There are many union leaders who speak about the attacks on the working class. But their strategy is to curb the worst excesses of privatization and colonial domination instead of fighting against the imperialist bosses. This failure has only worsened conditions and reinforced national oppression.

The worst example of this is the takeover of the PREPA power authority by LUMA. The UTIER union leadership has opposed privatization from the outset, but their idea of fighting back was to organize a series of one-day strikes that never challenged the imperialists’ stranglehold on the island. These strikes rallied mass opposition to the privatization of energy. But instead of harnessing that anger and directing it against colonial subjugation, the UTIER leadership narrowed the fight to simply canceling LUMA’s contract. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to cancel the contract, but if that fight is not linked to opposing the imperialist domination of the island, another U.S. company will just step in.

There are plenty of union leaders who consider themselves independentistas, but they don’t mobilize the unions to fight for independence or foster an anti-imperialist attitude in the class. Revolutionaries doing militant work in the labor movement must contend for leadership of the unions and the independence struggle by showing workers that they should fight for independence not for the sake of moral obligation, but because they are the key to the national liberation struggle. To win the confidence of the working class, revolutionaries must put forward a real plan to fight against the island’s colonial subjugation. The working masses must also be instilled with confidence in their power to fundamentally change their day-to-day situation. It’s a combination of a working class moving to break their colonial shackles and a communist leadership with a plan to fight imperialism that will draw out the masses.

The left doesn’t do any of this. Instead, they opt for a non-aggression pact with the labor bureaucracy. This doesn’t help the movement, as being associated with a leadership that continues to sell out the class only makes the left look like sellouts too. But the left doesn’t see it that way. To them, every Puerto Rican associated with the labor movement, especially its leadership, is automatically fighting for the best interest of the class. This idealistic and moralistic framework disarms workers by burying how the labor bureaucracy’s program is an obstacle to winning decent conditions and advancing the fight for independence.

Push an Anti-Imperialist Option in Elections

The left’s refusal to expose the labor bureaucracy isn’t the only way they undermine the confidence of the class. When not alibiing the labor misleaders, they look to petty-bourgeois forces to lead the independence struggle. In their article “Socialist Democracy and the Fight for Independence” (1 September), the DS wrote that independence is needed, adding: “An independence that builds an egalitarian, supportive and ecological country.… The only way to achieve that independence is through the organization of working people and all oppressed sectors in defense of their interests.”

We could not agree more. But the DS, which claims to be anti-imperialist, helped create one half of La Alianza: the Citizen’s Victory Movement, whose whole basis is to not call for independence. This attracted pro-statehood and pro-status quo elements to the group. When it comes to La Alianza’s other half headed by Dalmau, the left knew he was not fighting imperialism and had dropped the fight for independence to form that rotten coalition. But they still pushed Dalmau as the candidate to defeat González and said La Alianza was a step in the right direction.

Many young activists who attended the August 31 demo still believe this to be true. It is a contradiction that pro-independence militants at a demo to fight for independence (and against imperialism) would believe that La Alianza, which never claimed to be for either struggle, was worth supporting. But the left’s gradualist strategy fooled young militants into thinking that Puerto Rico can make gains within the confines of imperialist subjugation. An illusion like this is deadly as such a strategy would only ensure that Borikén is held down even more by the colonial masters.

To change the island’s political and social conditions requires the masses to move against the imperialists, not beg them for a few more crumbs while accepting the status quo. This is exactly what La Alianza’s political platform clearly stated: They would not throw out La Junta and would continue to pay the imperialist-imposed debt. This is a complete capitulation to U.S. imperialism. La Alianza’s program could never bring fundamental change to the island because that would require unleashing the revolutionary potential of the working class. And that’s something they would never do because it would threaten their own petty-bourgeois class interests, such as maintaining private property and being next in line to administer colonial rule.

It cannot be stressed enough that an organization that doesn’t center their program on the need to fight imperialism will never be a step in the right direction, but will only reinforce the national oppression of Borikén. Looking to petty-bourgeois forces to somehow lead the fight for national liberation has always been a disaster. But this is exactly what most of the left did and what makes the line of the DS article on independence and “the organization of the working people” so cheap.

