Puerto Rico’s Teachers Beat SEIU Raid

When last seen on the picket line, Puerto Rican teachers were fighting their way through police barricades to appeal to fellow workers from the Service Employees (SEIU) at its lavishly funded convention in San Juan in June.

The message of the Federacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR) was simple: please stop SEIU President Andy Stern from colluding with the indicted governor of the island to replace FMPR with a “company union.”

In the view of SEIU, teachers needed a new SEIU-affiliated union because FMPR no longer had legal recognition after its walk-out over wages, classroom size, and the threat of privatization.

This month, however, the teachers themselves disagreed that it was time for a change. By a margin of 18,123 to 14, 675, they voted against joining the SEIU-backed SPM (Sindicato Puertorriqueno de Maestros), which is closely aligned with another SEIU affiliate, the Association de Maestros de Puerto Rico, an organization of school principals and administrators.
OFF PROGRAM

At SEIU’s convention, only a handful of delegates dared to challenge Stern on this issue. When eight rank-and-file members from California tried to distribute a leaflet asking why the “top leadership has sided against the teachers of Puerto Rico in a gross case of ‘colonial’ unionism,” SEIU staffers threatened several of them with reprisals. “They told us that this is a betrayal and that we could be suspended from the union if we continued handing out the fliers,” delegate Brian Cruz, from Local 1021 in San Francisco, explained to The San Juan Star.

Most of the 3,000 delegates and guests simply cheered when Stern and SEIU Healthcare Chair Dennis Rivera, a native of Puerto Rico, introduced their good friend, Anibal Acevedo Vila, the island’s governor. Acevedo Vila is still awaiting trial on federal corruption charges and it was his administration that precipitated a 10-day, island-wide public school strike led by the FMPR last winter. As The Star reported June 3, SEIU used its convention and the governor’s appearance to promote a rival organization, “which is hoping to become the new union representative for an estimated 42,000 public school teachers.”

It was not to be. The FMPR orchestrated a “vote no” campaign, after it was denied a spot on the ballot as further punishment for its “illegal” strike. FMPR was even barred from having observers at teacher polling places.

Prior to the start of the election, FMPR presented evidence to the labor relations commission showing that it still had voluntary financial support from 12,000 members, who have continued to pay union dues even though automatic deductions from all teachers’ paychecks were discontinued when FMPR was decertified.
Although SEIU favors “employee free choice” on the mainland and assured critics here there would be a multiple-choice ballot, Puerto Rican teachers had just one union option, which they then rejected.

The defeated SPM has almost no dues payers so SEIU had to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into this losing effort, much of it spent on advertising. As one FMPR supporter reported, SEIU had “paid staff at each school giving out free T-shirts and coolers and the media and the government were clearly in its favor but still they couldn’t impose their union on us.”

FMPR activist Edgardo Alvelo, who teaches at a vocational school in Rio Piedras, estimates that his union spent only “$50,000 on the whole campaign.” According to Alvelo, “that money was very hard to obtain, but it was enough to win. It was our people in the schools that did the job. Today, we are celebrating and tomorrow our struggle will continue in all our schools.”
94 PERCENT TURN-OUT

The vote turnout was extremely high. Of the 36,000 teachers eligible to participate due to their permanent status, 33,818 actually voted, with a thousand of those ballots being challenged or voided. FMPR now faces the task of continuing to function as what’s called a “bonafide organization” under Puerto Rican labor law. While still deprived of the full collective bargaining rights it had before the strike, FMPR retains a strong steward structure, the ability to represent members, and mobilize around educational policy issues and day-to-day job concerns.

FMPR supporters in New York, California, and elsewhere aided the successful “vote no” campaign by raising money to help keep this militant independent union afloat. (For more information, see the FMPR’s own website: http://fmprlucha.org) On October 14, some protested outside the Manhattan headquarters of United Healthcare Workers-East (the former SEIU/District 1199 long headed by Rivera), where they denounced Stern’s raid on FMPR as an insult to New York hospital workers “proud history of fighting for justice and dignity.”

