It has come to our attention that the island of Puerto Rico relies on enslavement to maintain its growing sugar industry.
According to the testimony of a witness who visited the island, the slaves are extremely unhappy; their work day begins at three o’clock in the morning and lasts until 8 o’clock in the evening, and the compensation for this work is the pleasure of eating the sugar cane. Slave work is limited only by the pleasure of the master. Sundays and holidays are supposed to be a day of rest for the slaves, but this is rarely observed by the overseers and masters, as the slaves are being forced to work two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening.
As a result of this maltreatment, there have been reports of several runaway slaves. They willingly exchange their lives on the sugar haciendas for the unknown risks of a life in hiding. These slaves have fled the haciendas more than once, all along knowing the consequences of being caught. This can only be viewed as a strong indication that the slaves do not enjoy any aspect of their lives on the island. If the slaves are unlucky enough to be caught, they are either flogged or tortured in front of the other slaves, in the hope of terrorizing the other slaves with the thought of running away. The leaders of the conspiracy are executed at once. Of the slaves that have not run away, they are kept in bondage and deprived of the most basic human rights by a system that stands to gain from the labor. Many of these slaves who have remained in captivity stay on the haciendas in order to organize the fellow slaves to revolt, to kill their masters and overseers, and to set fire to the sugar fields. With this quest, they risk being jailed or worse, killed.
Moreover, it is said that slaves are the primary source of labor on the larger estates, and free laborers are providing supplementary labor. The free laborers are hired by the smaller sugar estates, which lack the needed number of slaves to cut, plant, and process the sugar cane. The number of these free workers in Puerto Rico has increased by 49,000 persons compared to the number of slaves, which has risen by 10,000 persons. However, the planters are still hesitant to hire free workers because of a believed lack of discipline and stamina. The planters are also convinced that only the slaves are able to withstand the harsh conditions bred by the sugar estates. In addition, the planters prefer to work with the slaves because they have complete control over them and because many of the slaves come from sugar-producing areas; thus, they are already skilled and familiar with the sugar cane industry. Lastly, the work of this group has proved more costly than the work of the slaves.
However, this exploitation did not prove successful for long. See next week's issue for more information on slaves revolts on this island!
Sources:
Figueroa, Luis A. Sugar, Slavery, & Freedom in Nineteenth-Century Puerto Rico. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2005. Print. Accessed through Google Books.
Wagenheim, Olga Jiménez De. Puerto Rico: An Interpretive History from Pre-Columbian Times to 1900. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 1998. Print.
Why does Puerto Rico have a higher voter turnout than USA?
ReplyDeletePuerto Ricans have a voter turnout of about 80%. The United States (US) citizens have a voter turnout of about 50%. What accounts for this 30 % disparity? Could it be that Puerto Rican believe in democracy more than US mainland citizens?
Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States since 1898. Since that time, Puerto Ricans who have wanted to decolonize their country have been either assassinated or imprisoned. Many Puerto Ricans are terrified of independence for Puerto Rico as a result of 116 years of repression.
Since colonialism is always for exploitation, there are no opportunities in Puerto Rico for Puerto Ricans. That is why there are now more Puerto Ricans out, than in Puerto Rico. Therefore, Puerto Ricans are desperate to find a political solution to our eternal colonialism!
Most Puerto Ricans believe that decolonization can be achieved through the electoral process. But the electoral process is ultimately under the control of the government of the United States. Since the US government has ignored 33 United Nations resolutions asking it to immediately decolonize Puerto Rico, and it has maintained incarcerated Puerto Rico political prisoner Oscar López Rivera for 33 years despite worldwide support to free him, there should be no doubt that the US government will never allow decolonization via the electoral process. If it were possible to do it that way, we would not have it!
The better way to decolonize is for that 80% of the Puerto Rico voter turnout to instead protest in the streets to demand our inalienable right to self-determination and independence, and insist that the UN do the decolonization in conformity to international law. After all, colonialism is within the jurisdiction of international law and never under national law. That is why it is a crime against humanity to have a colony under international law, but not so under US law.
José M López Sierra
www.TodosUnidosDescolonizarPR.blogspot.com
La Segunda Marcha Oscar – Mandela en Nueva York 2015
ReplyDeleteTendremos nuestra 2da Marcha Oscar – Mandela en Nueva York el lunes, 22 de junio de 2015. Empezaremos a marchar pacíficamente a las 9 AM desde Hunter College, en la calle 68 y Avenida Lexington, hasta la Calle 43. Haremos una izquierda para continuar marchando en dirección Este para llegar al parque Ralph Bunche (al otro lado de la Organización de Naciones Unidas).
Allí, repartiremos hojas sueltas para orientar al público sobre nuestro prisionero político Oscar Lopez Rivera y la relación colonial ente el gobierno de Estados Unidos y Puerto Rico. Estaremos en el parque hasta las 5 PM.
La mayoría de la gente no sabe que, todos los años, usualmente el lunes después del Día de los Padres, la Organización de Naciones Unidas (ONU) celebra una vista para discutir la descolonización de Puerto Rico. Los peticionarios usualmente se unen a nuestra protesta después que terminan sus ponencias.
