The original Rainbow Coalition was not a liberal election strategy by Jesse Jackson. It was Fred Hampton's attempt to politicize and unite the street gangs in impoverished Chicago. Racism was, as it always has been, an obstacle to proletarian unity. However, through the hard organizing work of Hampton and the Black Panthers, the Rainbow Coalition united poor whites in the Young Patriots Organization, poor Puerto Ricans in the Young Lords and the American Indian Movement with the Black Panthers to form a united front against poverty under capitalism and brutalization of the poor by police. Do not fall for the divide and conquer narrative. Certainly the various oppressions we face are linked to aspects of our identity, but certainly, we can all unite as a class in the interest of rising up against the ruling class in order to establish a new, proletarian regime.
Matthew 20: 1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
- New International Version
IDEOLOGY OF THE YOUNG LORDS PARTY ^ National Headquarters 357 Wl His Ave. Bronx, New York 10454 First Pr int I nq Feb. 1972 UrVWiw Wilt be updated and revised at first party congress Julv 1972 F*b. »av AM criticisms and suqnestions welcome Vouva THE IDEOLOGY OF THE YOUNG LORDS PARTY (Puerto Rican Pevol utionary Party) Juan Gonzalez, Minister of Defense Juan "Fi" Ortiz. Chief of Staff Gloria Gonzalez, Field Marshal David Perez, Field Marshal Denise Oliver, Former Minister of Economic Development Pablo "Yoruba" Guzman, Minister of Information "I have lived in the belly of the monster, I have seen its entrails, and mine is the sling of David." — Jose Marti TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 2 2. DEFINITION OF TERMS 3 3. ON HISTORY AND DIALECTICS , 5 by Yoruba 4. PROTRACTED WAR IN PUERTO RICO 13 by Gloria Gonzalez 5. ECONOMIC AND MILITARY STRUGGLE 20 by Juan Gonzalez 6. COLONIZED MENTALITY AND NON-CONSCIOUS IDEOLOGY 26 by Denise Oliver 7. THE PARTY AND THE STATE 33 by David Perez 8. THE PARTY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 37 by Juan "Fi" Ortiz 9. ANALYSIS OF PUERTO RICAN SOCIETY ^ 1 INTRODUCTION This is the beginning of the ideology of the Young Lords Party. What is ideology? It is a system of ideas, of principles, that a person or group uses to explain to them how things operate in the world. Our ideology was developed out of the experiences of almost two years of struggling everyday with our people against their oppression. The systematic ideas and principles in this pamphlet are guiding us as to the best way to lead the liberation struggle of the Puerto Rican nation. These are not fixed, rigid ideas, but constantly developed as we constantly work to serve and protect the people. There are certain principles that are fixed and unchangeable to us, though. First, is collective leadership, not individuua I leadership. One individual can never see the whole of a problem. Only collectives of people, working together, can solve problems correctly. Second, we can understand nothing unless we understand history. One of the problems of the Puerto Rican and amerikkkan revolutionary movements is that they have not done systematic, scientific study of their history and so do not yet understand the countries that they wish to liberate. Third, a revolutionary must be one with the people, serving, protecting, and respecting the people at all times. '^Wherever a Puerto Rican is, tlie duty off a Puerto Rican is to maice tiie revolution." GLORIA GONZAUZ, FIILD MARSHAL DEFINITIONS When we begin to read and study things on revolution, on how other people's have liberated themselves and on how we can develop our revolution, we come across a lot of new words we have never heard or seen before. We should learn what the words mea n and then learn how to explain those ideas to our brothers and sisters in ways they can understand. Nation: A people who have had the same history, culture, language, and usually have lived in the same territory for a long pe riod of time. Colony: A nation which is controlled economically, culturally, militarily by another country and whose government is run by that other country. Capitalism: A way of running the economy of a nation, where a few of the people in the nation own the factories, trains, business, commerce, and the majority of the people work for those owners. The few capitalists make large amounts of money by selling what the rest of the people make-the products, like dresses, cars, copper, oil. This is called profit. Vendepatria: A sell-out. One who has sold out his or her people for money or power. Contradiction: When two things are opposed to each other, for instance, right and wrong, up and down, good and bad. When you have a contradiction, you have a problem that has to be solved. If someone says that the way to get to a place is by turning right, and someone else says it's by turning left, you can't get to that place until the contradiction is soived-it's either right or left. Jibaro: The mixture of mostly Spanish and Taino, but also some Blacks, who developed in the mountains and campos of Puerto Rico mostly as small farmers and as peasants. The language is Spanish, the culture Spanish and Indian. Afro-boricua: The mixture of mostly Spanish and African who developed in the sugar cane plantations and coasts of Puerto Rico doing fishing, and whose ancestors were slaves. iVIost Black Puerto Ricans try to call themselves mulattos when the language is Spanish, but the culture and customs are still mostly African, and when the racist societies of Spain and Amerikkka still treat them as though they are inferior. Class: The group of persons that an individual belongs to all of whom make their living the same way. For instance, lumpen make their living by surviving -stealing, prostitution, dope, etc.. The workers make their living by working for someone. The petty-bourgeois make their living by working for themselves, the peasants make their living working on the land for themselves or someone else. The bourgeois make their money off the labor of everyone else. They don't work at all. Self-determination: It means very individual, every nationality has the right to determine their own lives, their, future, as long as they don't mess over other people. A nation shoud be free from control by another nation. Independence: When a nation has a government made up of people from that country, but it is still controlled economically, and culturally by another country. National liberation: When a country is completely free from control by another nation. When the people are in control of the government, economy and afmy. Lombriz: A parasitic worm that produces intestinal disease, found in tropical countries. We use this word for all the Puerto Rican traitors, for the parasites they are. **The price of imperialism is fives." JUAN GONZALES 4 ON HISTORY & DIALECTICS The Young Lords Party has always believed in the correct studying of our history, the history of the nation. Puerto Ricans are told we have no past, not as good as the oppressor's past. So finding out the truth is a good thing. See, the game that the amerikkkan enemy runs is to tell us that we ain't got no history, no roots, no tradition, no nothing. In this way, we are made to feel as though we have just popped up, and when we move against the enemy, we move blindly. If we had a knowledge of history, we could study the mistakes and successes of those who came before; instead of starting anew, we could begin where the last generation left off. It is time that all Puerto Ricans get down to studying our history. This serves three purposes: 1) We'll be able to check out what our ancestors did and did not do. Also, we'll get a sense of our people's development. In a national liberation struggle like ours, a movement must be built that comes from the people, from our experiences, sorrows, joys. There is a certain way to organize the Puerto Rican nation, as opposed to say, the Polish nation. 2) Studying history allows us to see the enemy's master plan develop, such as the one being used to control Puerto Ricans. 