News the media feels is unfit to print

About a week ago I wrote a letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The letter was critical of a column by George F. Will where he, in effect, explained how he had no idea of what the words capitalism and socialism mean. The Inquirer considered publishing my letter, but ultimately declined.

The letters that the Inquirer did publish on this topic demonstrate the clear limitations of the press in this country. One of those letters argued that there are aspects to both capitalism and socialism that are desirable.

Clearly, there are many, like Bernie Sanders, who agree with that perspective. However, for me, the rational definition of socialism is the antithesis of capitalism. Just as the capitalist system replaced feudalism, socialism is a rational way of replacing capitalism.

The pioneers of capitalism didn’t attempt to establish a more enlightened rule of kings and queens. No, they worked to establish a completely different political economic system. This is what a genuinely socialist, or workers government will do.

Below is my unpublished letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer.     

To the Editor,

George F. Will, in his column pretending to be about socialism, has his facts backwards. Will argues that socialism means, "Everyone will be nice to everyone else, through using other people's money." We can expose the clear hypocrisy of this statement with a quotation by John Locke, whose writings inspired the revolutionaries who founded this country. Locke argued that, "All wealth is the product of labor."

This means that literally all the goods and services we need and want are produced by working people. While we produce all wealth, capitalists spend time figuring out where to invest the wealth we produce. Then, they spend time trying to maximize profits on the labor of each and every worker. What are the results of this system?

Today poverty and war are as much a part of the human experience as the wind and the rain. One out of every six people in this country doesn't have enough food to eat. 80% of the world's population lives on $10 per day or less. These conditions exist while a few hundred families have more wealth than half the world's population.

Bernie Sanders and others claim that they support the idea of socialism. If you look at their proposals, at best, they would like to make capitalism more egalitarian. The problem is that the core value of capitalism is to derive profits from workers, and this will not change as long as capitalism exists. 

I believe it is useful to imagine what the world would look like if human needs were viewed as more important than profits. Our standard of living would improve radically, while we would need to spend considerably less time working a job. All this means that our problem is not the idea of socialism, but the routine functioning of the capitalist system. 

War Against All Puerto Ricans – Revolution and terror in America’s colony

By Nelson A. Denis

2015 – Bold Type Books - Hachette Book Group

A review

By Steve Halpern

In the preface to his history of the Puerto Rican independence movement, Nelson A. Denis reported on an event that shaped his life when he was eight years old, living in the Washington Heights section of New York City.

“I was eight years when men from the FBI banged on our door at 3 a.m. No one understood what was happening: my mother screamed, my grandmother cried, and I hid behind a curtain. The FBI agents grabbed my father and took him away; we never saw him again.”

Denis’ mother was Puerto Rican and his father was Cuban. The year of the FBI raid on his home was 1962, the year of the so-called “Cuban Missile Crisis.” Denis’ father was an elevator operator, a union member, and a supporter of the Cuban Revolution. However, he was not a spy. He was deported to Cuba without a trial. Nelson Denis vowed that he would become a lawyer, so no one would ever be able to knock on his door and rip his family apart again.

This was the background that led Denis to spend years researching the unvarnished history of the struggle for Puerto Rican Independence. That struggle has a history of literally hundreds of years. It goes back to the Spanish colonization of the island, and then to the United States invasion of Puerto Rico.

Denis’ history centers on the life and times of the Puerto Rican Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos, who died in 1965. As we will see, Campos did not die of natural causes.

Domino Sugar

Charles Herbert Allen was the first civilian governor of Puerto Rico. During these, and many years after, the government and the press incorrectly reported the name of the island as, “Porto Rico.” Allen consolidated his position as governor, and became president of a sugar trust that today is known as Domino Sugar.

Denis reported on what it was like to work cutting the sugar cane that made Charles Herbert Allen a wealthy man. The fulgoneros routinely hoisted 50,000 pounds of sugar cane onto rail cars every day. However, this wasn’t the worst job.

