Saludos desde Mayaguez, Puerto Rico,
As everyone on this list should know, Mayaguezanos con Vieques, the group to which I belong, is a support group in Western Puerto Rico for the struggle in our island municipality of Vieques.
Saludos desde Mayaguez, Puerto Rico,
As everyone on this list should know, Mayaguezanos con Vieques, the group to which I belong, is a support group in Western Puerto Rico for the struggle in our island municipality of Vieques. We are geographically located at the other extreme of our Puerto Rican nation. I am one of many members of this organization and as a member I have two points I wish to express.
It is good that Vieques has been included in the Canada conference. This is an advance over what happened at the anti SOA activity. It is also good that the Fellowship for Reconciliation will bring a delegation to Vieques. The problem always with conference and delegation activities is the follow up. There were two conferences sponsored in the US on Vieques by the FOR. We saw very little or no follow up here in Mayaguez from these conferences on Vieques issues. I hope this does not happen to local stuggle based groups with the conferences scheduled by other entities for Canada and Ecuador.
It is nice to go to conferences. To meet new people. To see old friends. To exchange ideas for a couple of days. To get energized. But unless there is something concretely helpful to the locally based struggle that comes out of and continues to come out of this experience, I see many of these conferences turning into a symbolic event instead of a helpful one. Follow up is the key. Local based communities in struggle do not have the luxury to continue going to conferences, spend scarce local money and yet not receive concrete on going follow up to advance the local struggle.
My second point is on the neglect by the US Left of some struggles. And this goes further than just Vieques, Puerto Rico or Puerto Rican struggles in general. It deals with US colonies or "former" colonies such as Guam, Hawaii, Marshall Islands, Philippines etc. The US has traditionally used and abused these areas with little rebuke given by US citizens for this injustice. This is especially true of the US military presence and its adverse effects on the different local populations. With few exceptions the US left has followed this general US pattern of ignoring what happens within its colonial borders. We have an old saying here in the valleys and mountains of Western Puerto Rico, "The revolution begins at home, then it moves on to your friends and neighbors."
Neglect of Vieques affects us here in Puerto Rico because it is hard to fight for decontamination, devolution and development, the three D’s left to solve in the Vieques equation, without publicity within the US ecological and left communities. Although the Internet is a helpful tool in generating publicity, US ecological and left communities are hard, although not impossible nuts to crack for those of us who do not live in the US.
Problems in Guam, Hawaii, Marshalls and the Philippines are even more complicated then those of Vieques. The continued US militarization of these areas has accelerated. The contamination and displacement of the population continues. Yet little if anything is said about this in the US press or within US leftist circles. I have always wondered why this is the case. Why the silence?
Maria M Ramirez
Mayaguez, Puerto Rico