The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-08-05
BY ]. NEyAREZ.
Workers Eager To Organize.


In Porto Rico we have the first in
stance in the history of Wall Streets
crusade for colonies, where following
on the heels of the Yankee military
forces of conquest, and the military
or colonial regimes imposed upon the
victims of the coming of the A. r. of
l.. bureaucracy to the assistance of
the Wall Street Washington imper-
ialist policy in it's efforts to crush out
every ounce Of resistance manifested
by the conquered cOlonials, and to
consolidate the imperiahst political
regime. Taking advantage Of the
growing revolt among the islands la
boring masses from the oppressive
semi-feudal conditions remaining af-
ter the Spanish regime, and which
are, under the new Yankee regime
becoming more unbearabla, due to the
introduction of semi-feudalism, and
modern methods of intensified indus
trial exploitation, the Gompers out
fit, with promises of salvation, sue
ceeded in betraying the feelings Of
revolt among the Porto Rican work
ers, into channels suiting the aims of
the Washington colonial policy Hav-
ing corrupted, with their bourgeois
democratic phraseology, and won
over the leader of the Porto Rican
labor movement, Santiago Iglesias),
the workers were encouraged to or
ganize into the A. F. of L.-directed
Federation Libre, by the promise of
leadership in their struggles to sweep
away semi-feudal determinations,
and to gain better conditions from
their new Yankee capitalist exploit
ers.
The workers of Porto Rico, from
the hardi-craftsmen in the cigar fac
tories to the unskilled laborers on the
sugar and tobacco plantations, took
advantage of the opportunities of
fered them for organization, and
joined the ranks of the Federation
Libre till it numbered more than &c.
600 strong, and at the beginning of
the war years, beginning in 1915, the
entire working class of Porto Rico,
under the lead of these $4,000 organ
lied, became involved in a long series
of strikes, extending into the year
1920.
Workers Raised Red Flag.
The workers of Porto Rico fought
their exploiters heroically. They
demonstrated great militancy, even
to the extent of raising the red flag
on the sugar plantations, as at Fa-
iardi San Juan, Bayamon, etc. But
the Iglesias leadership, devoted to the
strike-breaking methods Of the Com
pers outfit, did not give the strike
movement the militant leadership it
needed. 1t did not voice the anti
imperialist character of the strike
movement, and thus permitted the
heroic efforts of the Porto Rican
prolstariat to be crushed in blood by
the trikebreaking insular police,
Judges, scabs and jailors. They Gull
minated in the tragic defeat of the
tobacco workers strike in 1920, in
which the most militant and class
conscious forces were crushed.
Today the Federation Libre counts
at the very most not more than 1000
members; the workers of Porto Rico
are completely disorganized and at
the mercy of the exploiters. The Ig-
lesias bureaucracy sit comfortably in
heir swivel chairs, in the offic,
the Federation Libre, holding down
their jobs with an air of security. So
long as they are loyal to the execu-
tive council their salaries are secure.
They need not worry if the Fedora
cion Libre has small membership,
or about the will of the rank and file.
They hold their jobs from above,
from the executive council in Wash
ington.
Militancy Revives.
In recent months, we witnessed in
Porto Rico a revival of the militant
labor movement among the cigar
makers of the labor-hating American
Porto Rican Tobacco Co. Due to I'M
bearable open shop conditions inn
posed upon them, these workers, rank
and file members of the cigar
makers union, forced strike which
lasted more than six months, and was
settled favorably for the workers.
Thanks to their stabbornness in hold
ing out the strike, they forced sup
port from the bureaucracy. I say
forced because on his return last
March to Porto Rico, Iglesias ex-
pressed himself as not being in favor
of the strike method in that situa-
ton. This outburst Of Iglesias' was
reported to the writer, with tears in
his eyes, by the old working class
fighter, Comrade Eduardo Condo, the
only leader who has remained loyal
to the Porto Rican workers, who
fights against the Iglesias traitors
and is brutally mistreated by Iglesias
and his underling, Rafael Alfonso.