During an August visit, one New York Solidarity Committee member, Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, brought money that was collected for FMPR members disciplined for their union activity. Reports Sheridan-Gonzalez, a registered nurse:

“The union, in collaboration with students and parents, had developed a progressive, inclusive curriculum that was extraordinarily successful. This collaborative structure was unilaterally dismantled by the government/school authority in 2007 and 17 teachers were suspended when they fought back. Their energy and commitment was inspiring and reminiscent of the spirit of U.S. unions in the 1930s and Puerto Rican labor in years past.”

That same feisty spirit was on display in this month’s island-wide union vote, which gave SEIU an expensive lesson in the meaning of “no.”

http://labornotes.org/node/1964

Hurricane builds off Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico and small islands of the north-eastern Caribbean are on alert as the latest Atlantic hurricane roars in at category-three strength.

Rains from Hurricane Omar, which is packing maximum winds of 115mph (185km/h), have reached the Virgin island of St Croix and two Puerto Rican islands.

One man reportedly died of a heart attack on the island of Culebra.

The 2008 hurricane season has been active, including devastating storms that led to some 800 deaths in Haiti.

At 0300 GMT the centre of Omar was about 30 miles (45km) south-east of St Croix, the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center said.

Boats sink

Heavy rains and winds battered the island, sinking boats in the harbour, felling trees and forcing workers to shut down a major oil refinery, The Associated Press reports.

At the Caravelle Hotel, maintenance worker Mike Parish was working by the light from generators in a vain effort to keep rain water from blowing in beneath the door after the authorities cut electricity across the island as a precaution.

"We're doing all we can," he said. "The water is too much for us."

US Virgin Islands Governor John deJongh on Wednesday closed all public schools, sent home government employees and imposed an 1800 curfew across the islands.

"Take this very seriously," he said. "Folks are out right now doing their last minute shopping, and that's understandable. Once that's done, we encourage them to go home."

On Puerto Rico's island of Culebra, a man collapsed as he tried to install storm shutters on his house, AP says.

On Vieques, the storm flooded roads and downed tree branches.

Schools, government offices and most businesses have shut down in Puerto Rico and residents have been buying up drinking water, canned goods and other supplies.

"I'm not too worried, but I went out and bought water, candles and gas," San Juan resident Kevin Mead, 35, told Reuters news agency.

Earlier, Omar dumped rain on northern Venezuela and nearby islands.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7672212.stm

PIP official blasts US Democrats on PR status

August 9, 2008
Press Release

San Juan, Puerto Rico - PIP Secretary for North American Affairs, Manuel Rodriguez Orellana, criticized statehood representatives for caving in to commonwealth supporters on a Democratic Party status plank that accepts territorial status as a legitimate option for Puerto Rico.

“This is a giant leap backwards. After all their rhetoric about ‘decolonization,’ there is no attempt to even suggest that Puerto Rico must move towards a non-colonial, non-territorial status. This represents statehooders’ unprincipled submissiveness to political expediency in order to please their colonial masters. It is a shameful reversal of American politicians to attempt to reverse U.S. official policy to achieve a fully democratic, non- territorial status to correct 110 years of colonial domination of a Latin American nation of the Caribbean,” according to Rodríguez Orellana.

Reportedly, in its pertinent part, the plank reads: "We believe that the people of Puerto Rico have the right to the political status of their choice, obtained througha fair, neutral and democratic process of self-determination."

Calle 13- Residente o Visitante

Calle 13 is a Puerto Rican hip-hop duo formed by two brothers who call themselves Residente (lead singer, writer) and Visitante (pianist, vocals, writer). Their sister (Ileana, aka PG-13) has contributed to several of their songs. They named themselves Calle 13 after the area where they grew up in Trujillo Alto.

The duo rose to fame in 2005 with two back-to-back hits on Puerto Rican radio stations, first one being Se Vale To To and Atrevete-te-Te!. Another song, the controversial Querido FBI, that was not intended to be on their first release was written by the group’s lead singer after the death of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos (leader of Puerto Rican revolutionary group, Los Macheteros). The duo was criticized by those who believed the lyrics promoted violence against the authorities, but the group insisted the song wasn’t meant to be taken literally.

