28.01.2014 Views

Settlers - San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center

Settlers - San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center

Settlers - San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Nationalist forces captured the police station and liberated<br />

the town of Jayuya. They immediately proclaimed the second<br />

Republic of Puerto Rico, as more uprisings broke out<br />

all over the island. (9)<br />

The defeat of the Second Republic required not<br />

only the police, but the full efforts of the colonial National<br />

Guard. It was an uprising drowned in blood. The<br />

seriousness of the combat can be seen from the Associated<br />

Press dispatch: "National Guard troops smashed today at<br />

violently anti-United States Nationalist rebels and drove<br />

them out of two of their strongholds with planes and<br />

tanks ...<br />

"Striking at dawn, troops armed with machine<br />

guns, bazookas and tanks recaptured Jayuya, fifty miles<br />

southwest of <strong>San</strong> Juan, and the neighboring town of<br />

Utuado. Fighter planes strafed the rebels. They had seized<br />

control of the two towns last night after bombing police<br />

stations, killing some policemen and setting many<br />

fires.. . Jayuya looked as if an earthquake had struck it,<br />

with several blocks destroyed and most of the other<br />

buildings in the town of 1,500 charred by fire. Another<br />

Guard spearhead was racing towards Arecibo to crush the<br />

uprising there. " (10)<br />

Even in defeat the heroic Nationalist struggle had<br />

great effect. In the 1951 referendum for "Commonwealth"<br />

status Governor Marin could only muster enough<br />

votes for passage by falsely promising the people that it<br />

was only a temporary stage leading to national independence.<br />

The revolution had exposed the lie that colonialism<br />

was accepted by the Puerto Rican people.<br />

Throughout Latin Arnerika mass solidarity with the Puerto<br />

Rican Struggle blossomed. In Cuba the cause of Puerto<br />

Rican independence had won such sympathy that even the<br />

pro-U.S. Cuban President, Carlos Prio Socarras, sent off<br />

a public message interceding for the safety of Don Albizu<br />

Campos and the other Nationalists. The Cuban House of<br />

Representatives sent a resolution to President Truman asking<br />

that the lives of Don Albizu Campos and other captured<br />

leaders be guaranteed. (1) In Mexico, in Central<br />

Arnerika, throughout Latin Amerika the 1950 Grito de<br />

Jayuya stirred up anti-imperialist sentiment.<br />

The defeat of the patriotic uprising was followed<br />

by an intense reign of terror over all of Puerto Rico. In addition<br />

to the many martyrs who fell on the field of battle,<br />

some 3,000 Puerto Ricans were arrested by U.S. imperialism.<br />

Many were sent to prison under the infamous<br />

"Little Smith Act" (the 1948 Law 53), which made it a<br />

crime to advocate revolution against the colonial administration.<br />

Many were charged with murder, arson and<br />

other crimes. One woman, for example, was sentenced to<br />

life imprisonment for having cooked some food for her<br />

husband and sons before they went to join the uprising.<br />

The neo-colonial "Commonwealth" scheme was only<br />

possible because of the terroristic violence used by U.S.<br />

imperialism to pacify the patriotic movement and the<br />

Puerto Rican masses.<br />

It isn't difficult to see that the level of imperialist<br />

repression inflicted upon the Puerto Rican Nationalists<br />

was qualitatively far greater than that used on the CPUSA.<br />

It is somewhat obscene to even compare the two. It is<br />

enough to say that U.S. Imperialism had to use tanks, air<br />

attacks, machine guns, mass imprisonment and terror to<br />

crush the Puerto Rican Nationalists, for they were genuine<br />

revolutionaries.<br />

What did the CPUSA and the U.S. oppressor nation<br />

"left" do in solidarity to help their supposed allies in<br />

Puerto Rico? Absolutely nothing and less than nothing.<br />

The CPUSA's main response was to concern itself only<br />

with saving its own skin. The single Euro-Amerikan imprisoned<br />

with the Nationalists after Jayuya - the anti-war<br />

activist Ruth Reynolds - did more in solidarity with the<br />

anti-colonial struggle than did the entire CPUSA with its<br />

thousands of members.<br />

For years during the 1930s the CPUSA had won<br />

support from Puerto Ricans in the barrios of the continental<br />

U.S. by posing as proponents of Puerto Rican independence.<br />

In order to win over Puerto Ricans the<br />

CPUSA pretended to be allies of the Nationalist Party.<br />

One Euro-Amerikan CPUSA organizer in New York's<br />

Spanish Harlem recalls: "The main issues were unemployment<br />

and Puerto Rican independence. 'Viva Puerto Rico<br />

Libre' was the popular slogan. The Nationalist movement<br />

in Puerto Rico, headed by Pedro Albizu Campos,<br />

dominated the politics of 'El Barrio.' " (12) In 1948<br />

CPUSA leader William Z. Foster made a well-publicized<br />

31 trip to Puerto Rico, in which he met with Don Albizu

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!