Puerto Rico Crisis

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Puerto Rican Crisis

Puerto Rico is in crisis. But the crisis is not only about how to pay Wall Street. It is about the impact of centuries-long economic devastation on the men, women, and children—especially children—that live in Puerto Rico. While failure to pay the banks and the vultures makes headlines in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, the human misery caused by five centuries of colonialism does not.





Tourists are fascinated by the heavy blue cobblestones that pave the streets of Old San Juan. Why they are there is as good an explanation as any for Puerto Rico’s current crisis. In the days of Spanish colonialism, they were ballast to keep the ships crossing the Atlantic from tossing about and blowing over. The ships came empty, and left for Spain full of gold, silver, and other riches stolen from the indigenous Taínos. The ballast left behind was used to pave the streets.


Puerto Rico has been sacked by colonial powers for half a millennium. Is it any wonder it is in dire straits? Today, it is $73 billion in debt. As a point of comparison: Greece recently asked for about $82 billion from the European Union. The German finance minister thought it was funny when he proposed to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew that the Eurozone exchange Greece for Puerto Rico. This is not funny; it is not even a good analogy. Neither the Germans nor the Eurozone have the power to “trade Greece” to anyone; its citizens can tell their prime minister what they think about EU debt proposals. Of course, they have to weigh their choice against the threat of being kicked out of the Eurozone.1

The Puerto Rico debt crisis and American colonialism - Progreso Weekly

The Puerto Rico debt crisis and American colonialism - Progreso Weekly

Billionaire hedge fund managers have called on Puerto Rico to lay off teachers and close schools so that the island can pay them back the billions it owes.

The hedge funds called for Puerto Rico to avoid financial default – and repay its debts – by collecting more taxes, selling $4bn worth of public buildings and drastically cutting public spending, particularly on education.

The group of 34 hedge funds hired former International Monetary Fund (IMF) economists to come up with a solution to Puerto Rico’s debt crisis after the island’s governor declared its $72bn debt “unpayable” – paving the way for bankruptcy.

The funds are “distressed debt” specialists, also known as vulture funds, and several have also sought to make money out of crises in Greece and Argentina, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the near collapse of Co-op Bank in the UK.

The report, entitled For Puerto Rico, There is a Better Way, said Puerto Rico could save itself from default if it improves tax collection and drastically cuts back on public spending.

- See more at: http://portside.org/2015-08-01/distressed-debt-specialists-vultures-hovering-over-puerto-rico#sthash.lR8s3h3q.dpuf

Puerto Rico Referendum - Divided

Puerto Rico Referendum Approves U.S. Statehood for 
1st Time, But Results Show Divided Views
Amy Goodman
Guest: Juan Gonzalez
Democracy Now!
November 8, 2012
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/11/8/puerto_rico_referendum_approves_us_statehood

For the first time in Puerto Rico's history, a majority
of the island's voters have supported a non-binding
referendum to become a full U.S. state. The measure will
require approval from the U.S. Congress, but President
Obama has said he will respect the vote. Obama made the
same promise last year when he visited the island,
becoming the first sitting U.S. president in half a
century to do so. If Puerto Rico becomes the 51st state,
its residents will have the right to vote in all U.S.
elections, but will also have to start to pay federal
taxes. We speak to Juan González, Democracy Now! co-host
and New York Daily News columnist.

AMY GOODMAN: Democracy Now! co-host Juan González is
home, recuperating from back surgery. Juan, I wanted to
ask you about Puerto Rico. For the first time in Puerto
Rico's history, a majority of the island's voters
supported a non-binding referendum to become a full U.S.
state, the measure requiring approval from the U.S.
Congress, but President Obama has said he will respect
the vote. He made the same promise last year when he
visited the island, become the first sitting U.S.
president in half a century to do so.

Puerto Rico reinstates collective bargaining

Members of the UAW and Puerto Rico’s Servidores Públicos Unidos (SPU)/AFSCME Council 95 and other public employees celebrated May 17 when Gov. Luis Fortuño signed into law a bill reinstating collective bargaining for public employees.

Unlike legislatures in states like Wisconsin and Ohio, which are trying to take away workers’ rights, Puerto Rico’s House and the Senate passed this bill unanimously.