After their rise to fame, the duo was sought by other reggaeton artists, and they collaborated with artists such as Voltio in the song Chulin Culin Chunfly, and with the Three 6 Mafia in the remix, singing or co-writing songs. At the end of 2005, they released their first album, Calle 13, to much critical praise.

In December 2005, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Anibal Acevedo Vilá, admitted to listening to the duo when his son got him some of their songs on his iPod. This prompted him to invite them to La Fortaleza and to have them record a song against shootings bullets in the air during New Years Eve celebrations.

01 Intro
02 Tango Del Pecado
03 La Fokin Moda
04 Sin Exagerar
05 Mala suerte Con el 13
06 Llegale A Mi Guarida
07 Un Beso De Desayuno
08 Uiyi-guaye
09 Algo Con Sentido
10 Me Voy Pal Norte
11 Cumbia De Los Aburridos
12 A Limpiar El Sucio
13 El Avion Se Cae
14 La Crema
15 La Era De La Copiaera

HERE!!!!

The Young Lords

Picture this.

You reside in a country where racial oppression, if not sanctioned and protected by law, is tolerated and encouraged by attitude. You not only look different than the majority, but speak a different language. Public services and institutions ignore you, police harass, beat and kill you, employers refuse to hire you and society as a whole views and overtly treats you as a second class citizen. This is the atmosphere in which the Young Lords came into existence.

The Young Lords were a Puerto Rican radical group active in numerous cities in the late 60’s to early 70’s. The point of my speech is to briefly inform you of their formation, actions and decline. I am focusing on the New York and Chicago chapters, because that is where, arguably, they made their largest impact. That said, they also made important contributions in Philadelphia, Hartford and in Puerto Rico itself.

After the 1966 Division Street riots in Chicago, political organizations began to form to express the concerns of the Puerto Rican community. The influence of these groups, in addition to contact with Fred Hampton and the Black Panthers, led a turf gang called the Young Lords to become radicalized.

Inspired by the Chicago group, the Young Lords Party in New York formed, comprised mostly of college educated individuals and students, in 1969. They adopted much of the Chicago group’s outlook, but with more intellectual Marxist-Maoist analysis of capitalism, and the Puerto Rican situation.

The Young Lords established breakfast programs for children, dental clinics, community daycare, health clinics, testing for TB and lead poisoning, clothing drives, and cultural history events and education. They used whatever space and money they could get their hands on to provide these services without cost to the people in the neighborhoods.

The city governments, police, and some churches were quite hostile to the Young Lords and would refuse them space for their community programs. When and if that happened, they simply took the matter into their own hands. A TB testing vehicle that had been avoiding the Puerto Rican and black neighborhoods was simply hijacked, brought to those areas and put to use. Churches that refused to allow their empty basements to be utilized as free breakfast centers for poor children were occupied until they agreed. Another one of their many direct actions was to gather all the garbage the city neglected to pick up and pile it into a busy street, where it was burned in broad daylight. Trash collection problems soon became a thing of the past. They were willing to do whatever it took to establish their rights and protect their self dignity.

It was precisely because of this do it yourself attitude of direct action, that the Young Lords came under heavy FBI and police infiltration and repression. Add youth and standard left wing factionalism to the mix, and disintegration and implosion were unavoidable. By the mid-70’s, they were basically nonexistent.

But even though they dissolved, their commitment for equal rights, services for the poor and willingness to lay their bodies on the line for a worthy cause hold lessons for us today, a time when we’re supposed to funnel out hopes and beliefs through almost indistinguishable wealthy candidates and politicians who care little about what happens to the average person. The Young Lords demonstrated that important, vital and beneficial programs could and can be implemented outside the sanctioned system by the people themselves. Many of the original members are still politically active today, from stopping the U.S. Navy’s bombardment of Vieques to struggling for Puerto Rican independence, they have shown they are in for the long haul.