BY WILLIAM ESTRADA  
I join with my brothers and sisters here in calling on the U.S. government to immediately release all Puerto Rican independence fighters locked up in U.S. prisons. They are some of the longest-held political prisoners in the world….

I also join with others in protesting the cold-blooded killing of independence leader Filiberto Ojeda Ríos by FBI cops on September 23. All those responsible for this murder, from the triggermen to those who gave the order, should be prosecuted and jailed.

Others here have offered a wealth of facts demonstrating that Puerto Rico is a U.S. colony…. They have used these facts to explain why independence from Washington’s rule is a necessity for the people of Puerto Rico, if they are to freely determine their destiny.

I would like to add that a successful fight for the independence of Puerto Rico is also in the interests of the vast majority of the people of the U.S. Workers and farmers in this country have nothing to gain from Washington’s colonial rule over Puerto Rico.

Having been involved with fellow coal miners in a three-year-long battle with coal bosses in Utah, I can say that working people in the United States have no common interests with the owners of Peabody Coal, General Motors, and Exxon, nor with the twin parties that serve the bosses’ interests—the Democrats and Republicans.

Rather, we have everything in common with working people around the world. We have a common oppressor and common enemy: the handful of ruling U.S. billionaire families and their government.

As long as Puerto Rico is under Washington’s colonial domination, the fighting capacity and solidarity of the working-class movement in the U.S. will be weakened. And it will put U.S. imperialism in a stronger position to carry out its escalating assaults around the world.

The U.S. government has used Puerto Rico as a launching pad for attacks on countries around the world… Right now, U.S. military forces are conducting large-scale military maneuvers in the Caribbean—a threat aimed against Cuba and Venezuela….

This imperialist offensive abroad—their “long war,” as they call it—is an extension of the U.S. employers’ war against working people at home….

Among the casualties in this war are the 33 U.S. coal miners who have been killed so far this year—including the five workers killed last month after a mine explosion in Kentucky. They were killed by the coal companies’ greed for profits.

But these conditions are generating resistance, and in many cases workers have been fighting to organize unions or to use their unions to defend themselves.

Over the past three years, dozens of coal miners, including myself, have been involved in a fight to organize the United Mine Workers of America at the Co-Op mine in Huntington, Utah, because of the unsafe work conditions and low pay—which started at $5.50 an hour.

We and our supporters were recently able to defeat a harassment lawsuit by the coal bosses, a defense campaign that many leaders of the Puerto Rican independence struggle supported, and I thank them for their solidarity.

I have also had the opportunity to be part of the recent mass protests by immigrant workers that have taken place around the United States, including 2 million on May 1, to demand “Legalization now!” These are some of the largest working-class mobilizations in decades.

Puerto Rican workers have also been part of these struggles, another expression of how the interests of working people in this country are intertwined with the anticolonial struggle in Puerto Rico.

Colonial domination reinforces the systematic discrimination and racist prejudice faced by 2.7 million Puerto Ricans in this country, along with Blacks, Chicanos, and other oppressed nationalities. As long as Puerto Rico remains a colony, Puerto Ricans in the United States will be subjected to second-class status….

The U.S. rulers, who live off the labor and resources of millions around the world, have the arrogance to tell the Puerto Rican people they have no choice but to depend on Washington, that independence would only bring them ruin.

But the living example by the workers and farmers of Cuba and their revolutionary leadership exposes this lie. Cuba shows that by taking political power, by making a socialist revolution, it is possible to win genuine independence from U.S. imperialism. Cuba points the way forward for working people everywhere—including the United States….
 
 
Related articles:
Independence from U.S. colonial rule say Puerto Rican patriots at UN  
 
 
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