https://themilitant.com/2020/01/18/cuban-revolution-example-for-puerto-rico/
Cuban Revolution: Example for Puerto Rico
article
Vol. 84/No. 3
January 27, 2020
The Puerto Rican government and its colonial masters in Washington left
people on the island to fend for themselves in the aftermath of last
week’s earthquake,
just as they have for over two years since Hurricane Maria wrecked havoc
there.
No one can stop an earthquake or a hurricane. But their effects are not
a “natural” disaster, nor a result of “climate change.” It’s a result of
the way
capitalism works — to maximize profits for the bosses and bankers —
disregarding the lives of working people, from shoddy construction to
lack of any real
preparation for storms, earthquakes or other disasters. In Puerto Rico
it is made many times worse because of the economic distortions and
superexploitation
imposed by U.S. colonial rule.
The Cuban Revolution shows that society doesn’t have to be organized
that way. As Raúl Castro explains, in Cuba no one is left on their own.
Working people
there are organized to minimize the loss of life and to rapidly begin to
rebuild whenever disaster strikes. But this is only possible because
working people
made a revolution and took power out of the hands of a U.S.-backed
dictatorship in 1959, replacing capitalist rule with a workers and
farmers government
and winning real independence.
The response by working people across Puerto Rico — immediately
organizing to get food and supplies to earthquake-stricken areas in the
face of the government’s
indifference and completely inadequate response — shows that they are
capable of doing the same.
Today, while thousands in Puerto Rico are living in tent cities or in
the open air, capitalist bondholders — backed by Washington — continue
to demand
payment on Puerto Rico’s billions of dollars of debt.
Working people in the U.S. join with the workers and farmers of Puerto
Rico to demand: Cancel the debt! Abolish the U.S. imposed Financial
Oversight and
Management Board! Immediate, unconditional U.S. aid for reconstruction!
Fighting for these demands, and setting out to follow the example of
Cuba’s workers and farmers, will put working people in Puerto Rico in
the best position
to organize to put an end to U.S. colonial rule.
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