Twelve-year-old Julio Feliciano Colón was a cutter known as the macheteros. Denis reported on young Julio’s life:

“Every morning he set out to defenderse—to fend for himself and his family. Every evening he came home drenched from head to toe with sweat.” He did this backbreaking work six days per week. The following is Denis’ description of what it meant to be a sugar cane worker:

“The cane choked off any breeze, and the soil radiated heat like an oven. Julio would sweat profusely all day as he grunted and strained alongside the oxen. Crane flies and gnats flew into his mouth as he spoke, and he spat them out like coffee grounds. Mosquitos bit his eyelids, nostrils, lips, and gums and flew into his ears buzzing like jets. But Julio did not complain.”

Thinking about these conditions, we might begin to understand why sugar cane workers have been some of the most militant in the world. We can begin with the slave revolution on the island that became the nation of Haiti. Then, there was the Mexican Revolution in the state of Modelos led by Emiliano Zapata. Then, there were two revolutions in the sister island nation of Puerto Rico, that is Cuba.

Understanding this history, we can see why the revolutionary sentiment in Puerto Rico was so strong. We might also think about how the government adopted systematically ruthless measures in order to counteract this revolutionary sentiment.

Puerto Rico and the history of the United States

An early description of Puerto Ricans as reported in the United States Senate was:

“A heterogeneous mass of mongrels.”

“Savages addicted to head hunting and cannibalism.”

In those days, few if any of the senators spoke the language of Puerto Rico, which is Spanish. In fact, the schools and government proceedings on the island were all conducted in English. This meant that most people on the island had no idea of how their homeland was being organized.

We might also consider that it was General Nelson A. Miles who was the commander of the U.S. military forces that invaded Puerto Rico in 1898. Before Miles went to war against the people of the island, he was also the commander of the U.S. armed forces in several engagements against Native Americans. In those years, the violation of treaties with Native Americans was the routine policy of the United States government.

The Union Army’s defeat of the Confederacy in the Civil War led to the passage of the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments to the Constitution. These Amendments declared that anyone born in the United States is supposed to have equal protection under the law.

However, the same army that went to war against Native Americans and invaded Puerto Rico, withdrew from the former Confederate states. This allowed terrorists of the Ku Klux Klan to take political control of the Southeast of this country.

While the Constitution declared that there was supposed to be equal protection under the law, over 4,000 people were murdered or lynched and the federal government did nothing to prosecute the murderers. This was how the Jim Crow segregationist laws took hold in this country.

The repressive policies of the United States also affected workers. From the years 1877 to 1934 there were numerous labor strikes, but most were defeated. Then, in the year 1934, in the midst of the depression, unions began winning strikes and gaining recognition.

In that same year, there was a strike of sugar cane workers in Puerto Rico. Wages had been about 75 cents for a 12-hour day. Those wages were reduced to about 45 cents. These were starvation wages. Pedro Albizu Campos became the leader of the strike.

Pedro Albizu Campos

Albizu Campos had been a gifted student. He had an advantage over his classmates in that he was fluent in English. Eventually he attended Harvard University and also excelled there. He learned several languages and earned a law degree. He became a lieutenant in the U.S. military during the First World War in command of 200 soldiers. However, Campos decided that his main goal in life was the liberation of the Puerto Rican people. He wasn’t attracted to the many job offers that would have allowed him to live a comfortable life.

At Harvard, Albizu Campos became attracted to the Irish independence struggle. He was so talented, that people felt he was the best spokesperson for Irish independence. He even assisted Éamon de Valera draft the constitution of the Free State of Ireland.

After returning to Puerto Rico, he used his powerful oratorical skills to agitate for the independence of the island and his Nationalist Party. Because of those skills and his reputation, he became the leader of the strike of sugar workers. The strike was victorious and the wages of sugar workers increased to $1.50 per day.

During the strike, Campos had lunch with one of the power brokers on the island. He was offered $150,000 if he betrayed the sugar workers. Another benefit to this proposed betrayal would be that he would receive the support required for him to be come governor of Puerto Rico. Campos declined this offer and said that his homeland could not be sold.

After the victory of the sugar workers strike, there was a nationalist upsurge on the island. Governor Blanton Winship prohibited all public demonstrations. In this atmosphere Pedro Albizu Campos was charged with conspiracy to overthrow the government.

