Puerto Rican Maoists Stabbed in the Back by China's UN Vote
Last year Chinese premier Chou En-lai (Puerto Rican Resistance.a New York ed masses. the native capitalists are ist Party to restrain the revolutionary coined a new epigram. "Countries want centered group sympathetic to the incapable of carrying out even the most movement and support the bourgeois independence, nations want liberation Communist Labor Party) rejects the basic tasks of the bourgeois revolution. nationalist Sukarno. and people want revolution," he said, and perspective of capitalist independence for such as national independence. It is up to From last October's Madison Square Maoists throughout the world immedi Puerto Rico. denouncing"the ideology of the proletariat. by establishing its own Garden extravaganza organized by the ately took up this inanity. But anyone the petty bourgeoisie that desperately class rule with the support of the PSP on the liberal theme of a "Bicenten naive enough to believe that such a tries ... to drag the Puerto Rican working oppressed urban and peasant masses. to nial Without Colonies" to this fall's statement has any relevance to the actual class on its tail and to make the Puerto fulfill these democratic tasks. And with Havana Conference of Solidarity with the policies of the Peking bureaucracy was in Rican national minority in the U.S. into a the workers in power there can be no Independence of Puerto Rico. the Mao for a rude awakening on August 20. On mere appendix of the reformist struggle "Chinese Wall." no barrier between a first ists have vigorously denounced "Soviet that day China abstained in the United for the banana republic of Puerto Rico" and second stage. as the revolution must social-imperialism" and the Russians' Nations Decolonialization Committee on ("Analysis of the Political Declaration of quickly pass on to socialist measures in an sacrifice of national liberation struggles a resolution calling on the U.S. to refrain the PSP in the USA." October 1973). uninterrupted process. on the altar of "peaceful coexistence" from any measure that would hinder "the Another group. EI Comite. which also Rather than coming to grips with with U.S. imperialism. They are fond of right of the people of Puerto Rico to self goes by the name of Movimiento de Trotskyism, the Puerto Rican Maoists citing Chile as a case where the pro determination" (see "China Withholds Izquierda Nacional Puertorriqueno seek refuge in a vulgar empiricism which Moscow CP's reformism led to a bloody Support for Puerto Rican Indepen (Movement of the Puerto Rican National denies the validity of the historical lessons debacle. Yet they are silent about China's dence." Young Spartacus No. 37, Novem Left). adds specific arguments: of the world communist movement. The role. How could they justify the refusal by ber 1975, for more details). " ... the non-existence of a significant MSP restricts itself to talk of "concrete the Chinese embassy in Santiago to Naturally, Mao's Puerto Rican accept a single political refugee? (I n fact, apologists were quick to make excuses for the head of the Chilean Maoists was able this stab in the back. the product of U .S. to reach Peking following the 1973 rightist coup only by way of the USSR!) Chinese "detente" and Chou's policy that ,,' I i~ ~f:', ' "Soviet social-imperialism" is the "num And what excuse do the Maoists give for ber one enemy" (the resolution was' ).,/ the fact that China was among the first to introduced by Cuba and backed by the accord diplomatic recognition and nego Soviet bloc). But this Chinese action will tiate trade agreements with the butcher certainly raise questions in many minds Pinochet? concerning the revolutionary credentials The treacherous implications of Mao of those who back a government that ist Stalinist strategy can be clearly seen ahstains on Puerto Rico's right to right next door to Puerto Rico. in the independence. Dominican RepUblic. The Movimiento Popular Dominicano (M PO -- Domin Maoists Squeeze Left ican People's Movement). the largest pro Peking organization in Latin America. in There has never been a strong ostensi 1972 signed the Agreement of Santiago bly socialist movement in Puerto Rico. The Socialist Party enjoyed a brief period with not only the bourgeois-nationalist of popularity in the 1930's but soon lost PRO of Juan Bosch (the Dominican all credibility after entering the colonial eljui\alcnt of Munol \-farin's Populares) but alsl) \\ irh the e.\(,L'lrtillner·of the 1965 gO\ernment and actively helping to break Santo Domingo uprising. General the militant 1934 sugar workers strike. Wessin y We~sin! :\aturally the Agree The Puerto Rican Communist Party first 1 ment provided for the maintenance of the capitalized on the SP's demise. then lost WV Photo capitalist army and faikd to expropriate its working-class support after uncritical-. Demonstrators in Washington, D.C., October 1973, demand freedom for the agrarian bourgeoisie. Iy supporting the bourgeois autonomist Puerto Rican political prisoners. (i.e .. anti-independence) Popular Party of peasantry: the objecti\e alliance of the analysis of concrete conditions." Resis Puerto Ricans in the U.S. Munoz Marin in 1938 and subsequently local ruling class to l' .S. Imperialism as tencia Puertorriquena and El Comite go liquidating itself into the Populares in its \'ery existence. its \ery dependence on slightly further. speaking of special The Maoists have rejected the PS P's the continued imperialist domination of 1943 when Stalin scuttled the Comintern. Puerto Rico and the existence of a petty conditions in an "industrial colony." The theory of the "divided nation." which F rom the 1940's to the 1960's the bourgeoisie whose intere~ts become Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers holds that Puerto Ricans in the U.S. are Puerto Rican left was dominated by closeTy bound to U.S. capitalists' inter Movement (PRRWO) talks of a "capital part of a spiritual nation united by bourgeois nationalist organizations. Af ests. These aspects of Puerto Rican ist colony." but quickly adds that there Eastern Airlines' "air bridge" between society coupled with the existence of a New York City and San Juan. Although ter the virtual disappearance of the numerically large working class deter "mayor may not" be a "one-stage :";ationalist Party following the 1950 mine that strategically the struggle for revolution, depending on certain concrete erroneously viewing Puerto Ricans in the Jayuya uprising. the largest groups were Puerto Rican independence is fundamen conditions." Having had somewhat more U.S. as a "nationality" or "national the Pro-Independence Movement (MPI) tally and predominantly a struggle for experience in Mao-Thought than the minority" (they are immigrants), the and the Puerto Rican Independence socialism.