First Published: The Call, Vol. 5, No. 30, November 29, 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Puerto Rican people in the U.S. have been systematically denied their democratic rights in jobs, education, income, and culture. They live in the worst poverty, have the lowest income, and highest unemployment rate of any nationalities in the U.S.
These are the facts produced by a Civil Rights Commission report released last month, entitled, “Puerto Ricans in the Continental United States.”
Over 1.7 million Puerto Ricans live in the U.S., forced to migrate here as a result of U.S. colonial domination over the island.
Imperialism has ruined native agriculture, throwing hundreds of thousands out of jobs. Huge superprofits have piled up for the big U.S. corporations at the cost of increasing impoverishment for Puerto Rico’s 3.1 million people.
Here in the U.S., Puerto Rican people have faced brutal national oppression. Poverty levels are dramatically high. While 11.6% of U.S. families live in complete poverty, the figure is 32.6% among Puerto Ricans.
The median income for Puerto Ricans is just above 50% of the median nationally, barely over $6,000 a year. Over 20% of Puerto Rican families have no income earner; and of those families living in poverty, 60% are headed by women. More than 25% of all Puerto Rican families are dependent on welfare.
Unemployment among Puerto Ricans has been at crisis levels for decades, especially among youth. In Bridgeport, Conn., for example, the study shows a 60% unemployment rate for Puerto Rican youth and about 40% for adults, against a city-wide rate of 8.8%.
Among the employed, the system of national oppression has locked Puerto Ricans into the worst paying menial jobs, often in unorganized shops, especially in labor intensive industries like electronics and garment. Close to 60% of Puerto Rican workers are factory workers or in service and laborer positions.
The meager government programs set up in the wake of the urban riots in the early ’60s made no dent in the unemployment and poverty of Puerto Ricans. Job training programs like Job Corps at first had no programs for Spanish-speaking workers. Today the 60 training centers are still only approximately .9% Puerto Rican.
Systematic discrimination in hiring, promotion, training and transfer are part of the whole fabric of national oppression, especially linked to denial of language rights.
Over 40% of Puerto Ricans over 25 years of age cannot read or speak English. Because of this, they are denied jobs, paid lower wages, denied benefits, not told of union rights, or unemployment and compensation procedures.
Denial of equality in language has had a disastrous effect on youth in the education system. Puerto Ricans have completed less years of school and have a higher drop-out rate than any other nationality. In Chicago, for example, the drop-out rate is 71.2%.
Hostos, the one bilingual college on the East coast, was closed down last year for lack of funds. Only as a result of the most militant struggle on the part of students were funds granted and the school reopened. However, tuition was then instituted, thus shutting the door to thousands of Puerto Ricans. Less than 1% of Puerto Ricans in New York are college graduates, and of all college freshman in 1973, .4% were Puerto Rican.
These figures only point to some aspects of national oppression, but the study itself covers over the cause of this vicious exploitation of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. The study bemoans the neglect of Puerto Ricans and proposes a series of measures to eliminate discrimination and remove the “barriers” to equality.
But these barriers are part and parcel of the capitalist system, and are a direct result of the colonization of Puerto Rico, which has forced so many Puerto Ricans to migrate in the past few decades.
The struggle to gain full democratic rights for Puerto Ricans in this country is closely connected to the fight for independence for Puerto Rico. At the same time, it is a component part of the struggle of all working and oppressed people in the U.S. for socialism. The oppression of Puerto Ricans as a national minority will only be eliminated by overthrowing imperialism.