PUERTO RICO: Socialism & the National Vindication of Puerto Rico
By: César J. Pérez Lizasuain, Eugenio María de Hostos Law Faculty
To describe and analyze the colonial situation in Puerto Rico is a very complex task given that there are various factors to consider in the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres. Given that Puerto Rico is a victim of a “brutal colonialism” by the United States (as Filiberto Ojeda Ríos pointed out) and has been subject to a deculturation process as well as political and economic repression, the issue of Puerto Rico as a nation undoubtedly assumes different dimensions that transform into different focuses for struggle. The struggle for self-determination in Puerto Rico doesn’t belong exclusively to the progressive Puerto Rican forces, but rather to all sectors, including the annexationist sector, which to some extent has contributed to the fight against colonialism in our country. As opposed to, for example, the case of Hawaii, the Puerto Rican annexationist movement has not been coherent in its arguments, has been reactionary, has been very submissive to the government of the United States, and has limited itself to the request of a few judicial initiatives that would further equality, such as the presidential vote. The small Puerto Rican annexationist bourgeois has been an accomplice to the United States government because they have realized that their economic interests profit from the present colonial situation of our island.1
On the other hand, the pro-independence sector finds itself greatly fractured by ideological differences as well as alternative methods of carrying out their struggle. These discrepancies are not necessarily catastrophic for our interest in independence, but may in fact complement each other in most cases. By examining these differences we can see how nationalist and socialist tendencies interact in our country. The Puerto Rican figure that best illustrates the relationship between socialism and the issue of Puerto Rican nationalism is Filiberto Ojeda Ríos.
Ojeda Ríos, who risked his liberty to defend the sovereignty and independence of Puerto Rico, who lived for fifteen years in hiding and then offered his life for that cause, did not believe in an independence or a republic in a void, but rather he firmly believed in the necessity for socialism to be intertwined with[1] the independence of Puerto Rico as a demand for substantial justice for all the workers of our island. This within the context that, first and foremost, we are Antillean, Caribbean, and Latin American and that all of Filiberto’s thoughts are derived from this perspective.
Ojeda uses Simón Bolivar and Pedro Albizu Campos (two historical figures of Latin America) to illustrate how the necessity and struggle for liberty is complemented by socialism.
Although the ideas of Bolivar during the early 19th century are not often labeled as socialist, we do see some important elements and principles, both in his speeches and his actions, of a socialist ideology. His projections for equality and Latin American unity, his emphasis on the education of the people, and his guarantee of a decent sustenance for the people, are undoubtedly oriented towards “the conquest of social justice for humanity… All these struggles, although not identified as socialist, have constituted a step forward toward socialism.”2
The most outstanding Puerto Rican figure during the 20th century was the nationalist, Pedro Albizu Campos. Albizu did not have a Marxist background, but as Filiberto says:
“He (Albizu Campos) was a revolutionary nationalist, whose patriotic trajectory wasundoubtedly marked by clearly Marxist and socialist tendencies, even when he did not proclaim himself as one. He was not a Marxist fundamentally, due to his profound religious faith, which he conceived as part of his resistance to the process of deculturalization instigated by the North American invasion of
1898. He did not accept the atheistic tendencies proposed by the dogmatic Marxism that has existed for many decades. However, his libertarian practice was of vigorous revolutionary content and several of his principal collaborators, such as Juan Antonio Corretjer, were people that clearly identified themselves with the Marxist ideology. He was militantly supported by the organized Marxists of the island and, above all, during the period of greatest repression in the 50’s and 60’s of the last century, by the Communist Party of the United States.”3
As we may gather by Ojeda Ríos’ speech, revolutionary nationalism in Puerto Rico translates into the struggle for social justice and equality, the principles of which can in no manner reject the socialist-Marxist ideology because that would go against its own essence. Socialist and/or Marxist thinking cannot reject “the revolutionary processes and what the libertarian struggle means for these processes. The struggles foe social justice and equality constitute objectives of socialist norms; they have been tendencies that have determined human progress and, therefore, have been an integral part of the Marxist methodology of analysis.”4
For this reason and given the colonial reality of Puerto Rico, I see no contradiction between the fight for the national vindication of our people and the demand to develop, at the same time, a more just society for Puerto Rico as well as Latin America: “The idea that
our claim to independence might be the key to a continental revolution is not far from the socialist tradition. Marx himself defended Irish independence in 1876 as essential to the possibility of a proletarian revolution in England and, similarly, Lenin expressed the significance of the fall of czarism to the socialist struggle in all of Europe.”5
As the speeches and actions of our most illustrious Puerto Rican and Latin American fighters (like Simón Bolívar, Pedro Albizu Campos and ¿Filiberto Ojeda Ríos?) demonstrate, the struggle and the process towards the de-colonization of Puerto Rico, for those in favor of independence, is permeated by the consciousness of a class struggle; the demands of independence, therefore, go hand in hand with the call for a more just and egalitarian society.
