First Published: The Call, Vol. 2, No. 1, October 1973.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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New York, N.Y.–The Puerto Rican independence movement has won an important victory here against the colonial policies of the United States.
For 13 years, the Puerto Rican independence movement sought the right to speak before the United Nations on the question of Puerto Rico’s colonial oppression by the U.S. This right was finally won this Aug. 23 when Juan Mari Bras, Secretary General of the Puerto Rican Socialist party, addressed the UN Decolonization Committee and asked it to affirm Puerto Rico’s right to self-determination. Ruben Barrios, president of the Puerto Rican Independence party, addressed the UN committee the following day.
The history of the independence movement’s fight to speak before the UN goes back to 1960 when the Decolonization Committee was first formed. The purpose of the committee is to aid colonized and dependent countries to become independent. In its first year, the committee was petitioned by a Puerto Rican independence or-organization but the organization’s request to speak was denied.
At the same time, however, Resolution 1514 was passed in the General Assembly, which recognized Puerto Rico’s right to self-determination but did not include it on the list of colonized nations.
For 13 years afterwards, the U.S. was able to stall the UN and the Decolonization Committee from taking any action on Puerto Rico. But conditions in the world and at the UN have changed since 1960. The admission of the People’s Republic of China two years ago marked the growing strength of the small and medium-sized countries which have begun to join together and win victories and concessions from the superpowers. The victory won by the Puerto Rican people last August is just such an example. It was won with the assistance of the Cuban delegation to the UN and other third world countries on the Decolonization Committee.
In his address to the committee, Juan Mari Bras put forward three demands. He said the UN and the committee should state clearly that the U.S. is violating international law in its colonial policies towards Puerto Rico, adding that the U.S. should end all political and economic measures that stand in the way of independence. Then he called on the committee to make a firsthand investigation of U.S. exploitation of Puerto Rico and of the mass sentiment on the island for independence.
“Colonialism is based on the exploitation of the subjected people.” Mari Bras told the committee. He pointed out that the U.S. relies on Puerto Rican workers, both on the island and in the U.S., as a source of cheap labor. The average Puerto Rican worker receives only a third the pay of the average U.S. worker. Low wages and high unemployment, he noted, have forced nearly a third of the island’s population to emigrate to the U.S. where they are once again used as a cheap labor resource in the factories and service industries.
Colonialism also exploits Puerto Rico’s natural resources, Mari Bras said. Large deposits of copper, nickel and uranium on the island are being exploited by U.S. mining companies. In addition, the U.S. uses Puerto Rico for a military base.
Mari Bras also called on the UN committee to condemn U.S. plans for a huge oil refinery and port complex to be built on the island. The superport, as it is called, would take huge tracts of land but would provide few jobs for Puerto Rican workers.
In an interview with the Guardian, Mari Bras explained how the superport will affect the island.
“The establishment of such a superport would be disastrous to the agricultural production and life in the western part of Puerto Rico. It would take something like 20,000 to 50,000 acres in the first stages of the project. Eventually, it would absorb the whole water production of Puerto Rico. It would signify also the replacement of communities that live in all the places where the superport would be installed; it would destroy completely the fishing industry in the western part of the island; it would prevent the development of light industry in that part of the island.
“We have come to the UN to denounce the project as an attempt to destroy completely the self-determination of the Puerto Rican people. Once the international oil capitalists establish their complexes on Puerto Rico it is obvious that they will have much greater interest in maintaining the colonial status quo of the island in view of the large investments of that project.”
But with the kind of investment already made by the U.S. in Puerto Rico, it is clear why the U.S. has done everything possible to keep the United Nations away from the question of Puerto Rico. The U.S. has even set up a phony committee which on the surface looks like it’s dealing with the problem. This ad hoc committee to review U.S.-Puerto Rico relations was set up by the U.S. in collaboration with Puerto Rico’s puppet governor after Resolution 1514 was passed at the UN. This committee is only for show and will do nothing to end U.S. colonialism.
In order to protect its investments, the U.S. has also worked hard to smash the Puerto Rican independence movement. Political leaders have been jailed, police attacks have been made and the U.S. press has blacked out news of the struggle in Puerto Rico. To these attacks, the Puerto Rican people have responded by strengthening their movement.
The hundreds of people who attended the meetings of the Decolonization Committee each day at the UN last August and the thousands who attended the Sept. 24 demonstration at the UN testifies to the determination of the Puerto Rican people to set their country free.