The right of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' written into the American Declaration of Independence two hundred years ago is just a hollow phrase if you happen to be an American Indian or a Puerto Rican. This was the message of a picket mounted outside the US Embassy last Thursday to coincide with the opening of an The US Government showed its utter contempt for the 'liberty' of the people of Puerto Rico when it staged the economic summit there last week without even consulting its puppet governor, Colon. But then there was never anything 'free' about the way in which relations between the US and Puerto Rico were formed. On 25 July 1898. 16.000 US troops invaded the island and conquered it in / days - were to perfect the methods it was subsequently to use to extend its economic influence and The US imposed a one-product economy, investing only in sugar. The plantations, controlled by absentee owners, thrived on abundant cheap labour. But in the 1940s even cheaper labour in Cuba, Hawaii and the Dominican Republic meant that the US turned there instead for its sugar, creating massive unemployment in Puerto Rico. Today Puerto Rico is still in economic thrall to the US. Of all retail goods sold in Puerto Rico, 95 per cent are from the US - it is, in fact, the US's fifth largest market. 47.9 per cent of all US profits from investments in Latin America are made in Puerto The social consequences of US colonialism almost defy description. Real unemploy ment stands at 45 per cent, and as many as 40 per cent of Puerto Ricans have been forced to emigrate to the US. Another form of population control being used is sterilisation: 35 per cent of the women of child-bearing age have been sterilised -the highest incidence of female sterilisation in the world! Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' have taken on a new meaning in 1976. No wonder increasing numbers of Puerto Rican people are today organising against their US oppressors.
Red WeeklyRed Weekly No. 158, 8 July 1976
P LIBERTY,
The scan: rw-no158-jul-8-1976.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive, opens at this page)
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