3) Finding out about our roots gives us a certain pride in the knowledge that we have withstood oppression for so long. We must transmit this righteous pride to all of our people. Let me run something down on history. In school, or in society in general, we are taught that events in history take place because of a few "great" individuals, like Napoleon or George Washington (specifically, "great" white males). We are taught that history goes in cycles, that it repeats itself. This is atl jive. In the Young Lords Party, we are training ourselves in thinking scientifically, in looking at things from an orderly point of view to arrive at the right conclusions. All Puerto Ricans concerned with their people must begin to see things in a scientific way. Scientific?: Well, we learned in school that the way a scientist approaches a problem is by way pf a thing called the scientific method. The scientist first say, "What do I want to get out of this thing after I understand it? Where do I want to go? Now what would be the best way of getting through this problem and to my goal?" And then the scientist lays out each step, one by one, until the goal is reached. This is the way we must lay out the revolution, using our passion, our feelings, to keep us going, step by step, until we are free. This means that we will become something catted "dialec- tical materialists." What does this mean? First, take the word dialectics. Dialectics is the study of contradictions. What is a contradiction? We've heard about something being contradictory, right? Like say you're having a discussion with someone, and then they say one thing and you say the opposite. That's a contradiction, and it must be resolved one way or the other. The both of you could have an argument and walk away, or a unity of thing between you will arise. Contradictions are everywhere, even in nature. Say you have a herd of pigs, the last herd left. Then say there are some people who are starving , and they come across the pigs, a decision has to be made. The people or the pigs. That's a contradiction. A Puerto Rican in, say, high school who hears their history teacher say "history repeats itself," will say, "No good, teacher. History flows, like a river, and the course that river takes depends on how contradictions are resolved. In other words, history is always moving ahead, teacher, going forward, once a contradiction is dealt with (resolved). Sometimes a contradiction is resolved in a way that it only looks as though history repeats itself." That sister or brother would say, "See, let's say you have a nation where most of the people are starving, and a few people in power are eating well. That's a contradiction. It could be resolved either by the people rising against those in power, like in Cuba in 1959, or by those in power taking the country into a war against another country, like the united states in 1941 against Japan (sometimes the rulers of a country go to war so that the people forget their internal problems, like their stomachs)." This Puerto Rican would say, "That's history, that's life: you have contradictions, they get resolved, which changes history's course, and since there are always contradictions. there will always be new changes." Some contradictions are the ones between machismo and male-female liberation, or between capitalism and socialism. The second word is materialism. This means that all of these contradiction occur in the real world, the world we can see around us. Many times, for example, the economic facts of life cause other things to happen. Yet, we are taught in school that the united states went into World War I "to make the world safe for Democracy." This is a lie. The u.s.a. went into World War I for the same reason it went into the Mexican-American invasion, Spanish-Amerikkkan invasion, Korean and Indo-China Wars — economics. Wealth. As an imperialist country, amerikkka resolves the contradiction of constantly needing more wealth to keep its machinery running by going to war to rip off land (Puerto Rico from Spain) and to put people to work at home. (Defense contracts=factories=employment=products=consumers). Scientific analysis show that it is materialism, real things, that exist in the world. Part of dialectics is that everything has its opposite, and the opposite of materialism is metaphysics, idealism. Idealism is ideas that have nothing to do with reality. It's like saying that the reason why flowers grow is because of magic, or why people are here is because man was made from dirt, and woman came from man's rib. The reason why flowers grow or Why people are here is because of certain scientific laws of nature. That is real. That is materialism. With this kind of thinking in mind we can now briefly cover Puerto Rican and Black history. Why? Well, there are contradictions between people and the enemy; these are natural contradictions since it is the enemy that enslaves us. Contradictions with the enemy are antagonistic, non-friendly. These differences are resolved ultimately through war. Then there are contradictions among the people. We have been divided and conquered by the enemy in hundreds of ways — housewives against prostitutes, young against old, men against women, Puerto Ricans against Afro-Americans, unionized workers against non-union workers, workers 8 against drug addicts, families against other families, one ar rabale against another. These contradictions should be kept non-antagonistic and settled among ourselves, as friends so we can unite against the enemy. So, in studying Black and Puerto Rican history, we look at the history of the contradictions between Blacks and Puerto Ricans as differences among brothers and sisters oppressed by the yankee. "We wasn't thinking about the other guys being Puerto Ricans •••if he was your enemy, you iciii him*" CEORGIE We studied the history of Puerto Ricans. First, we saw that the u.s.a. took control of Puerto Rico because they were preparing a "safety valve" country in case the "Black Problem" got too heavy. In case Afro-Americans increased their efforts to remove their chains, the u.s. intended to ship the Black people to Puerto Rico, the Phillipines, and Hawaii. The gringo came claiming to be liberators from Spain, and our people couldn't even understand the lies since they were made in english. We were ruled by interpreters. By changing the currency of Puerto Rico to u.s. dollars, one unit of the old currency was now worth 60 cents amerikkkan. Then a hurricane wiped out the coffee crop (the only crop), and this, combined with the currency devaluation drove people bankrupt overnight. A severe depression set in. The u.s. self-proclaimed liberators of the island, sent aid to Puerto Rico that amounted to about 8 cents a person. Dig that. Already the Yankees had a master plan — First, to take military control; then, to make Puerto Ricans citizens; then change the colony to a dominion status, like Canada; then make it a state. This plan was made in the early 1900s and the enemy is right on schedule. The governors amerikkka picked to rule over us weren't exactly gems, either. They were perverts and lames. Not one knew a thing about diplomacy, shown in how they constantly said openly racist stuff, or got caught either embezzling or having late-night sessions with ambassador's wives. We studied how Munoz Marin weasled his way into power, running an independence line here, a commonwealth line there. Most important we saw bmbriz Ferre's scheme for getting Puerto Rico to be a state: 1) Before the '72 elections, he was gonna ask Nixon to set up a commission to see if Puerto Rico could vote for u.s. president. (The commission has already been set up). A referendum would be called for the people. 2} They are then gonna ask that the resident commissioner who now sits and watches what happens in the amerikkkan House of Representatives, be doubled (another resident commissioner) and the both of them would be given the right to vote. 3) Ferre runs for governor again in 1972 on a maintain the commonwealth line. 4) After Ferre wins, after there are two resident commissioners in the house of representatives, and after the island is given the presedential vote (so that Puerto Rico can vote for Mix on in 1972) Ferre puts out the referendum to make Puerto Rico a state. Ironically, the u.s. congress may be most strongly opposed to this. A tot of those red-necks wouldn't want no "spanish-speaking colored, poor, illiterate, nasty, smelly fornicating, rum-drinking, welfaring, stupid, lazy, troublesome spies" to be a state. Next, it is important to study the history of Afro-American people. Many people think that Puerto Rican history is like one circle sitting by itself on one side, and Afro-American history is a circle sitting by itself on another side. Actually, the two circles are linked together. To study Black history is to complete the study of Puerto Rican history, and vice-versa. African people were brought, in chains, to the americas, and the resistance started from day one. The ships brought Africans to Hispanola, Cuba, Jamaica, Brazil, Puerto Rico, etc. Moving through history, we see how many of the organizations and tendencies of the Black movement in Amerikkka are definite outgrowths of history as are all people's movements, 10 The Young Lords Party recognizes Black people in the united states as the leaders of that country's revolution, since they have been the most oppressed people in that empire's history. Wo other people in amerikkka were ripped off from f i their country and brought here as slaves. For 400 years, the only change in Black people's conditions was that the visible chains were removed and non-visible ones put on — like segregated schools, ghettoes, police aggression, or mind-bending chains like "No niggers allowed" signs. One of our most important allies in the fight for the national liberation of Puerto Rico, will be Afro-Americans, and we must eliminate the racism that divides us now, or else all of us be killed off separately. Let us look at the history of the revolutionary struggle in the united states. For example, most of us never were taught in school