At his trial, the jury was packed with U.S. citizens who were born on the mainland. This was in spite of the fact that Albizu Campos was supposed to be tried with a jury of his peers. The military also mobilized in an attempt to intimidate supporters of Albizu. Under these conditions Albizu Campos was found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison that he served in an Atlanta, Georgia penitentiary.

The Ponce Massacre and it’s aftermath

During the same time as Albizu Campos was in police custody, a legal Nationalist demonstration was held in Ponce, Puerto Rico. In the midst of the demo, the mayor and police chief told the demonstrators to go home, that the parade was over. The participants continued to march and the police, who were armed with machine guns, fired on the demonstration. In all, the police murdered 17 unarmed Puerto Ricans.

The government immediately attempted to cover up the massacre. Staged photos were taken of the police chief looking up at rooftops for alleged snipers that never existed.

What the government didn’t know, was that an experienced newsreel director named Juan Emilio Veguié had made a thirteen-minute film of the entire massacre. Veguié was concerned that exposing this film to the public too soon might endanger his life. So, he buried the film in waterproof containers, and only showed it to select audiences.

We might consider the fact that thirty years after the Ponce massacre, there was a rebellion in my hometown of Newark, New Jersey. The rebellion protested police brutality in the city, and this was one of hundreds of rebellions that erupted in this country during those years. Just as in the Ponce Massacre, law enforcement officials promoted an imaginary story that there were snipers on rooftops firing at the National Guard. In all, there were about 21 people who were murdered by the National Guard in Newark during these rebellions, and hundreds were arrested.   

  

One of the ways the U.S. government hoped to maintain control of the island was by establishing secret dossiers on about 100,000 Puerto Ricans. These hated dossiers accessed by the FBI were known as carpetas.

Muñoz Marín’s father was an active politician on the island. However, Muñoz Marín didn’t have much of a reputation in Puerto Rico. He had lived in New York City, spoke fluent English, and upon returning to the island, he gave numerous speeches advocating for independence.

Because of the FBI’s surveillance program, they learned that Marín was an opium addict. The FBI used this information to blackmail Marín into abandoning his ideas of independence. This was after Muñoz Marín became Governor of the island.

Albizu Campos returns to a changing Puerto Rico

In the year 1947 Albizu Campos completed his prison sentence and returned to Puerto Rico. Thousands greeted him upon his return. However things were changing on the island.

Today the town of Barceloneta is the place where the Pfizer company manufactures all of the Viagra sold in North America. Back in the 1930s the hospital in Barceloneta was the place where about 20,000 women were sterilized. These women were not aware of those sterilizations at that time.

However, after the Second World War the United States was becoming the super power of the world. To counter the growing nationalist sentiment on the island, the government initiated operation bootstrap that invested millions of dollars for the development of Puerto Rico.

We might consider that capitalists don’t invest money to benefit workers, but to gouge out profits for investors. This became clear when the government adopted Law 53 known as La Ley de la Mordaza (the law of the muzzle or gag law.) Law 53 outlawed any mention of independence, the whistling of the Puerto Rican Anthem Borinqueña, or the ownership of a Puerto Rican flag.

All of these measures were in clear violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution that was supposed to support the idea of freedom of speech. Even the Nobel Prize nominee Francisco Matos Paoli was sentenced to 20 years in the notorious prison La Princesa for owning a Puerto Rican flag.

Today Puerto Ricans all over the world proudly display the flag of their homeland. We might consider that that for over a decade possession of a Puerto Rican flag on the island was a crime punishable with a prison sentence.  

Law 53 was similar to the Smith Act that was adopted during the Second World War in 1940. 18 members of the Socialist Workers Party were convicted of violation of the Smith Act for merely opposing the United States participation in the Second World War. The Socialist Eugene Debs had also been convicted of violating another law when he gave a speech in opposition to U.S. participation in the First World War.

