Puerto Rican Independence Rally at Madison Square Garden

Puerlo Rican Independence Rally ·al Madison Square Garden NEW YORK, October 30-Approxi nutely 15,000 people attended a rally for Puerto Rican independence Sunday at Madison Square Garden. Scheduled to coincide with today's anniversary of the 1950 Nationalist uprising on the island, the event was dedicated to Iive Puerto Rican political p r i son e r s (Rafael Cancel Miranda, Oscar Collazo, Andres Figueroa, Irving Flo l' e sand Lolita Lebron) who have languished in U.S. jails for more than 20 yearsc The day bf'fore the rally, five banks in New York City were bombed, re portedly by a group calling itself the Armed Forces of National Liberation (F ALN). A note left in a telephone booth demanded freedom for the Nation alist prisoners and inul"diate independence for Puerto Rico. Angela Davis At the Garden the accent was on unity of all "progressi ves. " The English slogan for the event was an appeal to liberal American nationalists: "For a Bie·Centennial without Colonies." (In Spanish -there was a different thenw: posters for the rally urged, "Borieua, defiende 10 tuyo" - "Puerto Rican, defend what's yours"!) The slant toward liberals was symholIzed by the presence of two huge flags, U.S. and Puerto Rican, hanging from the ceiling. Red flags and the flag of the 1869 Lares revolt, traditional at independentista gather ings, were noticeably scarce. The speakers were selected to em)hasize this note of "broad support." Most were uninspiring. Angela Davis noted that Cuba, too, was a small island while Jane Fonda appealed to the "great" traditions of the U.S. The problem, according to the entertainer, was the "policy of empire" which was perate to represent "all shades of a flag and a native army to repress of the COR-Revolutionary Workers "trying to create a consumer society opinion" that they invited N.Y. tele the masses. Committees) noted: "Companero, any in Vietnam." vision commentator Geraldo Rivera Rather, the only program which can one in our community will tell you The longest speaking tim 0; was al who is detested by many independen inspire the oppressed to heroiC sacri that Lucecita Benitez, Danny Rivera, lotted to Juan Mari Bras, general tistas and universally considered an fices is the promise of an end to Ray Barreto, Jane Fonda and the other secretary of the Puerto Rican Socialist opportunist. Sporting an expensive their exploitation and misery. This entertainers would fill the garden with Party (PSP), the organization which white suit and a T-shirt with the requires the elimination of imperial out calling it a day of solidarity. They launched the Garden rally. His speech Puerto Rican flag, Rivera was booed ist domination which can only come have a following, a great following was appropriately toned down for the both when he said he used to oppose about through proletarian revolution, which is apolitical." occasion, never even mentioning the independence and when he announced establishing a soviet Puerto Rico as The respectable, festival atmos U.S. working class or socialism in his cOllversion. part of a socialist federation of the phere was not accidental. The PSP Puerto Rico! Questioned at a news Caribbean. could have spent months building for conference about what kind of govern The PSP organizers of the October a massive demonstration but chose ment he foresaw after independence, Proletarian Revolution or 27 rally were, in fact, quite careful not to. These reformists see the ques Liberal Protest to avoid the subj ect of socialist revo tion not as one of organizing proletar the PSP leader replied, "a republic < " A note of discord was struck by a lution (as were all the CP, Maoist, ian revolution but rather as a moral Maoist speaker from the Asian Study Trotskyists are the most consistent black nationalist and liberal speakers). protest, which must "reach out" to Group who condemned "Soviet social opponents of colonialism, defending the In a pamphlet distributed at the Garden liberalS, on the model of the Vietnam im.oerialism." This set off a loud right of all oppressed nations to self ("Puerto Ricans and Proletarian Inter peace crawls. Hence Geraldo Rivera: chorus of boos, led by Stalinists and determination. We demand immffiiate, nationalism, ,. October 1974) El Comite, hence no mention of socialism or the PSP section of the audience, which unconditional independence of Puerto a New York Puerto Rican leftist group, the U.S. working class. Rico from the U.S. Communists are reprinted its exchange of letters with drowned out the rest of his speech. This reformism is tied to Mari firm opponents of imperialism "nd the Puerto Rican Solidarity Day But the overall tone of the event struggle to unite workers of all coun Bras' refusal to criticize the bank Committee. bomhings, when questioned at the news was set by the long list of entertainers trieso This can only be done by opposing El Comite had criticized the lack conference. Undoubtedly, his response who paraded across an enormous red all national oppreSSion, the breeding of any reference to SOCialism in rally is partly due to the PSP's nationalist rug in the center of a hockey rink. ground for the bourgeois ideology of propaganda as well as the "revisionist conception of "unity" of all pro Among them were Lucecita BenItez, nationalism. liberal perspective" indicated by the independence forces. Ray Barreto and Danny Rivera Singing But it is the obligation of Marxists speakerS list. It suggested adding a Marxists do, however, criticize popular Puerto Rican songs. The Grupo to warn that the feeble bourgeois inde pro-independence Puerto Rican socia individual terrorism, pointing out that Taone from the island and EI Grupo pendence forces will not achieve nation list legislator, but the rally Committee from New York added a note of pro al liberation. It is necessary to mobilize tUrned this down. it is no strategy for victory, that these are impotent acts of despair test, as did Holly Near who sang a the Puerto Rican and U.S. workers in The show-bus iness spectacular on the part of those who see no real number with the theme, "No, no, no struggle for their own class interests. quality of the event was widely criti possibility of united working-Class No mJre genocide." Pete Seeger gave The goal of such a seething social cized. One pamphlet distributed outside a rendition of "Guantanamera." conflict cannot be limited to mere the hall ("El Martillo" which announces struggle. (We also make clear that we The rally sponsors were so des- formal independence-postage stamps, itself as the "clandestine publication" defend leftist 'nationalist terrorists against the imperialist state when their target is the class enemy and not SL/SYL PUBLIC OFFICES-Revolutionary literature random individuals.) For the reformist/nationalist PSP, in contrast, the bombings are just BAY AREA CHICAGO another moral gesture. They are poli NEW YORK tically no different from the respectable Madison Square Garden spectacular or Monday ~ the PSP's annual pilgrimages to the through \ 3:00-7:30 p.mo Friday } Tuesday 4:00-8:00 p.m. United Nations. and 3:00-6:00 p.m. Friday < Saturday 2:00-6:00 p.m. Revolutionary Marxists know, even Saturday Saturday 1:00-4:00 p.m. if Mari Bras and the PSP do not, 330-4Oth Street 538 So, Wabash 260 West Broadway that real national liberation can only (near Broadway) Room 206 Room 522 be the product of victorious proletarian revolution, in which workers of the Oakland, California Chicago, Illinois New York, New York U ,S. and the colony struggle jOintly Phone 653-4668 Phone 427-0003 Phone 925-5665 against the common enemy-capitalism in its period of imperialist decay,. 6 WORKERS VANGUARD .

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