the true history of that empire, how it expanded from a rebellious little colony of England to destroy a whole people, the Native American, how it committed genocide against the Hawaiian people, how it conquered and exploited the Filipino people, how it forced large numbers of Chinese, Mexicans, and Japanese to leave their countries to come to the U.S. like Puerto Ricans did, looking for jobs, how it massacred large numbers of poor European immigrants who rebelled against the conditions they were forced to work in. Most of us were never taught in school about a righteous white workers' movement of the early 1900's called the International Workers' of the World (IWW) or the Wobblies. These were some revolutionary people. In the early 1900s amerikkka was uptight. It may seem shocking to us now with the hardhats walking around, but these white workers were revolutionary. And the IWW was the leadership of their struggle. One leader of that movement was Elizabeth Gurley Flynn who was a leader of a general strike of 25,000 workers in Patterson, New Jersey. What happened to this progressive movement was the sell-out political parties, like the socialist party, and the enemy's tricks like World War I, and their final tool - repression, the jailing and killing of many leaders. We must study white amerikkka's background to see how the monster developed, then we can begin to move in the manner which Jose Marti 19th century Cuban Revolutionary, described, "I have lived in the monster, and know its entrails (insides), and mine is the sling of David." 12 PROTRACTED WAR IN PUERTO RICO The concept of Protracted War best describes the history of the Puerto Rican people. For many centuries our people have been invaded by one nation or another. Two oppressors were successful, the Spaniards in 1493, and the yankees in 1898. When a country is invaded by another, it becomes a colony, slave, of the occupier, and that control stops the normal development of the people. In Boriquen, the Taino nation had its own economic, social and political structure, and was developing in its own way. When these people came they used the riches of the island to aid Spain's development and destroy the Tainos. The Taino people rose up against the enemy. The war did not last long, because the Spaniards, with their plunder of the rest of Latin America, had more power and arms. Many Tainos died, some because of diseases the Spaniards had brought, others through the war, and the rest fled to the mountains to avoid slavery. Then the Spaniards had the problem of who would be their slaves. Beginning in the 1500s, they showed how barbaric and criminal they were. They began to ravage the African lands, kidnapping our Yoruba brothers and sisters to serve as slaves. By the 1600s there had been four slave revolts. We were once again defeated, but they did not destroy us, as is shown through the influence of African culture in Puerto Rico. Out of these temporary defeats, our people became stronger, and by the 1800s, the Puerto Rican nation, as we know it today, was formed, of the mixture of Taino, 13 Yoruban, and Spanish, of the most exploited by those in power of men and women more determined than ever to be free. Among the many freedom fighters were Ramon Emeterio Betances, Maria Bacetti, and Segundo Ruis Belvis. These were the ones who toward 1868 raised the cry for liberation on September 23, in Lares. Eventhough we were defeated again, Betances knew what a protracted war was and he said, "Men and women pass, but principles continue on and eventually triumph." And so our struggle for liberation continued. In 1898, the Spaniards had war declared on them by the united states and were quickly defeated. As a result, Puerto Rico passed from one slavery into another. Now the invaders were Yankees, and on July 25, 1898, 18,000 amerikkkan troops landed at Guanica. This new invader would be the most criminal and vicious that has touched our land, and with the new invasion began the new war of liberation. The principles established by the Taino nation, by the African people, and then by the revolution of Lares were advanced by the Nationalist Party, which in the 1930s proved to the Yankees that our people have never been docile. During this time our people suffered from unbelieveable hunger and misery--that was the "democracy" the Yankees brought to us. The Nationalist Party, under the leadership of Don Pedro Albizu Campos, became the defenders of the people. In 1936, the amerikkkans arrested Don Pedro and the rest of the leadership of the party, because they were considered a threat to their plans. It was during this period that occurred what we have come to know as the Ponce Massacre. On March 21, 1937, the Nationalist Party organized a demonstration in Ponce. The day was the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the era of the Spaniards. The demonstration was to let the Yankees know that our people would not tolerate either political prisoners or continued occupation. Throughout this period the amerikkans had one of their own as governor. At the time the criminal was called Blanton 14 Winship, and he, along with the lombrice, Corsado, gave the order to assassinate the nationalists; 200 persons were wounded and 22 killed. With this act the united states declared war on the Puerto Rican nation. The enemies of our people continued their brutal attacks, arresting 2,000 persons and sentencing many to 400 years of prison after the revolt of Jayuya in 1950. All of this had one sole aim-to end the operation of all the just struggle for liberty because we were receiving international support. In addition to all of this, the yankees began operation "co-option." That is. they looked for sellout traitors, and during this period they began to heavily support the electoral parties, especially the Popular Party led by traitor Munoz Marin. The combination of the repression of the Nationalist Party and the lies of the Popular Party created a lot of confusion among the people. Another important factor was **lf our people fight one tribe at a time, ail will be killed. They can cut off our fingers one by one, but if we join together we'll make a powerful fist." LITTLE TURTLE, MASTER GENERAL OF THE MIAMI INDIANS, 1791 that the Yankees tried to weaken us by dividing the people through "Operation Bootstrap," and they moved 1/3 of the Puerto Ricans to the united states, but our struggle continued. 15 It's true that they weakened us when they took away our revolutionary leadership, but what they did not understand was that it is impossible to stop a liberation struggle. Once again, in the united states, we rose up in the belly of the monster. In 1965, we rebelled, together with Black people in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and in New Jersey; wherever there were boricuas, the cry of liberty was heard. Out of those rebellions, developed the Young Lords Organization in Chicago, in 1969. With the example of the Afro-american people, who throughout their prolonged war inside the united states, raised consciousness among Puerto Ricans, and with the principles and examples of Don Pedro, Lolita Lebron, Dona Blanca Canales, the YLO began to organize the Puerto Ricans in Chicago . Meanwhile, in New York arose a group, the Society of Albizu Campos, young students and lumpen {lumpen are the class in our nation which for years and years have not been able to find jobs, and are forced to be drug addicts, prostitutes, etc.), all of whom had the same sole objective, the liberation of Puertd Rico on the island and inside the united states. The Young Lords of Chicago united with the Society of Albizu Campos to create the national organization. With a 13 Point Program the organization began to serve and protect the people, with free breakfast programs, free health and clothing programs , and with the taking of the People's Church, where the organization was recognized as a group with support from the community . Each day the organization won more support, but it found itself with many problems. Because of its oppression, the Chicago group did not understand the necessity for discipline and political education, which is needed to achieve our liberation, and was not able to further the struggle. In New York, was the Eastern region with a much more disciplined and developed leadership, which was anxious to advance the struggle. We split with Chicago and fomed the Young Lords Party. With three bases in El Barrio, another in New Jersey, and another in the South Bronx, the Party began to analyze Puerto Rican society, and we soon realized that 16 '^ 2/3 of our people, almost wholly unknown to us, lived on the island. The analysis of Puerto Rican society made it clear that our nation is composed of distinct classes and social groups and with this understanding we began to formalize ideas to bring the Party to all sectors of our people. Always remembering that we are a revolutionary party whose goal is complete national liberation, and about the job of uniting that nation. In August, 1970, two leaders of the Party, Juan Gonzalez and Juan Fi Ortiz, made the first official Party visit to the island. From that trip we analyzed a number of things. For example, we saw that the struggle in the united states was much more advanced since the conditions in the u.s.