This was the politically charged atmosphere when Albizu Campos returned to Puerto Rico in 1947. In 1949 New York City Congressman Vito Marcantonio gave the following testimony on the floor of Congress about the day-to-day government harassment of Albizu Campos:

“Today he lives in San Juan under the type of police surveillance and intimidation that could only have been duplicated in Hitler Germany.  .  .When the leader of the Nationalist Party leaves San Juan to attend a meeting or to make a speech, his car is trailed through the countryside by an armed column of police cars and jeeps. Every hotel or home in which he stays is immediately surrounded by a cordon of police. Every meeting of the Nationalist Party takes place behind police lines. Campos is an American citizen, yet he and his party are harassed at every turn.”

Under these conditions the Nationalist Party felt that there was no way to legally organize resistance to the government. This is the reason why the party developed the seemingly impossible strategy of taking on the United States government with an armed struggle resistance.

So, in this atmosphere, every two weeks Albizu Campos went to the Salón Boricua for a haircut. Salón Boricua was a cultural center where people enjoyed learning about the news that wasn’t reported in the press.

The owner, Vidal Santiago, cut Albizu’s hair. Santiago had a connection to someone in the military who gave him food he used to feed indigent families in the neighborhood. Santiago also used this connection to obtain armaments that he stored in a basement.

Then, one morning Santiago was thrown into a car by police officers without being charged with a crime. He was taken to a military compound where he experienced every method of torture known. But Santiago refused to give his torturers any information. After being detained for weeks, the police returned Santiago to his shop and told him he could only leave with permission from the officers.

At this time, a failed nationalist uprising erupted on the island. One of the Nationalists was a traitor who gave the authorities the information about the uprising.

In the town of Jayuya the nationalists gained the upper hand. In the following paragraph Nelson Denis described how the United States responded to the uprising in Jayuya:

“The planes dropped 500-pound (227-kilogram) bombs and strafed the town with .50-calliber armor-piercing machine guns, each Thunderbolt (fighter plane) releasing up to 1,200 rounds per minute. It was the only time in history that the United States bombed its own citizens.”

The last sentence of that paragraph needs to be changed. In 1985 the Police Department in Philadelphia opened fire with 10,000 rounds of ammunition on a home occupied by members of the MOVE organization. Then, the police dropped a bomb on the MOVE home. The authorities made a decision not to put out the ensuing fire. As a result, 11 occupants of the MOVE home died either from gunshots or the fire that eventually engulfed three blocks of row homes.     

When we understand this history, we might also appreciate Vidal Santiago’s decision to defend himself, rather than surrender to the authorities. Those authorities were unaware that Vidal Santiago had access to a storehouse full of weapons.

When Santiago viewed the armed forces congregating outside his shop, he opened his arms depot and prepared to defend himself. Other nationalists who gave up to the authorities were subsequently murdered.

Pedro Albizu Campos would spend most of the rest of his life experiencing horrendous conditions in prison. Those conditions included being routinely exposed to lethal amounts of radiation for long periods of time. This wasn’t going to happen to Vidal Santiago.

Santiago had more than armaments at his disposal. He had a radio that was broadcasting speeches of Pedro Albizu Campos. He turned up the volume on the radio so everyone could hear these speeches. The following are quotations of Albizu Campos that might have been broadcast on that day:

“A people full of courage and dignity can not be conquered by imperialism.”

“When tyranny is law, revolution is order.”

“Big is the empire we battle, but bigger is our right to be free.”

For three hours Vidal Santiago held off 40 soldiers outside his salon. The soldiers didn’t believe they were battling with only one person who happened to run a barbershop. Santiago was wounded several times, but never gave up. Only when a bullet took his life was the standoff over. Vidal Santiago became a national hero of Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico today

One aspect of today’s Puerto Rico are the immense profits that corporations have derived from the island. Those corporations include: Domino Sugar, drug companies, tourist hotels, the airline corporations, Wal-Mart, auto manufacturing corporations, as well as arms manufacturers who have profited from the bombing of Vieques Island. Then, we can think about all the corporations associated with these enterprises that include: banks, insurance companies, advertising agencies, as well as corporate law firms.

Yet, after robbing the Puerto Rican people of this considerable amount of wealth, banks report that Puerto Rico has a debt of $70 billion. Because of this so-called debt, the government has implemented austerity plans.