Says SPU President Annette González:

This law is very important for workers since in essence it includes two clauses that allow us to attain two fundamental goals: Restore the acquired rights through the restitution of collective bargaining contracts [and] negotiate the economic aspects that will do justice to workers and their families.  

The law ends a policy imposed in March 2009 when the administration enacted a fiscal emergency law that mandated a two-year freeze on the economic clauses of all collective bargaining agreements. The new law extends the non-economic clauses of the contracts until 2013 and allows workers to negotiate for salaries, benefits, bonuses and other economic aspects.

Dismissal of Teachers Union Leadership in Puerto Rico

“We Will Not Be Intimidated”

 By Hugo J. Delgado-Martí

Bandera Roja - 2/21/11

 The Teachers Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR) denounced in a press conference today the firing by the government of 11 members of the Executive Committee of their union and the revocation of those teachers' licenses.

"This unprecedented, brutally repressive measure is intended to strike a blow against the leadership of the Federation and to intimidate teachers from fighting the fascistic plans of the Fortuño government to privatize schools and rob the Teachers' Retirement System," said the president of the Teachers Federation of Puerto Rico, Rafael Feliciano Hernández.

The 11 teachers, who were sanctioned, worked for over 20 years and three of them have more than thirty (30) years of teaching experience. "They enjoy great prestige in their school communities and have always distinguished themselves as formidably dedicated fighters for the rights of teachers and public education," said Feliciano, who teaches in the Cayey School District.

Democracy in Egypt- Repression in Puerto Rico

Luisa (a pseudonym) has been receiving Rosenberg Fund for
Children (RFC, www.rfc.org) support since she was 15 years
old. She's now a student at the University of Puerto Rico
(UPR), the largest university in the Caribbean and the
premier Spanish-speaking institution of higher learning
under the control of the United States. Recently she's been
in touch with our staff and a Board Member because the
computer we purchased for her when she entered college three
years ago required repair. When our Board Member called her
last week to get details, he heard screaming in the
background when Luisa answered. Luisa said she couldn't talk
because she was running from pepper spray and police with
night sticks. (She got away....)

Since December hundreds of UPR students have been passively
occupying their campus to protest massive tuition increases
that have made it impossible for almost one third of the
undergraduates (5000 out of 16,000) to re-enroll in classes
this semester. The students have not been destructive, even
organizing brigades to keep the campus clean. But the
government decided to attack them. The parent of another RFC
beneficiary wrote on January 27th: "Levels of violence used
against Puerto Rican non-violent striking students have
risen exponentially. I strongly urge you to open the photos
and videos (available at http://pr.indymedia.org/) of
yesterday's actions, brought to you by the incredible press
people of Puerto Rico, who were also subject to direct
police threats ... [and] were physically attacked, just as
the students were."

Police attacks on the students and journalists echo those
that took place in Cairo, except none of the national
television networks in the United States chose to broadcast
the photos and videos of Puerto Rico that were readily
available to them. Repression in Cairo was headline news,
but similar attacks on non-violent students in our Puerto
Rican colony were swept under the rug. Videos from UPR show
police firing rubber bullets, tear gas, and pepper spray, as
well as applying pressure point holds to the non-resisting
students' necks to cause intense pain. Women's groups joined
the protests after videos were released of police groping a
female student's breasts.

Puerto Rican student strike

A  showdown is looming in the student strike that has
paralyzed all 11 campuses of the University of Puerto
Rico for more than six weeks.

Late Tuesday, protest leaders rejected a 4 p.m.
deadline from university President José Ramón de la
Torre to cease their campus occupations and end the
strike, which has kept 65,000 students out of classes
since April 21.

De la Torre and Puerto Rico's Gov. Luis Fortuño warned
the rebellious students they will seek court orders to
have them arrested and removed.

The strike, one of the longest and biggest in modern
U.S. history, has garnered considerable support from
both the university's faculty and the Puerto Rican
public.

Yet the mainland press ignores it.

Many island residents admire the way the students have
resisted massive government cutbacks to one of their
most revered institutions. This Great Recession, after
all, has been a far bigger disaster for Puerto Rico
than for rest of the nation.

Even before the Wall Street financial collapse, 45% of
the island's population was living below the poverty
level.

Governor of Puerto Rico assaults unions

More than 200,000 people are expected to march in a mass rally tomorrow in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as part of a one-day work stoppage to protest Gov. Luis Fortuño’s plan to trim the budget deficit on the backs of workers.