--the racism, the oppression was much clearer; hunger and oppression expose quickly the lies of the amerikkkan dream. Although it's true that there were other established independence groups, the Movement for Puerto Rican Independence, founded in 1959. the Puerto Rican Independence Party, founded in 1947, the origin of these groups was either from the petty or upper bourgeoisie (the middle and upper classes}. Also, they were either social movements or electoral parties. As the years have passed, 17 these organizations have raised the consciousness of the people, especially MPI, but for our revolution to succeed it's clear that we need more revolutionary leadership. With this in mind, we began the preparations for the move to the island, this being the best way to unite the 1/3 of our people on the island and the 2/3 in the u.s. The Yankees have divided and weakened us in many ways- the analysis of Puerto Rican society helps us to understand the divisions. First, we have to unite the two most oppressed classes, the lumpens and the workers, and also the two social groups in which our people are divided, the most oppressed Afro-Puerto Ricans and the jibaros. This is not to say that we won't also unite the petty-bourgeoisie and the students. As we have seen, with a little education, they will come in large numbers to follow the lead of the people and will take part in the revolution. Taking into account our origin in the u.s., we began to analyze the 2/3 in Puerto Rico. In the northeast of the island, are the towns of Loiza Aldea, Fajardo, Rio Grande, Canovanas: it was to these towns that the Spaniards brought the African slaves, and to this day these towns, with one third of the island's population, are Afro-Puerto Ricans, victims not only of exploitation, but of racism. Carolina is one of the most industrialized towns where the Yankees have built many factories, and the people are all workers. In this area are the big arrabales (slums), like El Cano, in Santurce, Barrio Obrero, Martin Pena, Cataf%, and the housing projects like Lloren Torres where 26,000 people live, and communities with large lumpen populations, like La Peria, in San Juan. With this, we have briefly described the north of the island. The second area of major importance is the center-- Lares, Adjuntas, Jayuya, and the south. Ponce, Cabo Rojo, Salinas, and Guanica. The social group of the center is what by the 18th century received the name Jibaro. The jibaro of that period was humble and illiterate because of their exploitation, very superstitious, and always ready to defend their honor. It was rare when the jibaro or jibara visited the town. Their calendar was the many hurricanes that passed over the land. The jibaro of today continues to be illiterate, not so superstitious, and now not only visists but lives in the big towns, now that the Yankees have forced them to leave their lands, turning them into tomato pickers in New Jersey or dishwashers in New Y ork. The jibara, who once had her herd of pigs, her house in the mountains, now is a worker in a factory making a miserable amount, while producing brassieres. It's obvious why this group, a large part of our population, will give strength to the revolutionary movementOur job is immense. We have called it the Chains Off Offensive (Ofensiva Rompecadenas). To reunite our nation, we began with a demonstration on the 21st of March, the 34th anniversary of the Ponce Massacre. Together with our revolutionary example , the Nationalist Party, we raised once again the cry of liberty in Puerto Rico. |re are many reasons why we chose Ponce. Pecans the secohcLJargest city on the island, next to^atitfuan. The place where Dbits^edro was born, it is al^oxtflrfiere the Yankees have establishe^Ks^emicjJ'-'-'plants, although the unemployment is imjJjaJWfi^We have all sectors of our society Wvinajitare^^me lumpert»Nqnd workers and also the differgjjt-'fScial groups, Afro -PuertftN,^ cans and jibaros. lyunified can we break the chains of sla^ For the Puerto Rican nation this is another stage in our protracted war for liberation. To achieve our liberation we need a revolutionary Party, representative of all the people with one sole objective, national liberation. In that way we will give our largest contribution to the other oppressed people's of the world, as the people of Vietnam have done for us. Liberate Puerto Rico now! Venteremos! 18 19 ■m^MiiijiAMiM^^ ECONOMIC AND MILITARY STRUGGLE On the television, in newspapers, wherever Puerto Ricans go, they tell us that money is the key to a good life, that if you work hard you'll make enough money. But who tells us that money is the key — the ones who have the money, who own the televisions, the factories, azucareras, the refineries, the hotels, the restaurants, the hospitals, and even own the government. We work and sweat for $50, $70, $100 a week. We work and the companies grow, and the bosses get richer, and we stay the same. And whatever we produce the owners sell for a lot more money, that's their profit, for doing nothing. We, the people, work and they, the capitalists, profit. We must begin to demand that all the money and factories made from our sweat and blood be returned to us. We know that this is the only system where a woman can work nine hours in a factory, produce dozens of dresses in one day and not go home with enough money to buy herself a dress. That's why many of us hate our bosses, and we should — they are robbing us. That's why many of us would like to, and do, steal the bosses' products, because they belong to us. If we study history, if we talk to our parents, we will see that things were not always this way. Capitalism is just one phase of the human race. It has existed since the late 1700s, but the human race is probably 25,000 years old. The whole history of human beings is the story of our trying to develop our ability to survive, to have food, clothing, shelter, and mental satisfaction. We used our hands, feet, and brains to increase our power to survive, to produce out of nature, what we needed. First we traveled in tribes looking for food. Little by little we settled in one place, the men hunting and the women bearing children and planting food. As agriculture became more developed, not everyone was needed to look for food, so some people could do other things. Some farmed, others made clothing, or tools, or built homes, and little by little cities developed. Then, some began to become more wealthy than others and soon enslaved others to work for them — like the Pharoahs of Egypt, the Emperors of Japan, or the Aztecs of Mexico. Then came the period of feudalism, when there was no slavery but people were serfs, worked on the land of one rich prince or another. All these periods did not come at the same time all over the earth. Some areas, like the African nations of Mali, Songhay, or the Biblical kingdoms of Mesopotamia, developed faster, or at different times. Then came the period of capitalism and of nations with a state and a regular army, both working under the employ of the capitalists, who began to buy and sell politicians like they bought and sold goods. In the 1800s revolutions in France and all of Europe brought the rising young businessmen to power against the feudal Kings and Queens. Why was it that Europe, a backward and barbarian country in the year 1300, rose to conquer the world by the year 1900 is hard to say. Maybe it was because Europe was sitting on much of the iron needed to build factories and had many rivers needed for steam and electric power to run those factories With that iron they built the guns that conquered the rest of the world in a few hundred years. As capitalism developed, there was competition between them to control the wealth; the little ones were cheated, killed, outcompeted by the big ones, who then began to look to other countries in the world where they could make money. They looked to Latin America, Asia, and Africa, trying to find natural resources, cheap labor, and more consumers. We call this, when one nation oppresses another nation. Imperialism. In the 1930s came the world-wide depression. Millions of 20 21 people were out of jobs — capitalism had collapsed because of its own faults. In Puerto Rico, the depression meant complete hunger and misery. The old type of competitive democratic capitalism had failed. A new type of capitalism was suggested by one of their own politicians, named Adolf Hitler. He put forth fascism, open dictatorship and genocide as a solution to the problem. Meanwhile, Roosevelt in north amerikkka put forth the "welfare state", the government controlling things peacefully for the welfare of the businessman. We call this monopoly capitalism. Rexford Tugwell was Roosevelt's lacky in Puerto Rico and he together with lombriz Muftbz Marfh developed Operation Bootstrap, the welfare state idea for Puerto Rico. Roosevelt was a left-wing capitalist