Chicago rally hits U.S. colonial rule in Puerto Rico

Militant/Naomi Craine

CHICAGO — More than 100 people rallied downtown here March 22 as part of a “Day of Action: Breaking the Chains of Puerto Rico’s Debt.” Protests also took place in several other cities in the U.S. and Puerto Rico opposing the deep attacks on the jobs, wages and social conditions of workers being imposed by Washington’s Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico. The colonial rulers in Washington and Wall Street demand Puerto Rican workers pay for a $70 billion debt to the capitalist bondholders.

“Our families did not create this crisis, but are paying the price,” said Noel Sanchez, who lives and works in Chicago but has relatives on the island. He described the deep cuts to jobs, education, health care and other social needs being inflicted on working people.

“Today marks the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico in 1873,” José López, speaking above, executive director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, told protesters. The fight to abolish slavery and for independence had been intertwined in Puerto Rico, he said, as they were in Cuba.

The picket line and rally took place outside the offices of McKinsey & Co., which López said is getting paid some $1 million a month as a “strategic consultant” to the fiscal board. Many participants came from the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and from the Albizu Campos High School affiliated with it. Service Employees International Union Local 73 also joined the action.

—  NAOMI CRAINE