PR: Radical Statehood Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit TO IPR-FORUM SUBSCRIBERS from the Institute for Puerto Rican Policy (IPR) 1982-1997: Celebrating 15 Years of Service! ________________________________________________________ sender RZRD@aol.com Wed, 15 Oct 1997 15:44:42 -0400 (EDT) The following is an English translation of an article which first appeared in Spanish during the Spring in the University of Puerto Rico newspaper, Dialogo. It has since become the subject of numerous debates. STATEHOOD FROM A RADICAL-DEMOCRATIC PERSPECTIVE An Invitation to Dialogue for All Inhabitants of the Puerto Rican Archipelago Over the last seventy years, the modernizing agenda of the Barbosa Republicans, and of broad sectors of Puerto Rico's organized labor movement, has been held hostage by some of the most conservative sectors of the island elite. With a few important exceptions, contemporary pro-statehood leaders tend to be unconditionally submissive to U.S. political elites, and too often adopt the stances of the mainland's most antidemocratic political forces. At the same time, while a few independentistas raise dissenting voices, most official spokespeople for independence continue to promote socially conservative agendas or, at best, to hide behind hypocritical, evasive positions regarding the difficult situation in which Puerto Rico will find itself as an independent or associated republic. Finally, it doesn't take a political genius to realize that the Estado Libre Asociado is on its last legs. From the standpoint of the dominant bloc in U.S. politics, it is no longer necessary to keep Puerto Rico in a status (the ELA) which requires large transfer payments, if the same hegemonic objectives can be accomplished for free with the island as an associated republic. For people on the island, the possibilities for change under the ELA boil down to continuing to lobby for the ever-decreasing transfer payments and regulatory or tax exemptions. The inability of Puerto Rico's representatives to obtain increased transfers has an immediate impact on the middle and working classes, in terms of diminishing public resources and deteriorating quality of life. The handwriting is on the wall: we can either press for statehood, or get ready to become an Associated Republic. Facing this dilemma, it is possible to take a different position: to redefine statehood as an alternative for radical democracy. In other words, radical statehood. The first premise of a "radical" statehood is that it must be seen as a means, and not an end. We don't want to place this debate within the traditional logic of the status question, according to which one of the three--by now, classical--options is held to be an absolute goal, and all other elements of any political platform are subordinated to reaching this ideal. Our ideal is a radical democracy, which we understand as a set of human rights for real people and communities, rather than for corporations, states or parties. Unlike some traditional statehood advocates, those of us who are arguing for a radical statehood don't want to "Americanize" by assimilating culturally, nor are we agreeing with RodU's famous dictum, in Ariel, of "admiring, but not loving" the North American people. We don't admire them, and we don't love them; we simply recognize our democratic possibilities from a practical standpoint. We understand that the United States has intervened in Puerto Rico for a hundred years, creating an economy which is completely integrated into the North American capital circuits, and dependent on federal transfers. Furthermore, it is undeniable that, beyond economics, Puerto Ricans have come to participate quite a bit in the institutions, practices and discourses of the metropolis. These include political, professional, trade union, ecological, sexual, feminist, public health, educational, artistic and social practices which, thanks to the common legal and institutional framework, function in close cooperation with their counterparts in the U.S., or have potential for developing in that context. Moreover, Puerto Ricans identify strongly with the North American civil framework, as long as it does not contradict any of several points of consensus, such as for example, the fact that Puerto Rico is a nation. Given this complex web of connectedness, and the historical rejection of independence by the majority of Puerto Ricans over the last fifty years, the act of imposing independence, or any equivalent status, by the U.S. Congress would be a colonial act. The authoritarian imposition of an independent or associated republic, without democratic approval by the majority of the Puerto Rican people, would be not only unjust and antidemocratic, but also an act of racial segregation and exclusion. It is true that most conservative Americans are racist, misogynist, homophobic and anti-environmentalist. That is why they would rather see Puerto Rico as a republic than as a state. The only conservative interest group willing to support statehood (and then, only if the ELA is to be dismantled) is the Pentagon, whose interests operate with disregard for the society's democratizing forces: for example, the anti-militarist demands of Puerto Rican communities, as in the cases of Vieques and the military radar installations proposed for the Lajas Valley. Those of us who support "radical" statehood, including conventional statehooders who are committed to supporting the interests of