Using recently passed legislation known as Public Law 7, the governor plans to lay off as many as 30,000 public employees and deny collective bargaining to the remainder of the island’s public employees. The U.S. Commonwealth, where unemployment is already at 15 percent, is set to receive $6 billion in federal economic recovery funds, more than enough to cover a projected $3.2 billion budget deficit.

Fortuño, a former Republican delegate to the U.S. Congress, is using the island’s deep budget deficit as a pretext to busting the union and privatizing public services, the Puerto Rican union movement says.

Puerto Rico Independence

Puerto Rico Independence Solidarity Movement

(PRISM)

 

In the face of massive attacks by the 'golpista' Governor of Puerto Rico

and the political party in power (Partido Nuevo Progresista-PNP) on the people of Puerto Rico...

 

1.  Massive firing of public employees

(approximately 5,000 on first wave...and close to 17,000 last friday on the second wave)

 

2.  Massive repression by police of protestors

 

3.  Calling out the National Guard

 

4.  Massive privatization of public jobs and institutions

 

5.  Money give aways to private developers and foreign capitalists

 

6.  Destruction of public housing

 

7.  Destruction and eviction of poor neighborhoods and people

(Cano Martin Pena, Gladiolas, Villa del Sol to name only a few)

 

8.  destruction of public schools, arts and culture

 

9.  Workers Union busting

 

10.  Environmental degradation (Vieques)

 

 

We call on people and social movements in the United States to support the present struggle of the people of Puerto Rico for self determination and justice.

 

We call of US people and social movements to get informed on the events in Puerto Rico

 

We call on US people and social movements to re-build the solidarity movement with the struggle of Puerto Rico!

 

We call on US people and social movements to support the National Strike called for October 15, 2009!!!

 

join PRISM and support a sovereign Puerto Rico and justice for the people of Puerto Rico and put an end to the 'colonial status' of Puerto Rico (Remember Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States)

 

 

Puerto Rico and the end of colonialism

MOVIMIENTO INDEPENDENTISTA NACIONAL HOSTOSIANO (MINH)
OF PUERTO RICO

The Hostosian National Independence Movement of Puerto Rico (MINH by its Spanish name) became an observer member of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) in the 1964 Second Cairo Head of State Summit. The Declaration adopted at the Cairo Summit called upon the United Nation’s Decolonization Committee to study the Question of Puerto Rico in light of Resolution 1514(XV).
The 1964 Cairo Declaration served as the basis for the Cuban government’s request to the Decolonization Committee to include the Question of Puerto Rico in tis agenda. Since then the Decolonization Committee has adopted 28 resolutions on the Question of Puerto Rico. The 2009 Committee’s resolutions notes that in the Fourteenth Summit of the NAM, and at other meetings of the Movement, the right of the people of Puerto Rico to self determination and independence is reaffirmed on the basis of General Assembly Resolution 1514(XV), the recognition of the people of Puerto Rico as a Latinamerican and Cartibbean nation; and the General Assembly is urged to actively consider the question of Puerto Rico in all its aspects.
The Puerto Rican delegation at this year’s summit is headed by Dr. Julio Muriente, Co-President of the MINH; Norma Perez Muňiz, Esq., member of the MINH Executive Committee; Wilma E. Reverón Collazo, Esq., President of the Commitee of Puerto Rico at the United Nations (CORPONU by its Spanish name); and Alberto Rodríguez, President of the Federation of University Students For Independence (FUPI by its Spanish name).
The delegation supports the language included in the draft declaration reaffirming the Movement’s support to the right of self-determination and independence in light of resolution 1514(XV) and urging the General Assembly to actively consider the question of Puerto Rico.
The delegation calls upon the members of the Movement to recognize that colonialism is still a Human Rights violation that has to be urgently attended to, that is still an unsolved problem and that in light of the approaching end of the Second Decade to Eradicate colonialism from the face of the earth, as proclaimed by the United Nations, Puerto Rico with a population of 4 million people in its national territory and 4 million migrants settled in the United States, is the most dramatic colonialism problem yet to be solved.
The Puerto Rican delegation salutes this XV Summit and expresses its hope that that the Movement continues its unwavering support for the end of colonialism in all its manifestations.

