First Published: Daily World, May 26, 1970.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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More than 20,000 Puerto Rican youth marched through the main streets of old San Juan on May 3, terminating in a mass meeting at the centuries-old square in front of City Hall. Shouts were heard against the ROTC, against the U.S. Navy which is forcing Puerto Ricans off Culebra island, against the recruitment of Puerto Ricans into the U.S. armed forces, against the war in Vietnam, to the applause of thousands of men, women and children lining the sidewalks and the square.
All pro-independence and anti-imperialism organizations were represented, including the Marcantonio Mission of the MPI (Movement for Puerto Rican independence) in New York as well as the Black Cultural Organization of the Virgin Islands.
A resolution by Florencio Merced in the name of the University Students for Independence and the Youth MPI, asking all 18-year-old youth not to register for military service, was unanimously approved.
In 1967 a union independently organized by workers in the Union Carbide plant in Guayanilla won the elections supervised by the Workers Federal Relations Administration. The management of Union Carbide appealed.
Three years later the courts decided in favor of this union and directed Union Carbide to negotiate “in good faith.”
While Union Carbide has been going through make-believe negotiations since April, presenting proposals that the union labels “degrading,” the company has been preparing 150 beds in the plant for strikebreakers.