First Published: Unity and Struggle, Vol. V, No. 4, April 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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CAP has withdrawn from the Puerto Rican Solidarity Committee (PRSC) because of their reformist line on the liberation of Puerto Rico, hooked to their slavish alignment with the USSR’s social imperialist line. Violent overthrow of the colonial Puerto Rican state is the only way independence and socialism will come, as proven in Vietnam, Cambodia, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau.
The Puerto Rican Solidarity Day Committee (PRSDC) was organized to put together the Puerto Rican Solidarity Day Demonstration Oct. 27, 1974 in Madison Square Garden. After the demonstration the committee continued into the Puerto Rican Solidarity Committee (PRSC).
The PRSC states its purpose is to build support within the United States for the full independence of Puerto Rico and the self-determination of the Puerto Rican people.
The National Board of the PRSC is made of largely petty bourgeois Social Democrats who came together around the independence of Puerto Rico. But decision-making is carried on through an Interim Committee that meets between Board meetings. The Interim Committee is a smaller committee of the National Board whose character is petty bourgeois, vacillating and heavily influenced by PSP.
We are suggesting withdrawing from the Puerto Rican Solidarity Committee for the following reasons:
1. The line of PRSC is dominated by the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP). The political analysis of the liberation struggle in Puerto Rico against imperialism is from the PSP. Their line on Puerto Rican independence is closely aligned with that of the Soviet Union and its “detente”, revisionist policies. The PSP has not put forth any clear lines on the overthrow of the colonial state apparatus. An example of their line on struggle for socialism in Puerto Rico is from a document from their 2nd Party Congress held December, 1975 in San Juan, Puerto Rico where Juan Mari Bras, Secretary-General of PSP explains the participation of PSP in the 1976 elections in Puerto Rico by saying: “. . .in order to denounce the colonial regime and its electoral process. . .the use of elections does not imply that the organization is renouncing the use of all forms of struggle including armed struggle, in order to achieve the construction of an independent, socialist republic.”
2. This statement puts forth a reformist line, because there is no way Puerto Rico could become an independent Socialist state without armed struggle, that is the complete overthrow of the colonial regime. Violent overthrow of the colonial Puerto Rican state is the only way independence and socialism will come. Peaceful co-existence with imperialism will not bring independence to Puerto Rico or any other oppressed nation, this was proved in Vietnam, Cambodia, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau.
3. PSP’s non-line on Socialist Revolution is revising Marxism-Leninism. They purport to be a Marxist-Leninist Party, but in fact they down-play the basic principles of Leninism which are proletarian revolution and dictatorship of the proletariat.
4. Lenin said: “Direction of the main blow: isolation of the petty bourgeois democrats (Menshevik & Socialist- Revolutionaries) who are striving to win over the toiling masses of the peasantry and to put an end to the revolution by a compromise with imperialism.” (Foundations of Leninism, p. 13) This is exactly what PSP’s line does, it compromises with imperialism when it revises Marxism-Leninism, it also liquidates the fact that in Puerto Rico, “Revolution is the only Solution.”
5. Our withdrawal from PRSC has come as a result of the lines through the National programs of PRSC. The main national program of last year was the sponsoring of the “International Conference in Solidarity with Independence for Puerto Rico” he’d in Havana, Cuba. The PRSC endorsed all of the mandates and documents that came from that Conference, which was dominated by the Soviet Union Revisionists.
6. Other programs have been the tours of Puerto Rican representatives from the labor and independence movements. PSP in interpreting the liberation movement on the island also is the primary force by which PRSC uses to select who will do the tours, that is those who are most closely aligned to their lines are the ones who have been on the tours. The tours have been to cities in the U.S. that have PRSC chapters.
7. The PSP recognizes the Soviet Union as “a socialist country”, that is why they collaborated with the Social-Imperialists in calling the Havana Conference, which objectively put the Soviet Union in a position to have their line dominate in the Conference.
8. During the recent PSP 2nd Congress, they criticized the Peoples Republic of China for their position in the U.N. on Puerto Rico. The resolution in the Decolonization Committee was proposed by the Cuban delegate. Soviet inspired resolution on Puerto Rico was no fashioned to liberate Puerto Rico but to help the Social imperialists penetrate the Puerto Rican liberation movement and eventually Puerto Rico. The divide and conquer tactics of all imperialists were equally evident in the Soviet resolution which sought to split the 3rd world countries on resolute opposition to imperialism in Puerto Rico, and instead substitute a proposal which did not have the general sanction of the 3rd world anti-imperialist forces. The Peoples Republic of China simply did not vote on the resolution. PSP’s reactionary criticism of China is simply another Revisionist version of Social imperialism’s cracked notes.
9. Another example of the influence of PSP’s opportunist line in PRSC is through their organ, “Puerto Rico Libre”. PRL is a monthly news bulletin which mainly has news about the political, economic, and social conditions on the island, but these views and analyses are from the PSP who get news from the PSP on the island. The same analyses that is in “Claridad” is also in the Puerto Rico Libre.
Our recommendation for withdrawal is based on line. We cannot be a part of any organization whose line is dominated by those who think the Soviet Union is not social-imperialist and who bogusly criticize the Peoples Republic of China, telling them that they need to “adopt a position more in line with proletarian internationalism.” We think this position of PSP comes from the Revisionist Soviet Union. Now that PSP has openly come out supporting the Soviet line, we feel that they will influence the PRSC to take the same line.
This is our basis, for recommending withdrawal from the National Board and any other affiliation that we have with the PRSC.