The recent hurricane that struck the island cost the lives of over 3,000 people. The hurricane was not the only reason for all these deaths. The U.S. government took it’s time in reestablishing water supply and electricity to many of the residents of the island.

President Donald Trump demonstrated his contempt for the Puerto Rican people in his visit to the island after the hurricane. He was photographed throwing paper towels to a crowd of onlookers. We might think of all the money that has been robbed from the Puerto Rican people. In return for that immense amount of lost wealth, the President of the United States of America gave the Puerto Rican people rolls of paper towels.

Cuba today

Considering the effects of a hurricane to Puerto Rico, we might also consider how the nation of Cuba responds to hurricanes. Days before a hurricane hits Cuba, there is an evacuation plan. Cuban citizens are educated and know what they need to do to prepare for a hurricane. Everyone, even cows, pigs, and chickens are evacuated from the area where the hurricane is anticipated to hit. After the hurricane, there is a mobilization to repair all the damage done to those areas. Because of these measures very small numbers of Cubans perish because of hurricanes.

In a recent column by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, Kristof argued that today Cuba has three times more doctors, per capita, than the United States. He also argued that the infant mortality rate in Cuba is lower than in this country. Because of this, Kristof estimates that about 7,500 children die in this country every year because the health care system lacks the sophistication of Cuban health care.

José Martí, the Cuban nationalist leader once argued that Cuba and Puerto Rico are like, “two wings of the same bird.” I believe there are profound lessons to be learned by studying the histories of these two islands.

Those histories were similar before the year of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Then, two differing scenarios unfolded. Today, Cuba doesn’t have many of the conveniences of the developed world. However, the Cuban people have a government that makes a priority of supporting their interests.

When we look at the political repression of Puerto Rican nationalists mentioned in Denis’ book, we can also think about the more recent Puerto Rican political prisoners who were held in the dungeons of this country for decades. The names of some of those political prisoners include: Rafael Cancel Miranda, Lolita Lebrón, as well as Oscar López Rivera. Thinking about the tenacity of the historical legacy of both Puerto Rico and Cuba gives us reason to feel optimistic for the future of working people in the world.

Today, the pretense that the United States government supports the Puerto Rican people is wearing thin. Nelson A. Denis has given us the unvarnished history of what the United States domination of Puerto Rico has meant for the people. His book is well worth reading to discover one aspect of the horrendous history of the government of the United States of America.

A 201 Year Old Birthday Celebration for Frederick Douglass

Recently I attended the 201 year-old Birthday celebration for Frederick Douglass at the African American Museum in Philadelphia.. Since Douglass was born a slave, there was no record of the date of his birth. He chose February 14 as his birthday. Today, this date is also Valentine’s Day. This event was sponsored by the Colored Conventions organization. Members of this group have made the documents of the Colored Conventions of Douglass’ era available to the public.

There were several highlights to this event. There was an inspiring performance of a Douglass speech to the Colored Convention. There were poems by young people who expressed what Douglass’ message means to them today. There was a breathtaking performance of a poem by Langston Hughes. We also had the opportunity to sit in groups and discuss the legacy of Frederick Douglass.

For me, someone who has read a bit about Douglass’ life, seeing the performance of his speech demonstrated the profound insight of Douglass 100 years ago. In order to appreciate this, we need to look at a bit of his background.

The life of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Bailey as a slave. At the age about 13 he literally risked his life to learn how to read. In the years when slavery was the law, slaves who learned how to read could be executed.

Then, Douglass risked his life again and managed, with the assistance of his future wife, to escape slavery. This is when he changed his name to Frederick Douglass. Eventually Douglass became one of the most prominent speakers of the abolitionist movement. He was so articulate, that many did not believe that he was once a slave.

So, Douglass risked his life again and wrote his autobiography. By writing this book Douglass acknowledged that he was an escaped slave and a fugitive who could be apprehended and returned to slavery.

So, in order to avoid arrest Douglass left his wife and travelled to Britain where he continued to agitate for the abolition of slavery. British supporters raised the funds that purchased Douglass’ freedom, and this enabled him to return to this country with a legal status.

