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Naomikleinbattleforparadisepar "A gripping and timely account of classic 'shock doctrinc'being perpetrated in Puerto Rico. Naomi Klein chronicles the extra­ ordinary ~ sroors resisrance by the Puerto Rican people against neoliberal privatiza­ tion and \Vall Street greed in the aftermath THE of the island's financiaJ meltdo,\n, of hurricane de,·astation, and of \Vashington's imposition of an outside control board over BATTLE the most important U.S. colony." -JUAN &ONZALEZ, cohost, Demcaa,y Now! and author, Haroest ofEmpire: A History '![Latinos in America FOR ~\Vhat 'shocks' in this work is the resilient spirit del pueblo boricua. They become the PARADISE metaphor, the meaning, and the maker of possiblit)~ And one is left immeasurably Puerto Rico Takes On hopeful." -CHEIRIE MOIAU, codirector, the D isaster Capitalists Las Maesrras Center for Chicana Indigenous Thought and Art Practice, Professor of English, UCSB 1NAOMI KLEIN .. i',:aomi Klein concisely reveals to us what Puerto Rico has faced, shock after shock, before Hurricane i\faria and after it and also the voices of people who believe and build a future for Puerto Rico from the rr, _ strength of their communities." Haymarket Books - ANA IIIIA IIVEU USStN. feminist, human Chicago, Illinois rights activist, former president of the Pucrro Rico Bar Association © 2018 Naomi Klein First published by The Intercept (theintercept.com) Published in 2018 by Haymarket Books P.O. Box 180165 Chicago, IL 60618 773-583-7884 www.haymarketbooks.org [email protected] ISBN: 978-1-60846-357-2 CONTENTS Trade distribution: In the US, Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, Foreword vii www.cbsd.com In Canada, Publishers Group Canada, www.pgcbooks.ca A Solar Oasis 1 In the UK, Turnaround Publisher Services, Invasion of the Puertopians 15 www.turnaround-uk.com All other countries, Ingram Publisher Services International, An Island Weary of Outside Experiments 25 IPS [email protected] "Welcome to Magic Land" 32 Shock-After-Shock-After-Shock Doctrine 43 f This book was published with the generous support Desperation, Distraction, Despair, and Disappearance 53 of Lannan Foundation and Wallace Action Fund. The Islands of Sovereignty Converge 65 Race Against Time 73 Printed in Canada by union labor. Cover design by Rachel Cohen. Acknowledgments 79 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available. 10987654321 c.,~-· RECYCLED Paper made from recycled material !~S FSC- C103567 ·c :.c J 1 :,.:0 k g 0 ..c 0.. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist, documentary filmmaker, and author of the in­ ternational bestsellers No Logo, 7hc Shock Doctrine: 7he Rise of Disaster Capitalism, 7his Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, and No Is Not Enough. She is Senior Cor­ respondent for The Intercept and contributor to The Nation magazine. She is also a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute and her writing appears widely in such publications as the New York Times, Le Mo11de, and the Guardian. Klein is a member of the board of directors for climate-action group 350.org and one of the organizers behind Canada's Leap Manifesto (theleap.org), a blueprint for a rapid and justice-based transition off fossil fuels. ln November 2016 she was awarded Australia's prestigious Sydney Peace Prize. Her books have been translated into more than 30 languages. All royalties from the sale of this book in English FOREWORD and Spanish go directly to JunteGente, a gathering of Puerto Rican organizations resisting disaster Weeks after the passing of Hurricane Maria in capitalism and advancing a fair and healthy Puerto Rico, members of PAReS-a collective recovery for their island. For more information, of professors created to defend public education visit juntegente.org. during the 2017 University of Puerto Rico student strike-met to discuss how to confront the devas­ tation that the country and our university faced. What concerned us was not only the enormous , f physical damage caused by the storm but also the intensification of neoliberal policies to come. We knew that the real disaster was not the hurricane but the terrible vulnerability imposed by Puerto Rico's colonial relationship to the United States, as well as the forced privatization of health and other services; massive layoffs; huge numbers VII VIII NAOMI KLEIN THE BATTLE FOR PARADISE IX of school closures; reductions in social rights and in Puerto Rico, to promote equitable and ecological in investments for collective well-being; abandon­ alternatives to these policies, and to strengthen the ment of social and physical infrastructure; and high project of public education as a common good. We levels of government corruption and ineptitude. also wanted to denounce the exploitation of Hur­ This vulnerability was aggravated by Washington's ricane Maria to promote widely rejected neoliberal imposition of the Financial Oversight and Man­ policies that undermine our country's well-being, agement Board, an unelected body pushing