La ONU determinó en el 1960, que el colonialismo es un crimen en contra de la humanidad. Desde entonces, la ONU ha emitido 33 resoluciones pidiéndole al gobierno de Estados Unidos (EEUU) que descolonice inmediatamente a Puerto Rico. EEUU ha ignorado esta voluntad de la comunidad internacional. ¿Qué tipo de democracia es eso?
El gobierno de Estados Unidos trata de mantener nuestra relación colonial la más secreta posible. Lo que nosotros estamos tratando de hacer es sacarla del closet. La ONU está en su tercera década tratando de erradicar el colonialismo del mundo. ¡Por favor, ayudemos!
La mayoría de gente tampoco no sabe que el Gobierno de Estados Unidos le saca 14 veces más dinero de lo que invierte en Puerto Rico. ¡Pero, para eso son las colonias!
Esta explotación salvaje le impide a Puerto Rico ofrecerle oportunidades a los puertorriqueños en Puerto Rico. Por eso es que tenemos más puertorriqueños afuera de su isla que adentro.
Oscar López Rivera ha estado encarcelado por 34 años por su lucha para descolonizar a su país. Por ser un crimen (el colonialismo), la ley internacional le da a Oscar el derecho de usar todo los medios necesarios para descolonizar a su nación. Nelson Mandela estuvo 27 años encarcelado por hacer exactamente lo mismo que Oscar. Por eso decimos, ¡Oscar López Rivera es nuestro Nelson Mandela!
Compañeros Unidos para la Descolonización de Puerto Rico invita al público a ser parte del tsunami de gente que será necesario para obligar al gobierno de Estados Unidos a excarcelar a Oscar y a descolonizar a Puerto Rico. ¡Nuestras protestas anuales son absolutamente necesarias porque, los que mantienen colonias no creen en la justicia para todos!
José M López Sierra, www.TodosUnidosDescolonizarPR.blogspot.com
787-429-1981
Could PR be decolonized through elections?
ReplyDeleteImpossible. Why?
The 1% makes the laws of the United States (US) government for the 99%. And that 1%, of course, is above the law. This is why the 1 % wants Puerto Rico to pay the cost of her colonial relationship with the United States in what many are calling the “Puerto Rico’s debt”. The 1 % never wants to lose!
Noam Chomsky says on page 146 of his book PROFIT OVER PEOPLE that over 2 hundred years ago in the leading democracy of his day, Oliver Goldsmith observed that “laws grind the poor, and the rich men make the law”. “He who makes the law makes the trap” is a popular Puerto Rican saying. Pedro Albizu Campos said that if Puerto Rico’s independence were possible through elections, the US government would abolish them. Trying to decolonize Puerto Rico via elections would be like trying to win in a casino that is rigged, so that the players will always lose. So why do 80% of Puerto Ricans vote in the colonial elections in Puerto Rico?
The US government has brainwashed our minds. History is always written by the winner. The US government has had 117 years to mold Puerto Ricans to serve its interest. The 1 % knows that it could stay in power forever, if it could control our minds. If the 99% ever knew the truth, it could use its numerical power to stop the 1%, despite its enormous wealth and power. How have we been brainwashed?
It has been achieved through the Puerto Rico education system, the imposition of US citizenship against our will, state terrorism like the Rio Piedras, Utuado, and Ponce Massacres, the assassinations like in the Cerro Maravilla and the Machetero leader Filiberto Ojeda Ríos.
Most Puerto Ricans believe that it is their duty to vote, and if they don’t vote, than they shouldn’t complain later. Many believe that Puerto Rico is a democracy, although they know that Washington has the final word on what happens here. So how do we decolonize ourselves?
We know that the United Nations (UN) will not do it. It is controlled by the US government. How do we know that?
The UN has thus far issued 34 resolutions asking the US government to immediately decolonize Puerto Rico, and it has ignored them all! The morning session’s video, of the last Puerto Rico decolonization hearing where the Chairperson said that he felt disrespected when the UN at the last minute decided not to broadcast live the hearing after telling him it would, has never been available for public viewing on its WEBCAST as it is normally done. The resolution of this year’s hearing has never been published on the UN website as it usually does. Obviously, the US government wants to hide to the world its colonial relationship with Puerto Rico!
We know that it will take a long time to reverse 117 years of brainwashing. But, as more and more Puerto Ricans become convinced that we are destined to be its colony forever, more and more Puerto Rican could choose to stop voting in the colonial elections. This way we can say to the world that we are not the democracy that the US government wants it to believe!
Instead, we should protest permanently and peacefully. Once we get the tsunami of people necessary, and demand once again our inalienable right to self-determination and independence, the US government, like in Vieques, will have no other choice, but to comply with the 34 UN resolutions.
Once we become our own nation, we must permanently stay vigilant, because the US government will try to install, as it has done so many times before in many parts of the world, a puppet government to continue exploiting us. We must do so, because those who govern only for the 1%, definitely don’t believe in JUSTICE FOR ALL! www.TodosUnidosDescolonizarPR.bogspot.com