the communities they represent, need to seek a different kind of ally. We need to make alliances with the more liberal sectors in the U.S., those willing to recognize and fight for Puerto Ricans' right to self-determination, regardless of which option we choose. It must not be forgotten that the most anti-democratic sectors in the U.S. are precisely those which are most interested in removing Puerto Ricans from the political landscape. These sectors are fearful of the impact of incorporating Puerto Rico as a state, because they see Puerto Ricans exclusively as poor, dark-skinned and Spanish-speaking, statehood might contribute to the shifting racial and socioeconomic balance of power within the U.S. body politic. They feel no responsibility towards us, after 100 years of colonialism. It is an ironic spectacle, this tactical alliance of anti-democratic racists with important independentista and autonomist leaders. But the latter should reflect a bit more on this kind of alliance, and rejoice less over the gains made by conservatives and racists in Congress. These leaders are putting all their eggs in one basket: a racist rejection by Congress of a majority vote for statehood in a future plebiscite. The desire to found the Republic simply upon Congressional rejection, rather than on Puerto Ricans' massive support for a program of social transformation, can be seen in institutions such as the Puerto Rican Independence Party, an organization which barely advocates any type of social demand, and devotes itself to guarding its registration as a regular political party, while it waits for Congress to brush off the island's people once and for all. Those of us who support a radical statehood believe that the only two possibilities for decolonization are: 1) treating us like all the other states, with all the advantages and limitations this entails, or 2) creating the conditions, including all the necessary capital and energy, without which any independent or associated republic would be a farce. This second option looks extremely difficult for Puerto Rican workers. After a century of imposed citizenship and economic exploitation, using our land and our youth to fight its wars, it would be discriminatory to impose a neocolonial republic, whose only purpose would be to eliminate the expense of federal aid, all the while maintaining neocolonial economic and military control, as happens with Panama, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the region's other republics. Given the transformation and restructuring of global capitalism, the imminent opening of Cuba to U.S. capital, and the "Puerto Ricanization" of Mexico, Puerto Ricans are now facing a very difficult moment for making a transition towards a democratic republic, with space for citizen action. In order for transnational and local businesses to compete on the world market, the Republic of Puerto Rico would be forced to lower or freeze the minimum wage, neuter its environmental legislation, and eliminate important labor and civil rights which are in force under current federal laws. All the Latin American and Caribbean republics are now competing to sell themselves the cheapest to transnational capital. Puerto Rico, as a regional extension of the U.S. economy, would worsen its current position by joining that list of competitors. In this global context, the only beneficiaries of the repeal of federal laws would be the local elites and big corporations. The so-called "greater powers" of an associated or independent republic could only be interpreted as a greater exemption for corporate elites from their public responsibilities; they would hardly translate into greater real possibilities for the average citizen. The picture isn't rosy under statehood, either. We doubt that things would improve in the short run, or possibly even the long run. But suffice it to say that statehood would create more possibilities for Puerto Ricans to have a say in the policies that shapes their lives; it isn't necessary to pretend, as the conventional ideologues of statehood do, that statehood would offer fail-safe security. The United States is not a monolith. There are political forces which are pushing for the pauperization of workers, as well as technical and professional sectors, by restructuring the relationship between capital and the public and civil spheres. The only reason why we favor this option is because it allows for potentially more effective interventions in the public policies which affect us most directly. In concrete terms, we lose none of the survival strategies which people have used in the past, such as legal emigration, public assistance, and the ability to appeal to higher, or alternative, courts, agencies, foundations or forums. At the same time--and contrary to many politicians' demagoguery--although most of the population would not pay federal taxes, the fact of Puerto Rico's paying taxes would create the possibility of political pressure. The only thing statehood offers is a relatively wider margin of security for average people, together with an avenue of struggle for defending and expanding what we've gained: a space to fight, from the inside, against the most irresponsible actions of capital. Support for statehood, as a pragmatic position, does not mean that we accept subordination for Puerto Ricans as inevitable. What we do affirm is that, given the inevitability of being incorporated to the periphery of U.S. capital in the Caribbean (until a global redistribution of power takes place), statehood has more democratic potential than filling people's minds with empty symbolism about "identity," in a Republic which would, in fact, worsen, or leave intact, the structures of colonial oppression. A society without the possibility of relative prosperity is a society with little hope of radicalizing and extending democracy to all areas of life. All the talk of national integrity, dignity and sovereignty is revealed as rhetorical embellishment, when the question is raised: What sovereignty are we talking about? Does this juridical sovereignty of a state apparatus contribute to increasing my concrete individual sovereignty, or the sovereignty of my community or my fellow workers on the job? Or is it, as it gives all indications of being, a sovereignty for the elites and corporations that control the upper echelons of the state apparatus? Self-determination, national identity and cultural rights of groups become important to the extent that they take on concrete meaning, as effective expressions of the human rights of the group's members. Radical democrats are not satisfied, for obvious historical/cultural reasons, with the label of "statehooders." We only answer to this term to the extent that we believe that the radical propositions which concern us have better possibilities of becoming realized within a relationship of open incorporation to the United States, than in some purely formal and illusory "independent" status. Given the extent of U.S. domination of our region, it seems better to have representation in Congress, than a national parliament which would be subject to political and economic manipulation by the U.S. and other superpowers. Historically, a handful of congresspeople has exercised more power, in the global context, than several Caribbean national legislatures put together. This imbalance will become exacerbated in the coming years, due to the ongoing processes of globalization. All rhetoric about "bilateral agreements," or "nation to nation" compacts, becomes hollow and meaningless in this context. Rather than impoverishing the population in an attempt to attract foreign capital, as most existing neocolonial republics are forced to do, it would be better to force the U.S. government to recognize the island's rights and entitlement to transfer payments, on an equal basis with every other community in the metropolis. Rather than fight for a national state which would limit people's rights and remuneration for the benefit of capital, why not fight from inside the U.S. body politic, to extend to all groups the rights which white citizens of the metropolis enjoy--to increase the minimum wage, to improve environmental legislation, and to restructure the welfare state along more human dimensions? We call for statehood at this juncture, not because it is "the solution," but because the other alternatives imply a greater retreat from the gains that have been made. Historically, sovereignty in the Caribbean has been a frustrating fiction for most people. If greater, broader democratic spaces appeared possible under the aegis of a sovereign nation-state, our position would be different. Under the circumstances, however, we would rather struggle as Puerto Ricans within the metropolis, than set the juridical stage for a few patricians and patriarchs to proclaim to the world their restrictive ideas of national culture, while the pseudo-independent nation pays the price of a false, neocolonial freedom under the U.S. sphere of influence. The insistence that Puerto Ricans are part of the United States is a matter of justice; it is not to deny the obvious--that there exist Puerto Rican cultural formations that are clearly national in character. This insistence may even, in the long run, have a much greater cultural and political impact than justifying a neocolonial republic by waving the flag of cultural differences. What the proponents of la Republica have not succeeded in articulating, is how that grand cultural difference would absorb the shock of the neocolonial conditions which would surely be imposed on the island. Statehood for Puerto Rico could have a considerable impact on the cultural, racial and political self- representations of the United States. Unlike the United States that JosE MartI knew, North America is more and more becoming part of Nuestra AmErica. The Latin American and Caribbean population of the U.S. is growing and becoming, contrary to what many U.S. conservatives would like, an interesting cultural and political force, which is increasingly hard to manage. For Puerto Ricans, who already have nearly half of our population inside the United States, cultural and political alliances with our own people who have moved north are more feasible than with any other part of the New World. It is precisely that process of emigration, seen from the standpoint of its creative possibilities and not from its marginalization, which gives us a very special force. The great Puerto Rican masses discover and affirm their Latin American-ness, as they share a common experience with the great Latino migration to the U.S. Our Latin Americanization has taken place more, for example, in New York or Chicago than in Mexico City, Caracas or Havana; this leads us to oppose any political move which may harm the material, cultural and social links between those Puerto Ricans who live in the United States, and those who live in Puerto Rico. Our Latin