Understanding this background, we see that Douglass never was exposed to any part of the educational system in this country. He, in fact, violated the law to learn how to read. Yet, in the opinion of many who listened to his speech, he was one of the most articulate and powerful speakers in the history of this country.

Douglass' speech to the Colored Convention and it's continued relevancy

The theme of Douglass’ speech was about the reason why Black people came together in the Colored Convention. In those years, some people argued that since the United States government was victorious in the Civil War, and had adopted the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments to the Constitution, there was no reason for Black people to have a convention.

Douglass argued that there is a difference between what the laws stated, and the actual practices of the government. Yes, the 14^th Amendment stated that there was supposed to be equal protection under the law. However, the Jim Crow laws enforced a legal system where Black people were discriminated against in every aspect of their lives. In fact, thousands of people, mostly African American, were lynched and the federal government made no attempt to apprehend the murderers.

Douglass continued to argue that the actions of the federal government in those years appeared to be as if white people had organized to discriminate and brutalize anyone who was not white. Understanding these facts, it was only logical that Black people would have a Colored Convention.

When we look at the history of this country, we see that Douglass’ speech continues to be relevant. In the 1950s the Supreme Court made their Brown v. Board of Education Topeka decision that reinforced the 14^th Amendment and argued that separate and segregated education is illegal. Then, in 1964 the Civil Rights movement forced the government to reinforce the 14^th Amendment with the Civil Rights Act declaring that Jim Crow segregation was illegal.

However, today on the Philadelphia side of City Line Avenue, the student population is overwhelmingly Black and Latino. On the other side of City Line Avenue, in the Lower Merion School District the student population is overwhelmingly Caucasian. The funding for education per student is twice as much in Lower Merion, as it is in Philadelphia.

I mentioned this in one of the discussion groups. Someone in our group countered that funding for education is based on real estate taxes. This is the argument that is routinely used in the mainstream press.

I countered with the fact that some of the most expensive real estate in the nation is located in downtown Philadelphia. Recently a new $1.6 billion dollar skyscraper owned by the Comcast Corporation was completed. Because of a Philadelphia tax abatement law, the owners of this building will not have to pay taxes for ten years. In my opinion, these facts underscore Douglass’ argument that while the law might say one thing, the practices of the government are oftentimes completely different.

Why Frederick Douglass continues to be relevant?

For me there is another aspect to the lessons I’ve derived from Douglass and well as from many who made outstanding contributions for the working people in this country. Today we are faced with enormous challenges. About 80% of the world’s population lives on $10 per day or less. One out of every six people in this country doesn’t have enough food to eat. War and poverty have been as much a part of the human experience as the wind and the rain. We can see that these problems are much deeper than the insidious policies of President Donald Trump.

Looking at all of this, and then thinking about the times when Frederick Douglass lived, made me feel empowered with the idea that, yes, humanity has the potential to deal with the enormous problems we face.

Frederick Douglass wasn’t the only leader who overcame unimaginable obstacles, to become a part of a movement that made real change. Douglass was a mentor to Ida Wells who dedicated her life to end the practice of lynching. Then, there were the labor leaders Eugene Debs and Mother Jones. Malcolm X dedicated his life to convincing people that we deserve to have better lives, and we have the potential to organize to make this happen. Today Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier are two leaders who were framed up and have spent most of their lives in prison. Oscar Lopez Rivera is another leader who spent decades and prison, but was recently released.

While these conditions exist, we can also look to the nation of Cuba that has withstood numerous efforts by the most powerful nation in the world to compromise the interests of the Cuban people. We can also think about the fact that while thousands of people were being lynched in the late 19^th century in this country, Cuba experienced a completely different reality.

Antonio Maceo was a Black Cuban Major General of the armed forces fighting for independence from Spain. During the same years as the lynchings in this country, Maceo’s armed forces went on a march of about 800 miles defeating the Spanish in every confrontation. While we don’t learn about these facts in school, every Cuban child learns about Antonio Maceo and his revolutionary family in every Cuban school.  

This is our heritage. Understanding the enormous challenges that have been overcome in the past, gives me a real feeling that working people today have the potential to overcome our many obstacles, and make this a world where human needs are more important than profits.