~ other groups. the PRR WO is careful to Maoists have correctly concluded that -Ohreros en ""arella. 24July 1975 Party (PI Pl. both of which had their state that "a certain degree of capitalist "the majority of Puerto Rican people in strongest support in the university. The Spectre of Trotskyism development" was correct in China. and the U.S. are objectively an integral part of However, after a decade of largely that the Mao Stalin Menshevik pro the proletariat in this country" (EI fruitless student agitation and a brief While leftist posturing toward the PSP gram of "two-stage revolution" is valid Comite. "The Process of Puerto' Rican flirtation with guerrillaism, the M PI in is to be expected, the danger in arguing for "normal" colonies ("In the U.S. Migration and the U.S. Working Class," 1968 began a process of transformation for proletarian revolution in a colonial Pregnant with Revisionism: The Struggle January 1975). into the Puerto Rican Socialist Party country is clear to every Stalinist: behind for Proletarian Revolution Moves Yet Puerto Rican Maoists in the U.S. (PSP), a party which combines Menshe the perspective of socialist revolution lies Ahead," November 1974). remain trapped in a nationalist frame vik theories of "two-stage revolution" the spectre of Trotskyism. Such charges work. to which Maoism provides no with virulent nationalism. It calls for an are already being thrown around the Formula for Betrayal alternative. Their independent organiza "independentista united front" in the Maoist milieu. At a debate last July the tional existence flowed from earlier elections. which binds the workers to the Movimiento Socialista Puertorriqueno The history of the workers movement i~ "Third \\lorld" poly-\anguardist politics. class enemy (in the form of the bourgeois ( M S P - Puerto Rican Socialist M ove unfortunately filled with bloody defeats when they accepted ""divided nation" PIP). ment). a group based on the island and resulting from class-collaborationist alli theories and the rest of the nationalist The PSP enjoyed rapid growth since uncritically supported by EI Comite, was ances with "progressive" capitalists that baggage. With a turn toward workerist 1969, now having a daily newspaper and accused of "assuming a 'Trotskyist' lie at the heart of the reformist "two Maoism and away from the glorification several thousand supporters both on the position in opposition to the 'two-stage stage" hoax. The Shanghai massacre of of ghetto rebellions. the rationale for a island and within the Puerto Rican revolution'." The MSP reportedly an 1927 was the direct result of Stalin's separate political grouping of Puerto community on the mainland. By virtually swered by denouncing "mechanical appli political bloc with "anti-imperialist" Ricans disappeared. The barrios of the sewing up the slot of reformist cations of other revolutionary experi General Chiang Kai-shek. The Great South Bronx and East Harlem are no misleader of the working class. the PSP ences" (ihid.). Organizer of Defeats allowed Franco to longer the limits of their world. has effectively forced its opponents on the The "other" experiences alluded to, of drown the Spanish workers in blood For the last several years. the PR R WOo Puerto Rican left to adopt a stance of course. are Mao's "theories" of "New rather than upset his "democratic" EI Comite and Resistencia Puertorrique apparent opposition to its grossly class Democracy" and a "bloc of four classes." imperialist "allies" by permitting a revo na have flailed around unable to find an collaborationist policies. For the several In contrast to the Mao Stalin call for a lutionary assault on capitaiist rule. In organizational anchor in the splintered Maoist groups this has meant rejection of "first stage" of "democratic" bourgeois 1965 a similar deadly blow was adminis U.S. Maoist milieu. The PRRWO. the "two-stage revolution" schema and revolution, the Trotskyist theory of tered to the Indonesian workers and together with the Black Workers Con the nationalist "divided nation" theory. permanent revolution holds that during peasants with the massacre of half a gress, careened from the Revolutionary But this has been done on a purely the epoch of imperialist decay the weak million leftist militants. Resistencia Puer Union to the October League to the empirical basis leading to total confusion bourgeoisies of the backward capitalist torriquena chalks this defeat up to the Communist League and is now drifting rather than a revolutionary Marxist countries are inextricably tied to domes "strategic line of Moscow." completely aimlessly in the hazy mists of Mao program. tic reactionaries and the imperialist ignoring the responsibility of Mao & Co. Thought, searching for a "multi-national Thus Resistencia Puertorriquena powers. Fearful of mobilizing the exploit- in encouraging the Indonesian Commun- vanguard party." While the former
6 WORKERS VANGUARD Independence for Puerto Rico!
Young Lords Party now denounces the reformism of the RU and Ot. and the "Trotskyism~ of the CL. it is evident from NEW YORK, October 27-In what bombings is completely predictable. They the polemics that bureaucratic appetites will scream about -radicals and terror (namely fear of being swallowed up in a seems destined to become an annual ism" while at the same time stepping up national organization) have been a major event, a chain of bombings early this repressive police measures. But the reason for its inability to find a home. morning hit four New York City banks, the U.S. mission to the United Nations, ineffectual bombings of the F ALN But the problem goes far beyond three Chicago office buildings and the cannot be measured on the same seak as organization. Both the national Maoist FALN State Department in Washington D.C. the terrorism of the bourgeoisie against organizations and those based in the No injuries have been reported. As in the the working masses. The capitalist states Puerto Rican ghettos of 1'