and Hitler a right-winger. These divisions still exist. ISitxon, Reagan (the governor of California} and Ferre are right-wing and Lindsay (the niayor of New York City), Kennedy, and Munoz Marin are left-wingers. Both are enemies of the peoples. World War II was a war between left-wing and right-w/tng capitalists. But the ones who fought the war are the ones who always fight the wars, the poor and oppressed people. The capitalist and generals always stay far away from their own wars. White the u.s. and its allies fought Germany, in Asia, and China, which had been long exploited, was fighting the Japanese fascists. Twenty million Chinese were killed by the Japanese but China liberated itself and in 1949 emerged as a socialist country with 1/4 of the world's population. Since then Korea, Vietnam, Cuba have also become socialist, and little by little capitalism is dying. Chile and Guinea-Bissau and other countries are not far behind. We must begin to study economics. We must begin to learn how the yankees invaded Puerto Rico destroyed our economy and rebuilt another to meet their needs. The main capitalist countries are the united states, england, france, germany, japan. They are surrounded by the 2/3 of the world which is starving, homeless, and angry. The europeans and yankees are like one big city and the Third World is the countryside. They must fight genocidal wars in 22 ^ •: the countryside as well as fight against their own internal enemies. The first front is Indo-China. The second front is Palestine. Where will the third front be? Puerto Rico? Black America? Brazil? India? Meanwhile, these wars are destroying northamerikkka internally. A recession in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and ^e world is leaving hundreds of thousands out of jobs. Layoffs in New Jersey factories, Fajardo sugar centrales, Mayaguez refineries, the New York garment center, general 23 motors plants, and the California aviation industry. For the first time since the depression, workers are looking to revolutionaries for the solution to their problems. This is just a summary, but it shows that we have much to study in economics and world politics. If we are to liberate Puerto Rico and control our own destiny, we must study how we have been enslaved and how we will release the power of the people, through socialist revolution. The amerikkkans tell us we can't exist without them. But Albania, Israel, Switzerland, are all countries with similar populations and area and they exist well. They tell us we have no natural resources, but they try to steal $3,000,000,000 of copper from the island's center. Another deposit of $2,000,000,000 worth of nickel was found in Mayaguez, and they are looking for oil in the off-shore areas. They tell us we have no food but before they came we grew our own food and ate decently and we fished in our own waters. Now we eat only canned foods and New England codfish. Yes, we can and will be free from the Yankee. MILITARY People ask how can Puerto Ricans, 2,700,000 on the island and 1,500,000 in the united states, possibly hope to fight a war of liberation against the united states, 200,000,000 strong and the most advanced country in the world? Our island is 100 miles by 35 miles. The united states is 3,000 miles by 1,000 miles. The u.s. is thousands of times bigger. First, the Young Lords Party and the Puerto Rican people do not want war. We would prefer peaceful liberation. We would prefer that the yankees left Puerto Rico and gave us self-determination in the u.s.a. peacefully. But they refuse. Instead, they cover 14% of our land with military bases and bombard our islands of Culebras and Vieques. So we have no choice but to fight for liberation. The other choice is the slow destruction of the Puerto Rican nation into the 51st state. 24 If they want war, we will fight it on our terms. That means first that the liberation war for Puerto Rico will not just be fought on the island but also in the u.s.a. Since there are Puerto Ricans in every state of the u.s.a. forced to leave their homes by the yankee, we will fight wherever we are, because the enemy is the same, from Humacao to Aguadilla, from Florida to Seattle. If there are less than 5,000,000 of us, we will show the strength there is in unity. Since we have lived and developed close together for 500 years we are more unified as a people. If they forced us to work in their factories, we will fight in their factories. If they filled our land with military bases, we will fight on their bases. If they herded 1,000,000 of us into their most important city. New York, then we will fight in that city. If they use us to slave in migrant camps and factories throughout their east coast, then we will wage war on that coast. If they stuck us in barrios isolated and oppressed, we will take control of these communities. If they have bombers, missiles, modern weapons, and a regular army, then we will fight guerilla warfare, with few weapons, gotten from them, but using creativity and our own resources. If we are a few and they are many, then we will fight a protracted war, eating them away little by little, one by one, until they either withdraw or are crushed. We will always be on the initiative, always fighting to win. We have the moral superiority because our people fight for freedom, for their homes, and loved ones, while the enemy fights for money. We only attack when we know we'll win. The enemy attacks whenever he can, and many times loses. Our army will be made up of free, thinking, men, women, and children — a true People's Army. Their reactionary army is made up of mostly racist, robot-like men. If the U.S. appears strong, it is just a trick. Thirty million Black people, 20,000,000 Chicanos and Chicanas, 500,000 Hawaiians, 500,000 Chinese Americans, 250,000 Japanese Americans, and 700,000 Native Americans and millions of young and poor white people fight with us. The u.s. is really very weak. 25 In the rest of the world, with Indo-China, Palestine, and Latin America rising up for freedom the amerikkkan army is weak and overextended. With socialist countries like China, the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Korea, watching it, u.s. imperialism can't do whatever it wants. So we are sure to win if we maintain unity and strength, and if we remember that combined with our fighting is the constant education and mobilizing of lumpen, workers, and students. Guerrilla War, People's War, Protracted War, is the key to an underdeveloped people defeating a larger, more technologically advanced people. COLONIZED MENTALITY & We are all fighting against an enemy, the Yankee and the Puerto Rican lombrices. The one major thing that holds us back in our fight to liberate Puerto Ricans and all oppressed people is a lack of unity. If we are not united, like a fist, we are weaker in our battle. In unity there is strength, and a nation divided is a weak nation. We have been divided geographically, with one third of the nation on the mainland and two thirds on the island. To be stronger we must unite. But even this unification will not be enough if we still fight against each other. One of the problems that we face is the fact that we have been taught to fight against each other. Capitalism is a system that forces us to climb over our brothers and sisters' backs to get to the top. It is like a race, in which the prize is survival, with 500 people in it, and only one person is the winner — the one who gets to the finish line first, the losers all starve to death. The prize money which is equal to life: We fight against each other to live, and we are divided into groups that fight against each other. These groups are formed out of artificial divisions of race and 26 NON- CONSCIOUS IDEOLOGY sex, and social groupings. The struggle between men and women, the struggle between lumpens and workers are all contradictions among the people. Contradictions among the people must be erased in order to form a solid fist, a fighting force to destroy the enemy. iVIany of these divisions that exist are a result of colonization. Puerto r^icans are a colonized people. As a result of the oppression suffered for generations and generations, first under Spain and then under the amerikkkans we all develop a "colonized mentality". The colonizers divide us up, teach us to think we are inferior, and teach us to fight against each other, because as long as we fight against each other we won't deal with our real problems — slavery, hunger, and misery. We are brainwashed by the newspapers we read, the books they write for us, the television, the radio, the schools, and the church, that we don't know what our real thoughts are anymore. We are afraid to be leaders, because we are taught to be followers. We have been told that we are docile so long, that we have forgotten that we have always been fighters. We are afraid to speak in public because we have been taught not to speak out. We are told that we cannot exist without amerikkkans in Puerto Rico, and we believe it, even though we know that our nation existed for hundreds of years without