Elections and other items in Puerto Rico

It was interesting to me that the article submitted just before this
spoke of the "new imperialism". Good article except for the fact
that it did not mention that the US still has several colonies.
Guam , Virgin Islands, Northern Marianas and the largest my own
Puerto Rico. I find it interesting that the US left except for the
old Guaridan newspaper from New York and the Militant shy away from
the mention of the existing US colonies. It seems to be more
confortable mentioning Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia.

Where to begin and keep this short.

Brigada Antonio Maceo...Some prominant members like Marifili Perez
have recanted their support but the vast mayority of the 55 who went
are still firm supporters of the revolution. Many live here in
Puerto Rico and are also supporters of the Independence movement.

Filiberto Ojeda Rios...interesting character. Believed in using all
forms of struggle to liberate our island nation. Yet, during the
Vieques Movement he saw that non violence was working and he let it
run its course. We won. We kicked the largest navy in the world
out. Without firing a shot.

For 15 years he Ojeda-Rios lived in the municipality of
Hormigueros. This is right next to the city of Mayaguez. In his
barrio he was known as don Luis. He would go to the little plaza in
the town of Hormigueros and play dominoes with the groupos that
gathered there during the breezy tropical nights. No one suspected
who he was.

Then on September 23, 2005 at about 2 pm comes the US FBI special
squads with more than 200 agents. They surround his Barrio Jaguitas
sector Plan Bonito home. It is a small one bedroom house up a steep
little mountain road. Flowers and fruit trees carefully planted.

The FBI amplfies its blockade to include the whole barrio with its
more than 600 people. No one in. No one out.

Negociations. Ojeda age 72 is alone with his wife. It is the day on
which Puerto Ricans commorate the Lares Revolt for independence
against Spain in 1868. Filiberto has sent his traditional message.
It is being read at the Plaza of the Revolution in Lares as the FBI
starts to "negociate". Beatriz his wife, is let go. No more
negociations. Shots are fired by FBI and then Ojeda Rios. A sharp
shooter puts a bullet through the window and wounds Ojeda Rios. He
moves against the front door. The FBI can see the blood coming out
from under the door. Does nothing for over 24 hours. Lets him bleed
to death.

FBI does not lift the blockade of his barrio for over a day and a
half. Kids are left at home without their parents. People cannot
get back to their homes after work. The barrio hears in English as
FBI agents for over three hours curse Ojeda Rios and Puerto Ricans.
FBI voices are carried over the still country afternoon and night.

At about 5 pm when the folks are coming down the mountains from the
commoration at Lares the radio stations start giving the news of what
is happening in Hormigueros. People flock to the town. Try to get
through the barriers now set up by the island police. No luck.
Doctors, nurses and lawyers are ready to help Ojeda. No one is
permitted through.

Indignation about what is happening is wide spread through out our
island nation. Even those who are pro anexation. The governor
alleges that he and the Secretary of Justice were left out of the
loop.

A couple of days later the body of Filiberto is taken to San Juan.
An autopsy and then to the College of Lawyers. The next day he is
taken to the cementary of the barrio where he was born Rio Blanco in
Neguabo. Eastern Puerto Rico just across from the island
municipalities of Vieques and Culebra. All alone the route people
stand with Puerto Rican flags. It takes hours to get to the
cememtary. Thousands are there.

The death of Filiberto confronted each Puerto Rican up close and
personal with the fact that we are a colony. We do not rule in our
own land. The police chief of Hormigueros said that he could have
taken Filiberto in without firing a shot. Yet the big FBI came with
over 200 of its agents to kill one man.

What has followed in western Puerto Rico has been a continous program
of FBI harrastment of pro independence activists. Interesting they
do not harrass the old folks who are more than use to it by now.
They harrass our young.

During the first week of June. Puerto Ricans in New York will have
the now famous Puerto Rican day parade. There will be Puerto Rican
flags everywhere. Please not that it was illegal for us to fly that
flag in Puerto Rico until after 1952. Please note that even then the
flag flown did not have the correct color blue. It was allowed with
navy blue which is the color of the US flag. Our flag is sky blue
the same color of the Cuban flag. They were created by the same
people at the same time in 1895.

Later that week Puerto Ricans will go to present speaches before the
United Nations Decolonization committee. This is done every year.
We have already 25 resolutions from that committe saying that we have
a right to our own self determination. This year even our governor is
going. He will say that the US lied to the UN in 1953 when it said
we had attained self determination.

