Ojeda honored as liberation fighter

[XXPANTHAXX]

Published Oct 7, 2005 9:51 PM

Since the assassination of independence fighter Filiberto
Ojeda RÃ*os in his home in Puerto Rico by FBI snipers on Sept.
23, the progressive movement there and in the U.S. has
responded with many protests, rallies and other actions. At a
Workers World Party meeting in New York City on Sept. 30, two
Puerto Rican members of the Party gave a historical overview
of the island’s long struggle for freedom. Following are
brief excerpts from their very informative talks.

Filiberto Ojeda RÃ*os, Machetero!

Let us remember Filiberto Ojeda RÃ*os as one of the leaders in
the fight for the liberation of Puerto Rico. With his actions
he showed that it is not only a struggle for political
independence, it is also a class struggle.

Filiberto was born on April 26, 1933, in Naguabo, Puerto
Rico, and eventually became a trumpet player. However, he is
probably best known as a founding member of the Puerto Rican
Workers Revo lutionary Party, which as an armed entity took
the name of “Ejercito Popular Boricua-Macheteros� (Boricua
Popular Army). In a communique on Oct. 10, 1978,
commemorating “El Grito de Jayuya� of 1950, they wrote:

“Our intention is to wage war against the Yankee invader and
their proxies, who after 80 years continue trampling on our
soil.�

The most daring action of the Mache teros was probably on the
morning of Jan. 12, 1981. About 10 U.S. jet fighters worth
close to $50 million were destroyed at the Muñiz Air Base in
San Juan. This attack on the “Yankee National Guard,� said a
Machetero communique, was an “act of revolutionary solidarity�
with the people of El Salvador, who were being slaughtered by
a U.S.-backed military regime.

However, the capitalists seem to have felt much more hurt by
the Wells Fargo robbery on Sept. 12, 1983, in Hartford,
Conn., where $7.2 million was liberated for the struggle.

On Oct. 30, 1983, the Macheteros launched an M-72 anti-tank
rocket against the Federal Building in Hato Rey, aiming for
the FBI office. This was done in “fraternal solidarity with
the heroic people of Grenada,� in retaliation for the U.S.
invasion of Grenada some days before.

Among many other actions performed by the Macheteros was one
in solidarity with the telephone workers’ movement that tried
to prevent the giveaway of Puerto Rico’s telephone services
to private hands.

The reaction of the people of Puerto Rico to Filiberto’s
assassination is to quote the popular phrase: “Todo Boricua
Mache tero.� (Every Puerto Rican a Machetero.) Tens of
thousands were in the funeral procession for Filiberto. At
least once the caravan could not continue because of the
multitude of people.

—John RamÃ*rez


WWP’s support for self-determination

On Sept. 23, 1868, the first recorded revolt in Puerto Rico
against colonial occupation took place in Lares. This day
[the same date as the FBI assassination] has symbolized the
Puerto Rican struggle for self-determination, first against
colonial occupation by Spain and then, after 1898, colonial
occupation by the U.S.

We are kept impoverished by the U.S., which gives welfare
incentives to corporations to come to the island tax-free and
exploit our resources and our people. Over 60 percent of our
population lives under the poverty line. The most recent
cowardly act of the U.S. government—to massacre in cold blood
Filiberto Ojeda RÃ*os, leader of the Macheteros, the militant
wing of the independence movement, has polarized the
population even more by sharpening the contradictions of the
colonial status.

In New York City, the unemployment rate for African-American
men age 18-40 is 40 percent, for Latin@s is around 30
percent, and for whites is less than 10 percent. It means
there is a class war against the working people of the U.S.,
regardless of race or creed, but the most marginalized are
the people of color. How does the multi-national Workers
World Party fit into this?

Since its founding in 1959, this Marxist-Leninist party has
recognized the right for self-determination of any nation
oppres sed by U.S. imperialism. Some believe a nation has to
have physical boundaries, like a geographical territory. We
believe that a nation of peoples can live within another
nation that is oppressing them. That allows the Party to
recognize African-Americans as constituting a separate
nation, as well as Puerto Ricans.

The Party has unconditionally supported each of these
struggles against the oppressor through material aid,
participation in protests, and printing each respective
nation’s information in the weekly paper.

Since its beginning, the Party newspaper has helped build
mass actions against imperialism like the 1976 “Bicentennial
Without Colonies� in Philadelphia, the Hartford demonstration
to free Puerto Rican political prisoners in 1986, and the
struggles in the U.S. and Puerto Rico to stop the U.S. Navy’s
use of the island of Vieques for bombing practice.

—Arturo J. Pérez Saad

[Elisa Keisha]

More images in http://pr.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/9966.php

"We dont want peace but victory"
"You lived in dignity, to get Freedom"
"We demand respect for the ideological diversity of our people and their struggles. The US goverment will abuse and kill our people but they will never colonize their ideas. We demand justice against the murderers of our patrior, Filiberto Ojeda"

"Wake up Boricua, defend yours!" (Filiberto Ojeda)