Massive protest against privatisation
* americas Puerto Rico A massive one-day strike against privatisation shook the United States' Caribbean colony of Puerto Rico on October 1st Rafael Bernabe Almost 100.000 demonstrators (from a total population of only 3.7 million) gathered in front of the Capitol building. This is the largest mobilisation in the history of Puerto Rico, and the most
The Paro was supported by all three labour federations on the island.' It closed most public schools and the University of Puerto Rico, while spurring mass absenteeism in many other public sector institutions. Some private businesses closed, and San Juan's major avenues were paralysed by the endless caravans of cars and trucks transporting demonstrators.
As in 1990, the upsurge in organisation and militancy was provoked by the attempt to privatise the Puerto Rico Telephone Company.
The PRTC is a profitable concern. It holds a monopoly on local telephone service, and nets $100 million in yearly profits. This subsidises other government operations, such as the public radio and TV stations. It is thus easier for telephone workers to link their struggle for job and income security with the concerns of most people as consumers, or as workers in
There is a solid and widespread feeling that state-owned telecom enterprises can be more efficient than the private sector. Hardly anybody who remembers the prenationalisation service of ITT supports
The market price of the PRTC is estimated at US$3.2 billion. It could only be bought by a major telecommunications multinational. So the struggle against the privatisation of the PRTC thus brings together working class, consumer and national aspirations in mixture that has twice proven to be highly flammable. The main slogan of the Paro campaign, Puerto Rico no se vende means both that •Puerto Rico is not for sale and that 'Puerto Rico cannot be bought-off.
Resistance to the privatisation of the PRTC has crossed party lines. The Paro Nacional of 1990 was carried out against the then ruling Partido Popular Democratico (which favours the island's existing status as a U.S. colony), while the 1997 stoppage was directed against the Partido Nuevo Progresista (which favours annexation of Puerto Rico as a U.S. state).
This summer's opposition to privatisation was enhanced by the closing of the 32 International Viewpoint #294
Fajardo regional hospital, which had been under private administration. The closure threw more than 200 workers out of work and has seriously affected health services in the eastern part of the island.
Despite widespread support, organising the movement against privatisation has been a complex and often conflictive process. The Paro Nacional of 1990 was called by the Comité de Organizaciones Sindicales (COS) which in the 1980s had brought together most of the island's trade unions. For special campaigns (such as those against the scuttling of Puerto Rico's labour laws in 1995) the COS opened its doors to other groups.
This time round, some union leaders and sectors argued that the movement should be led by a new kind of structure that could truly incorporate other organisations opposing privatisation.
The resulting Comité Amplio Contra la Privatización (Broad Committee Against Privatisation) is made up of 27 organisations representing labour, political currents, and student, environmental, religious and women's concerns.
The idea to form the Broad Committee came from a radical coalition of major unions and federations and the island's Regional committees
One of the major criticisms many of these militants had of the COS was its inability to insure the continuity of the Regional Committees after the 1990 Paro. And sure enough, it was the 11 new Regional Committees, along with the most active individual unions that prepared the Paro Nacional of October 1, organising simultaneous activities all over the island.
Alongside the initiatives of the Comité Amplio, several unions have carried out their own activities. The CGT Teachers Federation has continued its protests against the government's new educational policies, which include the use of textbooks in English, even where classes are in Spanish, and "importing" English teachers from the United States. Teacher's Federation also organised regional caravans advising parents not to send their children to school on the day of The University wakes-up
The campaign against privatisation also coincided with a new wave of activism in the University of Puerto Rico. The UPR has a long tradition of labour and student struggles, but had been relatively quiet in recent years. Nevertheless. on September 10 a general assembly of almost 2,000 students (the largest in over five years) approved a resolution opposing the privatisation of the PRTC and supporting the Paro Nacional. The day before the Paro Nacional, the newly formed Student Front Against Privatisation organised the First Youth Festival Against Privatisation and in Solidarity with the Working People. It was a major success, with close to 2,000 students participating
Each year the Puerto Rico independence movement commemorates the Grito de Lares insurrection against Spanish rule on September 23, 1868. This year, the Lares celebration was used to further agitate in preparation for the October 1" stoppage. Puerto Rico no se vende was the
The socialist left has played a major and leading role. Most of the new student leaders are either in or close to the Socialist Front.' So are leading members of several unions and of the regional committees. The Front is an official member of the Comité Amplio, which is leading the anti-privatisation campaign.?
The Front has emphasised the need to develop strong regional committees — sufficiently centralised to carry out coordinated actions and flexible enough to develop their own autonomous initiatives-, the need to incorporate the rank and file in all union discussions and mobilisations, as well as the need to look beyond the Paro Nacional.
The main challenge is to keep the existing organising efforts going. In 1990 the Paro Nacional, combined with the recession, did prevent the privatisation of the PRTC). But then there was followed by a period of demobilisation. The government hopes the situation will turn out similarly in 1997. It is our task to prove them wrong. * I longer version of this article was November-December is are of he magazine hains the Current 1. The Concilio General de Trabajadores (CGT), the Central Puertorriquena de Trabajadores (CPT) and the AFL-CIO unions in Puerto Rico. 2.It includes the Puerto Rican section of the Fourth Internationa 3. Two other parties, the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño and the Nuevo Movimiento Independentista are also members.