them. All of this brainwashing, this "colonized mentality" holds us back from our liberation. If you take 10 rats and lock them up in a cage which is only big enough for 5 rats, some of them will kill each other and some of them will go insane, just as we kill each other in the streets for five dollars, or in a stupid argument, and just as we go insane and turn to drugs to 27 cover up the ugly reality of our lives. We can only unchain our minds from this colonized mentality if we learn our true history, understand our culture, and work towards unity. This colonization is responsible for the racism that exists in our nation. We do not see it all the time, and most Puerto Ricans believe that we don't have any racism. Most people will tell you "we are all Puerto Ricans, we are all different colors, none of us are black or white, we are just Puerto Ricans." But that doesn't mean that racism doesn't exist. It is so deep that we just don't see it anymore. The darker members of every Puerto Rican family have felt it all their lives. We have been so brainwashed that it has become unconscious. The Young Lords Party calls this "non-conscious ideology." We believe that Black is bad and ugly and dirty, that kinky hair is "pelo malo," we call Black Puerto Ricans names like prieto, mouUeto, and cocolo. We are not proud that our ancestors were slaves so many or us say we are "spanish" or "castillians." Our birth certificate says white even if the reality when we look in the mirror is very dark. jj^g Spanish treated the slaves as if they vtsrs animals, and none of us want to believe that Qur ancestors were animals, so we "non-consciously" reject the Blackness we are all a part of. All Puerto Ricans have a Black heritage, in our culture, in the way Spanish is spoken, in the blood which flows through our veins. Having slaves for ancestors is not something to be ashamed of; one should be proud to know that one's ancestors were strong enough to live through the horrors of slavery, strong because of the rich and beautiful history of Africa. We are taught that Africans were savages, and this makes us non-consciously ashamed of our past. We must study true African history, of the civilizations of Mali and Songhay, for this history is part of our history. The Young Lords Party is a Party of Afro-Americans and Puerto Ricans. Both have the same roots in the past, similar culture and the same types of "colonized mentality." Because of the Black Power and Black Pride movement inside of the united states, American Blacks are now able to hold their heads up high 28 ''The chains that have been taken off slaves' bodies are put bade on their minds." DAVID PEREZ and be proud of their past. It is necessary that we understand and study Puerto Rican history, much of which is African history so that we can move on ridding ourselves of the barriers that exist between Afro-boricua and jibaro. We should not be afraid to criticize ourselves about racism. We are all racists, not because we want to be, but because we are taught to be that way, to keep us divided, because it benefits the capitalist system. And this applies to racism towards Asians, other Brown people, and towards white people. White people are not the oppressor — capitalists are. We will never have socialism until we are free of these chains on our mind. The other way in which "non-conscious ideology" divides our people is through machismo, or male chauvinism. We have said for a long time that sisters and brothers should be equal in the struggle, that men and women should work together and that Puerto Rican men should not oppress their wives, mothers, and daughters anymore. When we said that machismo is fascism, we were saying something that was true, but we couldn't understand the reasons why men became uptight when they were accused of machismo. Brothers could not understand why some of the ways that they treat sisters are wrong. Brothers did not know how to act differently than their fathers and grandfathers have always acted toward women. Is it all right to rap to a sister? Should I give a woman a complement? Is it machismo if I want to protect a woman? Because we did not understand why there is this division we could not explain well enough, all we could say was machismo was bad, male chauvinism is wrong, you are oppressing your sisters. 29 On the other hand, we c.iticize sisters for being passive and docile. We wi nt womeii to become leaders, to speak out in public, to stop being shy ?v6 timid, to learn to be strong. We tell sisters to change, the way our mothers have taught us to be, the way our mothers mothers' have always been. And again, we did not completely understand why our sisters had difficulty in understanding what passivity is, and how to change. Sisters still volunteered to cook and sew, to take care of children. Sisters still felt more comfortable letting the men Palestinian Women's Militia Jordan, July 1970 be the leaders. Sisters don't like other women to be leaders either. We did not understand why women constantly get into arguments with each other. When a woman is strong and a leader she is considered to ba a "bitch." When a man is 3n strong he is a "good leader." But why? We have realized that the division of the sexes between male and female have existed for such a long time, that all societies have accepted the "fact" that there is a difference between men and women. We know that the only differences are biological — women have a womb and ovaries and they make eggs, and men manufacture sperm. All societies developed around the first oppression; man used woman as a worker, to reproduce, to make babies, while men were free to do other things. This ideology of a division of the sexes is called "sexism," just like the ideology of the division of the races is called "racism." Both are "non-conscious ideologies," From the simple fact that women produce babies and men didn't, developed all sorts of ideas that women were a certain type of human and men another type of human. What is a man? What is a woman? "Non-consctously" we believe a man is strong, aggressive, hairy, bad, decisive, hard, cold, firm, intelligent. "Non-consciously" a woman is weak, timid, smooth, soft-spoken, scatter-brained, soft, warm, dumb, and loving. Both of these sets of descriptions are a result of the way we have trained "non-consciously." From the time a baby is born it is taught by its parents and by society to be a "man" or a "woman." If it grew up alone, with no outside influences what would its personality be like? Just because it has a womb, would it be weak? If it had a penis, would it be aggressive and strong? No. These traits of personality are part of the way we are taught to be. A little boy wears blue. A little girl wears pink. A little boy is given trains, trucks, toy soldiers and baseball bats to play with. Little girls get dolls and suzie homemaker sets. Litde boys wear dungarees and can play rough and get dirty. Little girls wear dresses and stay at home near their mothers to play and watch them cook. When a little boy talks about what he wants to be when he grows up he dreams of being a fireman, a doctor, a lawyer, a cabdriver, a revolutionary. A little girl can dream, but everyone knows what she will be — a mother, a housewife. Anything else is strange and temporary. Any other job she has must be something for her to do part-time until she can quit and stay home. If she has 31 to work she then has two jobs — the main one is the home. Women cannot exist in this society without a "man to protect them." Women who have no men are forced to make it in a world that doesn't accept them. Welfare mothers are women with no men. Women compete against each other to "get a man." So we don't just have division between men and women, sexism divides women against each other. By the time a baby is six months old it has already been treated differently if it is a boy than if it is a girl, and acts and responds differently. Baby boys are more active. Baby girls cry more. Because Puerto Rican society is structured in a sexist way, it is very difficult to fight against things that we are not aware of. If we want to change this society and develop a new one that no longer oppresses anyone we must try to eliminate the sexism that we "non-consciously" retain in our rViinds. We must become instead of men and women — new humans, revolutionary people. Men should learn to cook, to care for children, to be open to cry and show emotions because these are all good things — needed to build a new society. Women must learn to be leaders, to speak out, to use tools and weapons, because our army must be made up of brothers and sisters. One of the ways that brothers can figure out if they are oppressing sisters is to ask themselves if they would treat another brother the same way. If you lived with another brother, would he always cook the meals and do the housework. If you lived with another brother and friends came over would you do all the talking? Sisters can judge their passivity the same way. How would you repair machines if there were no men around? Who would protect you if you were attacked? We must think about all the ways we have been brainwashed unconsciously and fight against it. It is a hard struggle, because everything around us is sexist — the books we read, the t.v. shows we watch, the institutions of our society. We will never«be free until we have broken all the chains of our "non-consciously ideology" and our colonized mentalities. 