When in 1969 there was discussion of the United States granting Puerto Rican residents the right to vote for the U.S. president, Corretjer wrote, “To authorize the Puerto Ricans to vote for President of the United States, is a project of the Pentagon. With it, the United States reaffirms its invariable policy, of a country submitted to military intervention, which is the only thing which has continued in Puerto Rico. … We wish at this time to express the judgment of the Liga Socialista Puertorriqueña on this criminal project of imperialism and its unconditional servants in Puerto Rico.”[517]
In 1972, right after the election of that year, the LSP proclaimed, “Upon analyzing the Puerto Rican elections… it is necessary to have two important things in mind: 1) the electoral system was invented to maintain the status quo wherever it is in operation; 2) in Puerto Rico, elections are won by those that Washington chooses to have win.”[518]
One annual activity that was of great significance to the Liga Socialista Puertorriqueña was its participation in the celebration of the anniversary of the “Grito de Lares,” the first proclamation of a Puerto Rican republic in 1868. In 1966 it was reported that “The greatest speech of the day was given by the revolutionary tribune and poet Juan Antonio Corretjer, Secretary-General of the LSP. Corretjer, in a maximum revolutionary sentence, announced sure and definitive death of Yankee imperialism, death he said in which a decisive part would be taken by Puerto Rican armed Militants.”[519]
On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the Grito de Lares, the LSP and the Progressive Labor Party of the United States issued a joint proclamation. It ended, “On the basis of authentic proletarian internationalism, we salute our fraternal revolutionary Marxist-Leninist parties, the Chinese Communist Party and the Communist Party of Albania, and all of the fraternal Latin American parties.”[520]
The LSP sought, not too successfully, to get a foothold in the island’s organized labor movement. Milorad Popov wrote in 1970 that the Liga seemed “to have some support within the small Confederation of Independent Puerto Rican Unions.”[521]
That the LSP was an onlooker rather than a leader of the strikes in which it did try to involve itself was indicated by a comment of the party at the time of several strikes in Ponce in April 1970. It said that “The Southern Regional Committee of the Liga Socialista Puertorriqueña… loyal to its tradition of supporting the workers in struggle against the bourgeoisie, has been present in 2 of the most important strikes. We have gathered many opinions from workers against capitalist exploitation. The leaders of the strikes have shown certain unfounded fears when they have entered into contact with leaders of the Liga Socialista Puertorriqueña. … With the workers that has not been so, we have gathered a pair of interviews which reflect the real reasons for which the workers went on strike.”[522]
Until 1971, the LSP expressed strongly pro-Chinese sentiments. Thus in 1969, at the time of clashes on the Sino-Soviet border, it expressed its “friendship and support of the Chinese Communist Party and of Chairman Mao Tse-tung.” It denounced “the military aggression that the Soviet revisionists carried out against the Chinese border.” At the same time, following the Chinese line, the LSP was very critical of the Castro regime in Cuba.[523] In an article in 1970, Juan Antonio Corretjer wrote that his party “shared completely with PLP all of the Marxist-Leninist Mao Tse-tung Thought ideology.”[524]
However, the LSP joined with the PLP in denouncing the rapprochement with the United States that Mao Tse-tung commenced in 1971. The party issued a statement deploring the Chinese move.
The LSP said, “In getting close to China, Washington has everything to gain and nothing to lose; from dollars to prestige. … On the other hand, Peking loses a lot, first among those of us who really matter. During the long and fruitful decades of struggle and hope, comrade Mao Tse-tung was the revolutionary leader of the proletariat and the colonized people. It could be said that when Stalin died, it was useless to search for a successor to his remarkable leadership in the Soviet Union. The leadership was carried forth in China through Mao Tsetung. … Why negotiate away this treasure for an alliance with Washington degeneracy and the filthy Asian royalty?”
The statement went on, “Now taking the wrong road, coexistence with capitalism is intensified. While Peking takes that road, it is developing contrary to the revolutionary development of the proletariat and all colonial and semi-colonial peoples.”
As to its own future position, the Liga Socialista Puertorriqueña said, “The answer is obvious. We are Marxist-Leninist, revolutionary communists. The bankruptcy in principles of Moscow and Peking cannot turn us again towards nationalism. On the contrary, it imposes on us the duty of becoming better communists.”[525]
The Liga continued to be active for at least a decade after it abandoned the Maoist cause. In 1973, Juan Antonio Corretjer and several other members of the organization were charged with illegal possession of arms, but were exonerated.[526] In August 1979, Corretjer appeared before the Decolonization Committee of the United Nations. There he charged that “Yankee imperialism had banned all patriotic organizations, and thus a kind of guerrilla warfare was being waged. The enemy, in the meantime, was able to launch attacks wherever it pleased.” That year Corretjer also was a speaker at the celebration of the Grito de Lares, and announced his support of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.[527]
Maoism in Suriname
Suriname, a former Dutch colony on the northern coast of South America, achieved its independence in November 1975. Most of the country’s parties are organized around the nation’s several ethnic groups—Creoles (people of more or less African descent), East Indians, Indonesians. However, a very minor party for several decades has been the Communistische Partij van Suriname (Communist Party of Suriname), established in 1973. For several years it was loyal to Moscow.[528] However, by the 1980s, the Suriname Communist Party not only had become Maoist, but also had aligned itself with the Albanians.[529] It remained a group of very limited influence in national politics.
Maoism in Trinidad and Tobago
Communism has never been a significant factor in the politics of Trinidad and Tobago, the two-island nation off the coast of northern South America. In the 1950s there existed the West Indian National Party, the principal leader of which was Quentin O’Connor, which was on the Left of national politics. It was accused of being Communist, but this was denied by its leaders.[530]
However, in 1979 the Communist Party of Trinidad and Tobago was established. It was Maoist, and in the split between the Chinese and the Albanians, it sided with the latter, professing to be inspired by the ideas of Enver Hoxha.[531] It did not become of any significance in national politics.
521
Milorad Popov, in
527
Paul Le Veness, in
528
See Robert J. Alexander, editor,
530
See Robert J. Alexander, editor,