________________________________________________________________________
1 R. Rodriguez Cruz, “Socialism and the issue of Puerto Rican nationalism in 2006”
2. F. Ojeda Ríos, Article for Claridad, July 5, 2005, www.claridadpuertorico.com
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5R. Rodriguez Cruz, “Socialism and the issue of Puerto Rican nationalism in 2006”
To describe and analyze the colonial situation in Puerto Rico is a very complex task given that there are various factors to consider in the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres. Given that Puerto Rico is a victim of a “brutal colonialism” by the United States (as Filiberto Ojeda Ríos pointed out) and has been subject to a deculturation process as well as political and economic repression, the issue of Puerto Rico as a nation undoubtedly assumes different dimensions that transform into different focuses for struggle. The struggle for self-determination in Puerto Rico doesn’t belong exclusively to the progressive Puerto Rican forces, but rather to all sectors, including the annexationist sector, which to some extent has contributed to the fight against colonialism in our country. As opposed to, for example, the case of Hawaii, the Puerto Rican annexationist movement has not been coherent in its arguments, has been reactionary, has been very submissive to the government of the United States, and has limited itself to the request of a few judicial initiatives that would further equality, such as the presidential vote. The small Puerto Rican annexationist bourgeois has been an accomplice to the United States government because they have realized that their economic interests profit from the present colonial situation of our island.1
On the other hand, the pro-independence sector finds itself greatly fractured by ideological differences as well as alternative methods of carrying out their struggle. These discrepancies are not necessarily catastrophic for our interest in independence, but may in fact complement each other in most cases. By examining these differences we can see how nationalist and socialist tendencies interact in our country. The Puerto Rican figure that best illustrates the relationship between socialism and the issue of Puerto Rican nationalism is Filiberto Ojeda Ríos.
Ojeda Ríos, who risked his liberty to defend the sovereignty and independence of Puerto Rico, who lived for fifteen years in hiding and then offered his life for that cause, did not believe in an independence or a republic in a void, but rather he firmly believed in the necessity for socialism to be intertwined with[1] the independence of Puerto Rico as a demand for substantial justice for all the workers of our island. This within the context that, first and foremost, we are Antillean, Caribbean, and Latin American and that all of Filiberto’s thoughts are derived from this perspective.
Ojeda uses Simón Bolivar and Pedro Albizu Campos (two historical figures of Latin America) to illustrate how the necessity and struggle for liberty is complemented by socialism.
Although the ideas of Bolivar during the early 19th century are not often labeled as socialist, we do see some important elements and principles, both in his speeches and his actions, of a socialist ideology. His projections for equality and Latin American unity, his emphasis on the education of the people, and his guarantee of a decent sustenance for the people, are undoubtedly oriented towards “the conquest of social justice for humanity… All these struggles, although not identified as socialist, have constituted a step forward toward socialism.”2
The most outstanding Puerto Rican figure during the 20th century was the nationalist, Pedro Albizu Campos. Albizu did not have a Marxist background, but as Filiberto says:
“He (Albizu Campos) was a revolutionary nationalist, whose patriotic trajectory wasundoubtedly marked by clearly Marxist and socialist tendencies, even when he did not proclaim himself as one. He was not a Marxist fundamentally, due to his profound religious faith, which he conceived as part of his resistance to the process of deculturalization instigated by the North American invasion of
1898. He did not accept the atheistic tendencies proposed by the dogmatic Marxism that has existed for many decades. However, his libertarian practice was of vigorous revolutionary content and several of his principal collaborators, such as Juan Antonio Corretjer, were people that clearly identified themselves with the Marxist ideology. He was militantly supported by the organized Marxists of the island and, above all, during the period of greatest repression in the 50’s and 60’s of the last century, by the Communist Party of the United States.”3
As we may gather by Ojeda Ríos’ speech, revolutionary nationalism in Puerto Rico translates into the struggle for social justice and equality, the principles of which can in no manner reject the socialist-Marxist ideology because that would go against its own essence. Socialist and/or Marxist thinking cannot reject “the revolutionary processes and what the libertarian struggle means for these processes. The struggles foe social justice and equality constitute objectives of socialist norms; they have been tendencies that have determined human progress and, therefore, have been an integral part of the Marxist methodology of analysis.”4
For this reason and given the colonial reality of Puerto Rico, I see no contradiction between the fight for the national vindication of our people and the demand to develop, at the same time, a more just society for Puerto Rico as well as Latin America: “The idea that
our claim to independence might be the key to a continental revolution is not far from the socialist tradition. Marx himself defended Irish independence in 1876 as essential to the possibility of a proletarian revolution in England and, similarly, Lenin expressed the significance of the fall of czarism to the socialist struggle in all of Europe.”5
As the speeches and actions of our most illustrious Puerto Rican and Latin American fighters (like Simón Bolívar, Pedro Albizu Campos and ¿Filiberto Ojeda Ríos?) demonstrate, the struggle and the process towards the de-colonization of Puerto Rico, for those in favor of independence, is permeated by the consciousness of a class struggle; the demands of independence, therefore, go hand in hand with the call for a more just and egalitarian society.
________________________________________________________________________
1 R. Rodriguez Cruz, “Socialism and the issue of Puerto Rican nationalism in 2006”
2. F. Ojeda Ríos, Article for Claridad, July 5, 2005, www.claridadpuertorico.com
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5R. Rodriguez Cruz, “Socialism and the issue of Puerto Rican nationalism in 2006”