Warm greetings of solidarity on this day when workers all over the world take to the streets against the ruling class and against imperialism! May Day is the embodiment of the anti-imperialist struggle!
On May 1, in Puerto Rico, workers all over the archipelago are mobilizing. In particular, many workers are mobilizing against the neoliberal attempt to privatize the electrical grid by US/Canadian Multinational company LUMA. LUMA was recently granted a coveted contract to manage Puerto Rico’s electrical grid. However, this contract will lay off hundreds of workers, eliminate pensions, increase utility bills for the archipelago’s working class, and provide low quality service for Puerto Ricans while charging millions of dollars. Companies like AMBAC, an insurer for some of the bond holders of the debt, seek to force the archipelago to use public land assets to pay off said debt.
Additionally, we are cognizant of how tax incentives and corporate tax breaks on the island fuel gentrification and colonialism. These tax breaks allow wealthy individuals, investors, and multinational corporations to reap profits without investing in the island’s infrastructure. While industries, such as the pharmaceutical industry, rake billions of dollars in benefits, little, if any; of that money is redirected towards the working class. The poverty rate in the archipelago is more than 40%, while schools and hospitals are frequently forced to shut down. Puerto Rico is proof that neoliberal “trickle down economics” are a farce intended to benefit the wealthy and strangle the working class.
These neoliberal policies have had a devastating impact on the archipelago. In the past decade, almost 12% of the population has left Puerto Rico due to economic hardship. We are here in NYC, in New Jersey, in Florida, in Pennsylvania… we are displaced because of the impact of US Imperialism and its colonial hold on our people, in the current form of the dictatorial, neoliberal fiscal control board.
Imperialism forces the working class to leave their homes and their families. It forces marginalized people to choose between separation from their homeland or survival.
The fight against imperialism is a worker’s fight! The fight against colonialism is a worker’s fight!
Workers of the world unite to tear down the ruling class, we have nothing to lose but our chains!
Long live international solidarity! Down with US imperialism!
