The world has learned an important lesson from the massive demonstrations in Puerto Rico

This past week the world watched as over 500,000 residents of Puerto Rico mobilized all over the island, demanding Governor Ricardo Rosselló resign. These demonstrations took place in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees. So, we might ask: Why were the Puerto Rican people so enraged that they came together in these massive demonstrations?

Clearly, there were tapes of the governor making insulting remarks about the residents on the island, as well as gross statements about women. However, there are politicians in the states who make these kinds of remarks, and there haven’t been those kinds of protests. So, how is the reality of Puerto Rico different from the reality on the mainland of the United States?

The War Against All Puerto Ricans

We can begin to answer this question by reading Nelson A. Denis’ book: The War Against All Puerto Ricans – Revolution and terror in America’s colony. This book was a best seller in Puerto Rico and Denis spoke at the demonstration demanding the resignation of the governor. You can read my review of this wonderful book at the link to this blog. The following facts are just a short summary of the history that Denis reported in his book.

The independence movement in Puerto Rico started when the island was controlled by Spain. General Nelson A. Miles headed the United States armed forces that invaded the island. Before invading Puerto Rico, Miles commanded the armed forces in the wars against Native Americans.

The first U.S. Governor of Puerto Rico amassed his wealth from the sugar trust that today we know as Domino Sugar. The Puerto Rican macheteros who cut the sugar cane that produced his wealth, worked under unimaginably horrendous conditions.

Pedro Albizu Campos became the leader of the independence movement. Campos had been educated at Harvard University and had a law degree. Campos was also the leader of the 1934 sugar cane workers strike that managed to force employers to significantly increase wages on the island.

One of the power brokers in Puerto Rico offered Campos $150,000 to betray the sugar workers strike. Campos refused and the U.S. officials then worked to prosecute Campos for conspiring to overthrow the government. He served a ten-year sentence in a federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia.

At the same time as Campos was on trial, there was a pro-independence demonstration in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The police murdered 17 of the unarmed demonstrators and lied arguing that they did this in self-defense. This lie was exposed by a film that documented the murder of the unarmed demonstrators.

Also during these years, the United States government allowed doctors to sterilize about 20,000 Puerto Rican women. When these women gave birth to their first child, the doctors cut their fallopian tubes during the procedure. They routinely carried out this illegal procedure without the consent of these women.

Upon his return to Puerto Rico, Pedro Albizu Campos experienced uninterrupted surveillance by the police. During these years, the United States invested billions of dollars in the island in what they called Operation Bootstrap.

Along with Operation Bootstrap, the government adopted Law 54. This law made it a crime to display a Puerto Rican flag, or to sing the Puerto Rican national anthem. Many of those who violated this law went to the prison known as La Princesa. The conditions in this prison were unimaginably horrendous.

Because it became impossible to legally organize, the independence movement on the island organized an armed insurrection. The government murdered most of those who took part in this insurrection.

Pedro Albizu Campos was convicted again of conspiring against the government. This time, the prison authorities exposed Campos to massive levels of radiation. When he was about to pass away he was released from prison.

We might also keep in mind that the Puerto Rican people have been successful in forcing the government to release several political prisoners after they served decades in the dungeons of this country. The list of those released include: Rafael Cancel Miranda, Lolita Lebrón, and Oscar López Rivera.  

We might also consider that popular vocalist Ricky Martin was featured in the recent demonstrations on the island. The Governor had ridiculed Martin because he is gay. So, we have seen that the power of these demonstrations have broken through many of the attitudes people might have had that were critical of gays.

Hurricane Maria and its Aftermath

We might think about the fact that the word Hurricane originates from the native people of Puerto Rico known as the Tainos. So, the people on the island have been dealing with hurricanes for centuries. However, when Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, the United States government organized the reconstruction. That effort became a genuine human disaster.

In September of 2017 the U.S. government reported that there were 64 deaths caused by Hurricane Maria. By June 4, 2018 The New England Journal of Medicine reported that there were 4,645 deaths due to the aftermath of the hurricane.

These facts demonstrate that the United States effort to recover from the hurricane were grossly inadequate. It took about one full year for water and electric supply to be fully restored to the island.

Yet, when President Trump visited Puerto Rico after the hurricane, he actually had the audacity to throw rolls of paper towels at the people. The president failed to explain how those paper towels might have prevented the deaths of 4,645 people on the island.

We also see how there are banks demanding that Puerto Rico pay $70 billion in outstanding loans. In order to pay these loans, they have instituted austerity plans.

Thinking about those loans, we might also think about the dozens of corporations that have extracted huge amounts of wealth from the labor of the Puerto Rican people. These corporations include: the sugar trusts, the drug companies, the tourist hotels, the airlines, the auto dealerships, and the airlines. Those corporations also include: banks, insurance companies, advertising agencies, and corporate law firms.

An observer might think that it is wrong to demand payment of loans from Puerto Rico, while all these corporations have reaped super-profits from the island. Massive profits have also been derived from Puerto Ricans who work on the mainland. However, this is an example of the natural functioning of the capitalist system.

Rebellions all over the world

When we look at this history, we can begin to understand why there were massive demonstrations in Puerto Rico demanding the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rosselló. There was mass discontent on the island before the people learned of Rosselló’s insulting remarks about the people who have endured this history. We can cite other moments in history where there was mass discontent, where a single event provoked a mass response.

In October of 1917, garment workers who happened to be women in St, Petersburg, Russia went on strike. This information is included in Leon Trotsky’s history of the Russian Revolution. He reported that the atmosphere was so charged at that time, a loud noise was all that was necessary to cause thousands of workers to go on strike.

In the year 1955, racists murdered fourteen-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi. People in Chicago, Illinois viewed Till’s mutilated body in an open casket. A few months after Till’s murder, Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Those events sparked the 385-day Montgomery Bus Boycott. 

In the year 2010, a police officer confiscated Mohamed Bouazizi’s vegetable cart in Tunisia. Bouazizi attempted to use legal means to rectify this problem, but the government responded with cold indifference. Bouazizi then committed suicide by setting himself on fire. Bouazizi’s horrendous death sparked a movement known as the Arab Spring where millions of people in the Arabic world mobilized in an effort to oust the government in their countries.

However, we can also say that rebellions only become revolutions when a political party sees the massive discontent, and makes a decision to organize to take power. This happened in both the Russian and Cuban Revolutions.  

The Cuban Reality

In May of this year I was a member of the Cuba May Day Brigade. We were 328 members of 21 nations who came to Cuba to learn and give solidarity to the Cuban revolutionary government.

On May 1, we witnessed over one-million people demonstrating their enthusiastic support of their government in Havana. We might consider that the Cuban people don’t have many of the conveniences of this country. However, the government is open about how resources are used.

The primary difference lies in the fact that in the United States massive corporate profits are the priority. In Cuba human needs are more important than corporate profits. So, in the United States hundreds of hospitals have closed down, and infant mortality rates have increased. Today Cuba has three times more doctors as the United States and infant mortality is lower than this country.

So, while Puerto Ricans mobilized hundreds of thousands to oust the government on the island, the Cuban people mobilized even more people to enthusiastically support their government.

My opinion is that the Puerto Rican people have demonstrated that there is a simmering discontent of workers and farmers all over the world. This means that events will unfold that will spark massive responses. Working people are not apathetic. The ruling powers have been driving down our standard of living for decades. Sooner or later the rage that has been building up with working people will explode as it did in Puerto Rico.