32 THE PARTY & THE STATE We are a colony of the yankee. We have been kicked and pushed around, and forced to work for the lowest wages while we do the hardest work. All major decisions that concern Puerto Rico and our people are made by racists in Washington, by crooked politicians who represent their bosses, the capitalists that own the factories and tourist trade of the island. One third of our people were conned into coming to the united states so that they could divide and control us better. We are programmed or mis-educated to do whatever the yankees desire. If they say Puerto Rico should be a state, we are Supposed to bow our heads down like good Puerto Ricans or spies and agree. We are allowed the privilege to vote for some of our own oppressors like badillo or hernandez-colon. Soon they think they will give Puerto Ricans the "privilege" to vote for the pig president of the united states. By keeping us from coming together they have been able to remain in control. Whenever we make attempts to liberate our people, they use whatever force they have available to prevent it from happening. When the Nationalist Party was becoming successful in educating the people, they were crushed, by having their leadership jailed and assassinated, and they succeeded in terrorizing the people. Now the Young Lords Party is becoming the force to organize the nation for a struggle for national liberation, a struggle where the whole people will be organized to fight against the colonizer. We are the Party which through our practice, has raised the consciousness of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. to the point that "Viva Puerto Rico Libre" has become a household word and "Power to the People" is replacing the unhappy good-byes. We have come to understand that without a revolutionary Party based on scientific analysis, 33 we will not be able to gain our national liberation. A Party is necessary because there has to be a leading body to give direction. The revolution is not made by a bunch of individuals running around doing their thing. Our problem has been that we have too many individuals and little groups doing their thing and forgetting that the struggle for national liberation is our thing. What we need are leaders thalj come from the poor people and who place in their hearts the interests of the poor people and oppressed above anything else, and who are prepared to die for the liberation of the people, struggle is for "power", power to determine the direction in which we and our people move. That power means a struggle for control of the churches, hospitals, schools, police departments, political system. Any struggle that builds the consciousness of the people to control their institutions, helps the national liberation. A struggle that raises consciousness abo ut the reactionary and corrupt commonwealth or amerikkkan state and government is good. While we fight to control and destroy the old government organization, at the same time is being formed the new people's government which grows as we fight. This concept we refer to as the Party and the State. We recognize that a Party has to exist to give political direction (revolutionary theory), that it has to show people how to organize themselves, how to move against their landlord, a government agency, a factory boss whatever, and how to build organizations that last (revolutionary organization), and the Party also supplies revolutionary examples of what to do, for example, when we seized the People's Church, or Lincoln Hospital, or the National Students' Conference of September 23. This revolutionary Party is composed of the most active, most politically conscious, disciplined and committed revolutionaries in the nation. We understand that the Party will be a minority in number compared with the masses. But because we serve and protect and are one with the interests of the people, we represent the majority. The Party cadre (members) are all leaders of the battle of the people, and will coordinate the national liberation struggle. 3A We see that there have to exist other organizations which we call People's Organizations. These organizations are massed based, try to get as many people as possible involved in struggle. They are not cadre organizations, like the Party. They have a specific are of work to control; for example, student organizing, workers organizing, community organizing. We think as many people's organizations as possible should be formed. These organizations work closely with the Party and have Party members in them, or working with them. We see this method as preparing the revolutionary state, the People's government, in th at the people are braining themselves how to run their own society. As the People's organizations grow, there will then be two powers in the Puerto Rican nation-the power of the reactionary present government, police, and businessmen, and the power of the poor people, people's organizations, and Party. These two cannot exist peacefully side by side. There will be conflict until one destroys the other. And as the people gain in strength, the revolutionary movement, together with the People's Army, will destroy the old state and set up a new revolutionary government. Many people ask, who will make this revolution? Everybody? The Young Lords Party feels most of our people would live better in a socialist society. But there are two classes of people that will fight harder for the new society, because they have been most oppressed in this present society. The lumpen-worker alliance is the name we use for the two classes who will lead the revolution. It means that according to our analysis of Puerto Rican society, the two most important parts of Puerto Rican society are the lumpens and the workers. The lumpens are the prostitutes, drug addicts, welfare mothers, hustlers, the street people, unemployable because the system has no jobs for them. They don't want jobs because they know already how much the sys tem makes off of them. They are the prisoners in the jails, all political prisoners, colonized and messed over by the system. They come out of school into no jobs, no future, nothing but drugs, wine, gambling. They try to find something worthwhile in their lives and only find racism and greed, or a pimp ready to make money off of them. 35 The workers, the majority of the population, work five and six days a week for a lousy $100 more or less, they work in hosp itals, post offices, trains, and buses, in restaurants and hotels, in construction, in factories big and small. They are the housewives and working women oppressed at honie or on the job, who have nothing to do but come home to bills, credit, T V , and beer, who will never get anyplace though they have lots of dreams. The lumpen understand the oppression best, that is why the y and the students (who come mostly from petty-bourgeois or middle class) are the first to get involved. The lumpen also form the hard core fighting force, once they are disciplined, because the individualism of the streets is still very strong with them. The workers are usually a little more conservative, because they have at least an apartment, even if there is no heat, and a car, even if it's mortgaged, and a job, even if it pays nothing, and they are afraid to lose their little bit. But they also have the most power. With their labor they built the society, and with a strike they can paralyze the whole island or a city. It is from the labor of the workers that the capitalist gets all the goods he sells. The workers know how to run the factories, the hospitals, the schools, the restaurants. They will run, along with the lumpen and students, and a small group of professionals, the new society, but first they must be educated to join with the lumpens and students to wage the war. Lumpens on drugs and having nothing, are divided from workers who fear getting robbed by them. Workers who have a few crumbs, are afraid the lumpen will steal it, so the two classes fight each other. The duty of the Party and the People's Organizations is to unite the two classes into a fighting force, the main force of the revolution. **Let me say at the risk of seeming ridiculous tiiat a true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love*' CHE GUEVARA 36 THE PARTY AND THE INDIVIDUAL The ideology of the Party is the framework from which we move. Evelrything we do relates to the principles on this paper. Ideology doesn't only talk about what the Party believes but also where the Party sees itself going. On the basis of those prfnciples and Weas we do our work among .the people. We call this practice. As the Party grows and develops, we are going to be developing a bigger more defined ideology and we will be faced with a continuous problem; how do we keep building that Party of our people that will put the ideas into practice. It is no good to have an ideology if all you can do is talk and not practice. Tn order to be involved in good practice, two things must de dealt with; first on the level of organization, and then on the level of the individual. On the level of the Party, we ask ourselves, how do we develop the type of organization that can lead our people in a liberation movement? How do we structure it? How do we run the Party? We must remember that the structure is not for any one part of our people, it must suit the needs of all our people-lumpen, worker, student. Also, it must help develop people into good revolutionaries. The Party is divided into levels of leadership and ministries. The levels of leadership are the branch, the leadership of the branch, and the leaders and coordinators of the Party in general. The ministries. Defense, Staff, Field, Information, Economics, and Education are specific fields o' responsibility assigned to party members. The level of leadership is the army that does the organizing of the people, and the ministry is the function that aides the Party. 