What do we want from the UN. We want a discussion of our case before
the UN General Assembly. A discussion which confronts the fact that
in an era where there are few colonies, the "greatest" "democracy" in
the world has the mayority of them.

Yesterday Clinton came to Hormigueros. She did not mention
Filiberto. She did not mention the fact that we are a colony. She
came like so many other US politicans have come for the 110 years of
US colonization. Spoke pretty, empty words with glorious proimises
which will not be kept.

The same happened the day before when Obama came to Ponce. No
difference between him and Hilary here.

Obama wants to apply the Monroe doctrine again. There is nothing new
in this. He says everywhere that he is a different politican and
will bring change and hope. No change, much less hope will come here
until US politicans and folks in general acknowledge that they have a
contradiciton here. A so called democracy owns colonies or
possessions as they are sometimes called.

The death of Filiberto. The repercusions within the island justice
system where the FBI has whitewashed its "performance" and will not
let the local justice department investige what happened in
Hormigueros has confronted even the governor with the fact that we
are a colony.

The day of the circus primary we will have a march repudiating it in
San Juan. There are many other ways in which Puerto Rico can use
this money inorder to better our conditions. This whole circus has
little or nothing to do with us.

To all, parden my English. It is my second language.

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Puerto Rican Teachers Strike

Underpaid and dissed, Puerto Rico’s teachers may walk out in defiance of anti-strike ban

New York Teacher

Michael Hirsch

Feb 14, 2008 1:07 PM


After two years of failed negotiations with their Department of Education employers, Puerto Rico’s 32,000 public school teachers in the Teachers’ Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR), the commonwealth’s largest union representing the bulk of the island’s 43,000 pedagogues, are mulling a strike. The issues: higher wages — the starting salary is $18,000 per year and teachers want an 18 percent raise — and better working conditions. Teachers also want decision-making power on class size and class schedules as well as repairs to much-neglected school buildings.

In Ponce some 600 FMPR members blocked streets in a recent pro-strike demonstration, while more than 500 teachers picketed in front of school board offices in Caguas. A strike could shut down some 1,400 public schools.

Strikes by public employees are illegal in Puerto Rico, and teachers and others face firing if they strike. The island’s government labor relations board decertified the Teachers’ Federation last month after some of its members authorized a walkout. The FMPR filed papers in U.S. federal district court in San Juan seeking to have the anti-strike law declared unconstitutional.

The starting base salary for a teacher in Puerto Rico is lower than any U.S. state, while the cost of living is generally higher. One new hire, a chemistry teacher, told the Associated Press: “If I am going to quit in three or four years because I’m not able to save anything, it doesn’t make a difference if they kick me out now.”

The strike could affect the mainland as well, as stranded students are expected to come to northern cities, including New York and Orlando, Fla., with sizeable Puerto Rican populations.

The fight is muddied because the current leadership of FMPR broke away from the AFT and the AFL-CIO last year, and 18 presidents of Puerto Rican unions affiliated with both the AFL-CIO and the rival union federation Change to Win denounced the FMPR’s strike plans in mid-January. They said the FMPR’s actions would hurt 100,000 public employees if the courts overturn the law, since their union recognition depends on it.

Plus, the Service Employees International Union, part of Change to Win, is seeking to replace the FMPR as the teachers’ bargaining agent. Heading the effort is SEIU leader Dennis Rivera.

Weekly News Update on the Americas, Jan. 27
Associated Press, Jan. 30, 31
Orlando Sentinel, Feb. 1

Vieques: Puerto Rico

Vieques: The Struggle Continues

Vieques and Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is a Caribbean archipelago: the smallest of the Greater
Antilles. Invaded by the United States in 1898 during the Spanish American
War, Puerto Rico was put under US rule as war booty. Today, Puerto Rico is
still a militarily occupied colony. In 1917 US citizenship was imposed upon
Puerto Ricans without the right to vote for president or be represented in
the US Congress. However, Puerto Ricans were and are subject to obligatory
U.S, military service.

Vieques is an island municipality of Puerto Rico. Just 21 miles long and 4
miles wide, it is located 8 miles from the southeast coast of the main
island. During the1940s the U. S. Navy occupied three-fourths of the
territory of Vieques. For sixty years the Navy utilized Vieques as a base
for its military operations in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean. The
Navy transformed Vieques into one of the world's most active bases to train
pilots and test new armament systems. The Navy also rented the facilities
to arms manufacturers and allied armed forces for practice and testing.