for the especially that of our most vulnerable inhabitants. privatization of electricity and schools, increased These policies will limit access to basic rights such costs of basic services, massive cuts in public educa­ as water, electricity, and housing, and will destroy tion, pensions, vacation time, and other rights-all our environment, health, and democracy, as well as in order to pay bondholders a $73 billion debt that our quality of life and economic stability. And all was patently unpayable, illegal, and illegitimate. the while, they will increase the transfer of wealth The net result was to leave the majority of people in to the already rich. Puerto Rico without a hopeful future, and that was In solidarity, Naomi accepted our invitation all before Hurricane Maria hit our shores. and spent an intense week with us in January 2018. PAReS decided to create a series of public Our time together included a forum on disaster forums on disasters, hoping to generate public de­ capitalism at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio·' f · bate and encourage new kinds of collective thinking Piedras, which was attended by more than 1,500 about resistance and alternatives. We invited Naomi people and was widely covered in the press. We also Klein as our first speaker, to talk about her work took multiple trips across the island to research the focusing on the application of a "shock doctrine" topics of debt and privatization, energy sovereignty, in various post-disaster settings. Our goal was to and food sovereignty. The week finished with a highlight how disaster capitalism was being applied full-day gathering of more than 60 organizations X NAOMI KLEIN THE BATTLE FOR PARADISE XI resisting disaster capitalism. These organizations the historical complexities of this moment, link­ have continued to meet, giving rise to the cre­ ing current struggles to long-standing processes of ation of the JunteGente network, with the aim of colonialism and neoliberalism. The book is thus a uniting different struggles for the future of Puerto necessary read for anyone who wishes to understand Rico. Naomi's visit, as well as the presence of other the ongoing crisis in Puerto Rico and to grasp what groups featured in this book, helped to develop on­ is at stake, which is nothing less than the survival of going discussions on how organized civil society the people of our beautiful Caribbean archipelago. can build a "counter-shock" strategy able to resist disaster capitalism and promote alternatives to neo­ Federico Cintron Moscoso Gustavo Garcia Lopez liberalism on a national scale. Mariolga Reyes Cruz A product of these intense investigations and Juan Carlos Rivera Ramos conversations, this book clearly shows the historical Bernat Tort Ortiz juncture at which Puerto Rico finds itself. Inter­ Professors Self-Assembled in Solidarity spersing stories of the super-rich who seek to buy Resistance (PAReS) our country for a bargain with reports from grass­ April 2018 roots struggles over agro-ecology, renewable energy, and public education, Klein acutely and captivat­ ingly exposes the essence of the battle that is being waged between these opposing visions. On one side lies the utopia (for us, a dystopia) of Puerto Rico as a resort for the wealthy. On the other, a utopian vision of a Puerto Rico that is equitable, democratic, and sustainable for all. In addition, Klein addresses ASOLAR OASIS Like everywhere else in Puerto Rico, the small mountain city of Adjuntas was plunged into total darkness by Hurricane Maria. When residents left their homes to take stock of the damage, they found themselves not only without power and water, but also totally cut off from the rest of the island. Every single road was blocked, either by mounds of mud washed down from the surrounding peaks, or by ; f fallen trees and branches. Yet amid this devasta:­ tion, there was one bright spot. Just off the main square, a large, pink colonial­ style house had light shining through every win­ dow. It glowed like a beacon in the terrifying darkness. 2 NAOMI KLEIN THE BATTLE FOR PARADISE 3 The pink house was Casa Pueblo, a community rooms crowded with elderly people who needed to and ecology center with deep roots in this part of the plug in oxygen machines. island. Twenty years ago, its founders, a family of Thanks also to those solar panels, Casa Pueb­ scientists and engineers, installed solar panels on the lo's radio station was able to continue broadcasting, center's roof, a move that seemed rather hippy-dippy making it the community's sole source of infor­ at the time. Somehow, those panels (upgraded over mation when downed power lines and cell towers the years) managed to survive Maria's hurricane­ had knocked out everything else. Twenty years af­ force winds and falling debris. Which meant that in ter those panels were first installed, rooftop solar a sea of post-storm darkness, Casa Pueblo had the power didn't look frivolous at all-in fact, it looked only sustained power for miles around.
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