Water Crisis: Workers Should Run Boriken!

For over four months, the people of Puerto Rico have endured a severe water crisis sparked by rotting infrastructure. Water and power outages are so frequent that people go with no water for days at a time, stand in long lines at distribution wells and wait for emergency water trucks to come by. Adding to the problem, San Juan is experiencing its worst drought since 1899. The extreme situation has hit small producers hard in the southern belt’s agricultural regions, where coffee production has declined by 70 percent.

The more time passes, the worse the situation becomes, with no real solution in sight. Governor Jenniffer González says that “this situation is beyond our control” and blames the weather.

Puerto Ricans know better: What is happening is entirely linked to the lack of maintenance and privatization of the country’s infrastructure. Years of attacks by the U.S. imperialists are to blame for the misery of hundreds of thousands of people. Many hate the local governors in Puerto Rico and how they follow the dictates of La Junta, which oversees and implements the ongoing austerity.

Especially during this water crisis, corruption is frequently cited, and it is real. However, it is Puerto Rico’s colonial status that lies at the root of the island’s problems, from blackouts and the lack of water to cuts to education and healthcare to lack of jobs and the weakened state of the trade unions. On top of everything, like a slap to the face, the Esencia project aims to displace many from their lands, on which an expensive complex of 1,000 luxury residences is to be built. This complex will damn sure have its own functioning private water supply system. Washington wants to turn Puerto Rico into a paradise for wealthy tourists while Boricuas descend into a spiral of poverty and despair. ¡Esencia no va! Make the fight against Esencia an anti-imperialist fight!

We need to defend Boricuas! What is needed is large-scale maintenance and reconstruction projects—all organized under union control. This would also allow a massive expansion of services to the most marginalized areas. Funds to fix the infrastructure now! Cancel the debt! A first step to begin to address the water crisis would be to form a coalition of workers across different sectors to demand the funds to rebuild Puerto Rico. At the core of the maintenance projects will be workers organized in the Unión Independiente Auténtica (UIA) at the Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AAA). These workers are feeling the brunt of the repair work and face forced overtime, lack of equipment and base pay of $10.50 per hour! In response to workers’ anger, UIA head José Cajigas Romero called a 24-hour work stoppage on August 12. While this action was a start, the struggle must be extended to all sectors of the working class to get to the heart of the situation and stop the attacks.

Pursuing a strategy for workers to take matters into their own hands would immediately bump up against U.S. imperialism’s interests. This points to the need to build a movement for independence led by workers and those who work the land. To accomplish all this will require strong, fighting leaders in the unions with an anti-imperialist perspective.

It is also urgent for the left to actively fight for socialism and independence. On this basis, it will be possible to forge an anti-imperialist alliance with other countries in the Caribbean and Latin America, as well as workers in the U.S., who are under attack by the same imperialist masters. For an independent socialist Puerto Rico!