American proposal also has a very concrete political dimension. Given the significant, and often punitive, impact which many U.S. policies have on Latin America and the Caribbean, we advocates of radical statehood propose that Puerto Ricans act as a democratizing force within the United States Congress. It is the task of the Puerto Rican population, well- educated and sure of its rights, to bring forth a new, symmetrical relationship of dialogue between the North American people and the rest of the hemisphere, built on the basis of equality. Although we by no means want to idealize our position, we do think that many times, a vote in Congress against an anti-Latin American policy can be more effective than a vote in the United Nations, especially as it is being restructured since the end of the Cold War and the onset of the latest wave of globalization. We don't identify with the Right--neither the statehood, nor the autonomist, nor the pro-independence Right. Our starting point is radical democracy. What is radical democracy? Those sectors which are truly committed to the democratic calling of the Left, have been formulating political stances which give primary importance to the ever-greater development of democratic demands, through heterogeneous, local struggles which cannot be reduced to fighting for the hegemony of one specific group, and which take precedence over any authoritarian strategy of complete takeover of power. In fact, from this perspective, there need not be a national state for a radical democratic program to be put forth. Political self-determination means creating democratic spaces in social practices themselves, and transforming the very nature of the state, rather than seeking merely to control it. As radical democrats, we stand against cutbacks in aid to individuals, against militarism, against the kind of industrial development which sets back and destroys the health of communities and the integrity of the environment. We support the new reforms in the organization of work which have been proposed by labor movements in various parts of the world, and which would lead to a rational distribution of jobs and the shortening of the work week, without increasing unemployment or cutting wages. (This last has better chances of being won under the conditions of a metropolitan state, than under a neocolonial republic.) We support increasing the autonomy of workers on the job, and the balanced and equitable participation by all the people in the wealth of society, through diverse means and programs which need not necessarily be state- run. In the cultural sphere, we affirm the rights of different ethnic, racial and linguistic communities. We reject exclusions based on language, or attempts to legislate the use of languages. We support Puerto Rico's sovereignty in sports, but we don't think it is treason for Puerto Ricans, as individuals, to decide to compete for other countries, including the United States. We support feminist, gay and lesbian, and environmentalist forces, and those who affirm ethnic differences. We reject the criminalization of heterogeneous identities and communities within Puerto Rican territory, such as Dominicans, Haitians and others. We support the release of Puerto Rican political prisoners. We believe in the expansion and development of the public and civil spheres, but not the hypertrophy and centralization of state power. We support all democratic freedoms and human rights in the political, social and economic arenas. Furthermore, we propose statehood as a means of contributing to the transformation of the United States into a multiracial, multicultural, democratic, pacifist and internationalist entity, so that in the future, Nuestra AmErica, speaking its plurality of languages, may enjoy a better quality of life, and affirm its right to difference and to a full life. If the United States Congress, in a racist, colonialist act, were to impose an independent or associated republic on Puerto Rico--and the pro-independence and autonomist leadership, predictably, were to accept such a neocolonial status--a popular mobilization would be justified, demanding the human rights implicit in the demand for statehood, which in today's globalized world must take precedence over the legal formalisms of state sovereignty. Should statehood be blocked completely, we believe that the infusion of broadly democratic content in that direction would help enhance Puerto Rico's negotiating position with regard to any of the alternatives. We believe that the most valuable aspect of our proposal is the democratic content which may enrich the political process, over and above any statist juridical rhetoric, or any patriarchal nationalistic discourse. The different tactics regarding status complement each other to the extent that, by different means, they pursue the common objective of promoting radical democracy. For this reason, this status proposal does not take on a dogmatic or absolute character; it is a means, and not an end. Juan Duchesne ChloE Georas RamUn Grosfoguel AgustIn Lao Frances NegrUn Pedro Angel Rivera Aurea MarIa Sotomayor The authors are Puerto Rican university professors who work in Puerto Rico and in the United States. ******************************************************** The above was posted on the ipr-forum of IPRNet: The Information Service on Puerto Rican Issues of the INSTITUTE FOR PUERTO RICAN POLICY, Inc. 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