The military exercises provoked grave ecological, economic and social
damage, which contributed to extreme poverty and forced migration of many
Viequenses to Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the United States. For
decades those who remained lived in terror of the physical and physiological
impacts of live, high explosive bombs. They also suffered from hostile and
abusive behavior by US Navy personnel, many of whom sexually assaulted women
and attacked and even murdered civilians.

The bombardments contaminated the waters, soil and air with alarming levels
of heavy metals and toxins such as mercury, lead, cadmium, aluminum and
uranium, which has provoked a health crisis among Viequenses. For example,
Vieques' cancer rate is at least 30% higher than that for the rest of Puerto
Rico. In addition there are high incidences of lung disease, respiratory
aliments and skin problems, all of which are associated with the
high levels of environmental contamination.

Resistance

For over six decades the people of Vieques have used different forms of
struggle against the military presence. In April of 1999, a bomb
accidentally hit an observation post, killing a local security guard named
David Sanes. This incident triggered the best-known and most dramatic phase
of Vieques resistance, which included massive civil disobedience.
The Vieques campaign against the US Navy received help and solidarity from
nearly all sectors of Puerto Rican society, as well as from the
international community. People from Vieques appeared several times before
of the United Nations Decolonization Committee and addressed multiple forums
in the United States and other countries, such as Brazil, Cuba, India,
Philippines, Japan, Korea, Guam, Guatemala and Geneva, Switzerland. Nearly
1,500 persons were arrested for peaceful civil disobedience in Vieques.
Hundreds of these people served time in federal prison for misdemeanor
trespassing. As consequence of this Puerto Rican struggle with international
help, military operations ceased on May 1, 2003, and the US Navy left
Vieques.

What does peace really involve?

The people of Vieques have a vision for the development of a new Vieques,
free from the US Navy, living in peace with a quality of life that responds
to the people's historic demands, which are summarized as follows:

· Recognition by the United States government of the right of the people of
Vieques to their lands.

· The departure of The Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States
Department of Interior from Vieques

· Creation of an organization of Viequenses to conserve, preserve and
protect the demilitarized lands, not to restrict the people but to help
teach them how to love, manage, conserve and protect their resources.

· The Master Plan for Sustainable Development should include mechanisms of
land control, conservation and management to guarantee proper use in
accordance with the interests and necessities of the community.

· Community control of the lands rescued from the US Navy through a
Community Land Trust or Cooperative to avoid speculation by large foreign
interests.

Recognition and realization of the above will fulfill the historic demands
of the people of Vieques, also known as the "Four D's":
Demilitarization, Decontamination, Devolution and Development.

For complete demilitarization the people of Vieques demand withdrawal of all
military personnel and all war related artifacts in Vieques. This includes
the Relocatable Over The Horizon Radar (ROTHR).

For complete decontamination, the US Navy must clean all contamination
caused by sixty years of bombings and other war related practices. They must
leave our house as clean as they found it when they first arrived. This
process requires that the corresponding governmental agencies give priority
attention to the most serious health problems in Vieques caused by the
contamination - because without good health there is no peace.

For complete devolution every inch of Vieques land must be returned to its
people. We need land to build homes, schools and hospitals, to develop
agricultural, tourist and fishing projects, and to leave to our future
generations. The rescue of this land is absolutely indispensable for the
future development of Vieques.

For sustainable development the people of Vieques must be allowed to put
into practice their vision of a Vieques not only without the US Navy, but
truly at peace. Community-controlled projects centered on eco-tourism,
agriculture and fishing, studies in marine biology and archeology - among
other economic sectors - will provide employment for our population and will
generate momentum to end the socioeconomic crisis of the past sixty years.

What can you do for Vieques?

· Start discussions of this new phase of the Vieques struggle in your
workplaces, schools, universities, and communities, as well as in meetings
with religious and governmental leaders. Call us and ask for a speaker to
come and give a presentation on Vieques.

· Write articles and letters to the editor in local and national newspapers

· Participate in activities of mobilization and protest

· Keep informed about activities through our electronic newsgroup:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bieke_pr/

__._,_.___