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Title: Anarchism in Puerto Rico Author: Chuck Morse Date: 2009 Language: en Topics: Puerto Rico, history Source: Morse, Chuck. “Anarchism, Puerto Rico.” In The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest: 1500 to the Present, edited by Immanuel Ness, 141. Vol. 1. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
Anarchists had a profound influence on the revolutionary workers’
movement that existed in Puerto Rico during the first and second decades
of the twentieth century. Although they never built an island-wide,
specifically anarchist organization and for the most part cooperated
with activists from other ideological tendencies, they left a unique and
lasting imprint on the history and politics of the island.
As champions of workers’ self-organization, anarchists were instrumental
in the formation of the Regional Workers’ Federation, Puerto Rico’s
first labor federation, established on October 23, 1898, shortly after
the island became an American colony, and modeled on the
anarchist-dominated Spanish Regional Federation. Anarchists also helped
found the Free Workers’ Federation, which emerged from a split within
the Regional Workers’ Federation between those leaning toward the
Republican Party and those demanding independence from all “bourgeois
parties.” The Free Workers’ Federation was the principal labor
organization on the island for many years and led major strikes among
sugarcane, cigar, and tobacco workers.
Cultural ventures were integral to anarchists’ overall revolutionary
strategy, as a means to foster working-class solidarity and prepare them
to govern society after the anticipated collapse of capitalism.
Anarchists published newspapers, books, and pamphlets, organized reading
rooms and workers’ centers, and sponsored theatrical groups, among other
endeavors. The ubiquitous poverty and illiteracy among their intended
audience prompted anarchists to communicate their ideals in innovative
ways. For instance, radical workers often selected and paid other
workers to be “readers,” reading revolutionary literature to them while
laboring in factories.
These initiatives spread the anarchist message throughout the island,
nurturing a strong anti-capitalist and anti-political sentiment among
many workers. Anarchists also opened the world of ideas to men and women
who would have likely been excluded otherwise, in turn transforming
Puerto Rican culture. In this regard, anarcha-feminist organizer,
playwright, and occasional “reader” Luisa Capetillo is among the most
distinguished militants.
Anarchists lost influence in the labor movement in the second decade of
the century, never to regain it since, due to state repression and
factional struggles within the Free Workers’ Federation. In addition,
anarchists were unable to take a strong position on the island’s
colonial status, which became the central issue in Puerto Rican
political life. As revolutionary internationalists and anti-statists,
anarchists argued that it mattered little whether native or foreign
elites ruled the island if capitalist domination remained intact.
Paradoxically, anarchism’s rejection of the dominant terms of political
debate in Puerto Rico provides an enduring appeal for those drawn to
radical social alternatives. For example, anarchism is an ideological
point of reference for participants in the island’s punk rock movement.
SEE ALSO: Anarchism and Culture, 1840–1939 ; Anarchism in the United
States to 1945 ; Anarchism in the United States, 1946–Present ;
Anarchism, Spain ; Anarchosyndicalism
Ayala, C. & Bernabe, R. (2007) Puerto Rico in the American Century: A
History since 1898. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Davila Santiago, R. (1988) El Derribo de las Murallas (Knocking Down the
Walls). RĂo Piedras: Editorial Cultural.
Findlay, E. (1999) Imposing Decency: The Politics of Sexuality and Race
in Puerto Rico, 1870–1920. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.