What revolutionaries should’ve done was put forward an anti-imperialist option in the elections. This would’ve facilitated the building of a party for independence and socialism, which left groups like Rumbo Alterno call for, but buried at election time in order to support Dalmau. Having an anti-imperialist candidate would’ve polarized the elections and split the left between those who are genuine fighters for national liberation and those looking to conciliate imperialism. It also would have polarized the right and galvanized those who see voting as a waste of time. This potential is squandered every time the left tails petty-bourgeois forces. Without an anti-imperialist party, the oppressed masses will not be able to break the chains of their colonial subjugation and advance the fight for independence. But the concept of an anti-imperialist option in elections is nowhere to be found on the Puerto Rican political terrain, leaving the working masses who saw through Dalmau to choose between the New Progressive Party or the Popular Democratic Party.

This is what makes it wrong to abstain from the elections, like TECCS did. Its refusal to give workers an option that could help them fight back left Dalmau unchallenged, even though TECCS saw that La Alianza had nothing to offer the Boricua masses but more of the same. It is true that you will not win independence through elections, but it is still important to fight on this terrain because the working class is paying attention to what each party and candidate is saying, whether they are voting or not. When workers see an option that speaks to their felt needs and provides a path forward to independence and socialism, it will only bring them closer to the struggle. This is why Boricua communists must intervene in every arena to expose the conciliators of colonial rule, from the elections to the unions, and to show workers that the only way to end their brutal exploitation and national oppression is to struggle against U.S. imperialism.

DS engaged in its own form of abstentionism by refusing to show up to the August 31 demo. This is not a petty criticism but a necessary point to be made, especially in light of their September 1 article, which basically is a polemic against the protest. The article gives a left cover for their abstentionism and sectarianism. There’s nothing wrong with having differences on the way a demo is organized, but it is necessary to show up and fight for your program if you think that’s the basis on which the protest should have been organized.

It’s no secret that cliquist fights are rampant in the Puerto Rican left. This does nothing to help the already small, fragmented left and just pushes the working class away from the cause. Instead, the left needs to make their political differences clear through open debate and discussion. This is the only way to clarify which path the independence struggle should go down, while showing the working class that the left is serious about fighting for revolutionary politics.

Staying home will not bring the working class out, but will just reinforce all the reasons why they themselves shouldn’t join the fight. If you’re going to say that there needs to be an organization of workers, then you need to go out and organize workers. If you think there needs to be an egalitarian society, then show how the rest of the left betrays that struggle. Fighting for your program, exposing what stands in the way and bringing the lessons to the workers is the only way to win them over.

The masses are angry about their conditions, but that anger is separated from the one force that can put an end to the immiseration. If the working class saw the left as real opponents of imperialism who had a clue about the needs of the class, then the working masses would be behind them. But that’s not the case because the left continues to undermine workers’ interests and confidence. This has resulted in the class associating the left with middle-class populist politics rather than a class-struggle program. It’s time for the left to change course if it hopes to free Borikén from its colonial chains.

Build an Anti-Imperialist Alliance

Puerto Rico is of financial importance to the U.S., which bleeds the island’s economy dry to fund its imperialist adventures. And as its current use as a launching pad for aggression against Venezuela and Colombia shows, it also has military importance to the U.S. This is not to mention how Puerto Rico has historically been used to counter Cuba.

Right now, there are small but frequent protests in Puerto Rico against the increased U.S. military presence. Protesters are correctly opposed to U.S. intervention into Venezuela and remember the history of Vieques. The struggle against the imperialist military, if tied to the fight for independence, can really set off wider struggle on the island.

The Trump administration has made it a point to go after different countries in Latin America, reinforcing their subservience. The new wave of attacks on these formally independent countries has made the Puerto Rican masses wary about fighting for liberation, because if the U.S. can do what it wants to larger nations like Colombia and Venezuela, it could do far worse to an independent Puerto Rico. But there is an answer to this concern. The Boricua working class shares a common enemy in U.S. imperialism with the rest of the oppressed masses of Latin America. To defend against these attacks and loosen the master’s grip on the region, an anti-imperialist alliance of Latin America must be formed, uniting the struggles of the toiling masses into a dagger aimed at the colonial overlords.

And we must not underestimate the impact this could have. A serious fight by the Latin American oppressed masses against imperialist domination would inspire U.S. workers, who are also being ground down. In turn, a real fight by workers in the belly of the beast could give more breathing room to Puerto Rico and all of Latin America to continue their fight. This shows that it is not only in the material interests of these proletariats to support one another’s struggles, but is also the only way to beat back the imperialist monster and win true liberation for all.