37 We have learned the hard way, through trial and error some of the problems involved. It is very important for parts of the Party to communicate with the whole. If this is not done, there will be no unified Party. Communication is done in many ways, regular reports, telephone, mail, personal visits. One of the most important things besides communicating is education. Without ^a structured educational system in the Party it is very hard for the Party to organize all sectors of the people. It is also hard for any individual to develop without political education. Two of the cores of the Party are the general membership meeting, where democratic discussion and decision-making are done, and criticism - self-criticism, the key to Party democracy. The structure is still changing, but we should never be afraid of changing to progress. On the level of the individual the question comes up, how do we train cadre? What is cadre; How do we develop individuals from different sectors of the society at the same time? In this field the Party went through many changes. We were organizing high school students, lumpens, college students, workers, and other sectors at the same time and we had to fight the bad traits that each group brings with it, like the impatience of high school students, the individualism of lumpen, the conservatism of workers, and the intellectualism of college students. What is a cadre? A cadre Is a person in the Party who has gone through a change in himself or herself from just another Puerto Rican to leader of the people, a revolutionary. This change does not take place right away. First, a person becomes political, then they join the Party, then, after a period of time, they become a leader of the people. But it isn't as simple as that. There is a big change in the whole life of the individual. This change can be broken into two parts. First, losing the bad traits from the class they originated from, like individualism, machismo, sexism, racism intellectualism, superiorities and inferiorities. This is called "de-classizing". Once you become a cadre of the Young Lords Party, you are no longer a student, or a lumpen 38 street-person, or a worker. You have that background, but what you are is able to organize best that class' that you came from because you understand it best, have dealt with a lot of the negative parts of it, and have recognized the good parts. Second, is the big change that the individual has in getting rid of the scars that capitalism has left in the person's mind , like liberalism (not doing something you know is right), pessimism, and the biggest of all, colonized mentality. Colonized mentality is the effects of oppression. Because we are taught that a spic is a lower form of human, we end up believing it and acting as if it were true. We shy away from responsibility, we think negative, we don't think we can learn and then wre takeut on ourselves, persecuting ourselves and fighting with others. We call this change, "de-colonizing". This doesn't mean that before yiu become a Lord, you have completely succeeded in getting rid of bad traits-that takes years-but that you have made an effort and are succeeding. The change in the individual of de-classtzing and de-colonizing goes on at the same time and both complement each other. The developing of the Party should be seen as preparing internally for the prolonged war demands constant development and change. 39 ANALYSIS OF PUERTO RICAN SOCIETY In May, 1970, the Young Lords Party studied the divisions in our people, divisions that make us weak. We call this the "analysis of Puerto Rican Society." This is how we are divided in classes. Every Puerto Rican fits into one of these classes. Your class is determined by how you make your living, how you survive everyday in this crazy amerikkkan-controlled world. Industrial Workers : The majority of the population are workers. We work in factories and in government employment, in sweat shops and petroleum refineries, in construction and restaurants. We make $40, $60, $100 a week and hardly stay alive while our bosses make hundreds of thousands off our hard work. We don't like to get into trouble, because we might lose our job, or our project or casserio apartment, or our children might suffer. We are the housewives and working wome, who are oppressed not just on the job but at home by our own husbands, who beat us or mistreat us because they don't know any better. We are afraid of the lumpen, because they rob us; but we know that this is the result of the system that forces them into drugs and prostitution. They are our brothers and sisters, compatriots, oppressed by the same enemy. We will join with them to free Puerto Rico, and after the yankees are kicked out, we will take over and run the factories for the good of all the people. Lumpen: Are men and women who are unemployable, on drugs, prostitutes, welfare mothers, people in jail. Most of us never had a chance for a decent life. We are young, poor, there were never any jobs waiting for us, there was no future, so we tjrned to drugs and crime. The society calls us AO worthless, good for nothing. But all we are is oppressed human beings. We rob from our own people because we're prisoners, of drugs, of our conditions. We don't bring the drugs into the community, the businessmen and government di to keep us pacified. We are waking up and uniting as a class with the rest of our people to destroy the real enemy-- the yankees. Agricultural Workers: We are the last of the campesinos, who had our lands bought up or stolen by the amerikkams, who were tricked intJ slave-like migrant labor and shuttled back and forth from the u.s. to Puerto Rico, to pick tomatoes or other cr jps. The Petty-bourgeois are people who don't work for anyone else or who work with their mind? not their hands, but who also don't employ anyone or any other people. In other words, they live off their own labor. There are three main types of petty -bourgeois: Bodeqeros: We own our own store or businesses. We have anywhere from 1 to 5 people who work for us. We make enough to live on if we work hard ourselves. But now the amerikkkan chain stores or the Cuban gusanos are running us out of business. If we don't joint the other oppressed classes, we wilt soon be destroyed by the amerikkkans and Cuban gusanos (exiles). nan j-^al[ | ^i;t f ^ pd Traitors: These are the few Puerto Rican capitalists, like Ferre, and the big traitors, like Sanchez Vile lla, Badillo, Hernandez Colon, alt the politicians and others whose lives are tied up with the amerikkkan occupation. There are also the thousands of Cuban pigs, who were kicked out of Cuba by Fidei. We will kick all of them out of Puerto Rico to establish a free, independent, and socialist nation. The lumpen and workers, allied together, will lead the revolution. The students, bodegeros, and professionals will join with them. Some professionals, vendepatrias and capitalists will be against us , but in the long run, we will win and Puerto Rico will be free. ^1 University Students: We are mo | ^ ^00° 08 7 802 5 2 families are 'jwell off. Some of us, though, come from poor families, but at the university they are working on our minds trying to make us think middle class. They want us to join white amerikkkan society. We will fight against that. We are Puerto Rica lis imd we will determine our own lives. We will use these skill s to help our own people, not t> oppress them. Professionals : These are the professors, engineers, doctors, directors of poverty programs, middle level manaqement of amerikkkan. They are well off, but the colonialism and racism of the Yankees always reminds them that they are spies , not gringos. Some of them will join with the people in the national liberation war. Many of them, though, will fight against us, and will be alcahuettes of the amerikkkans. Source
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