Independence

Puerto Rico Independence Movement Challenges 126 Years Of Colonialism

December 10, 2024 Jonathan Ng, Truthout. Resist! Anti-colonialism, Elections, Independence, Puerto Rico

Weeks after the November elections, officials in Puerto Rico are still counting votes. The agonizing delays and inefficiency have elicited frustration and calls for serious electoral reform. Yet one outcome appears undeniable: The pro-independence candidate for governor of Puerto Rico, Juan Dalmau, made record electoral gains. According to a preliminary review, Dalmau received the second-most votes while representing the Alliance, a historic coalition between the Puerto Rican Independence Party and Citizens’ Victory Movement. Months before the election, the Alliance’s meteoric rise shocked pollsters, putting Dalmau in a tight race with Jenniffer González of the reigning New Progressive Party.

Puerto Rico Is A New Country: Hope Lives And The Fight Goes On

November 11, 2024 Claridad Editorial, Resumen English. Organize! Elections, Independence, Politics, Puerto Rico

If the results of the recent elections show anything, it is how the Puerto Rican people have been shaping, transforming and realigning their political conceptions, and becoming aware of their own power, to retake and rescue our country from the clutches of those who want to hand it over and destroy it. The resistance, astuteness, breeding and will for change of our people was manifested in different ways throughout this intense journey, and there is visible evidence of the achievements. The second place obtained by the Country Alliance, led in Puerto Rico by Juan Dalmau, and in the capital, San Juan, by Manuel Natal is a feat, considering the circumstances in which the process developed and the pitfalls that were placed in its way.

United Nations Security Council Renews Mission For Western Sahara

November 10, 2024 Abayomi Azikiwe, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Africa, colonization, History, Independence, United Nations, UNSC, Western Sahara

What has been described as “Africa’s last colony”, the Western Sahara territory is still waiting to exercise its decades-long desire for national independence and sovereignty. Formerly known as the “Spanish Sahara”, the area has been under the domination of the Kingdom of Morocco since 1975. The liberation movement which grew out of the struggle for freedom is popularly known as the Polisario Front. The organization engaged in an armed struggle and mass political campaign since the 1970s having designated itself as a “government in waiting”.

Puerto Rico Could Elect Its First Pro-Independence Governor

October 25, 2024 Alberto Medina, Portside. Strategize! De-colonization, Elections, Independence, Puerto Rico

That could herald the beginning of the end for a 125-year-old colonial relationship. Historically, Puerto Rico’s electoral politics have been defined by its parties and leaders’ views on the island’s political status. The pro-statehood (PNP) and pro-status quo (PPD) parties have alternated power since 1948 — when the U.S., already 50 years into its rule of Puerto Rico, finally allowed Puerto Ricans to choose their own governor. The Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) had always run a distant third, garnering single-digit support.

A New Alliance Could Change Puerto Rican Politics

March 18, 2024 Rafael Bernabe and Ed Morales, Portside. Strategize! De-colonization, Independence, Politics, Puerto Rico, Social Movements

Puerto Rico has been a territory of the United States since the 1898 Spanish-American War. It had only US-appointed governors until 1948, and in 1952, Congress passed a joint resolution that approved its first constitution, which provided for limited autonomy. It would become a “Commonwealth,” but the island remained an unincorporated territory that lacked sovereignty and full rights afforded to US citizens, despite the fact that residents of Puerto Rico were granted citizenship in 1917. Since then, the island’s politics have revolved around three political parties whose platforms are focused on its political status.

Eritrea Celebrates Freedom

August 11, 2023 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Africa, Eritrea, Independence, Socialism, Wars and Militarism

I was honored to speak at the 49th annual National Council of Eritrean Americans conference and festival recently held in Tacoma, Washington. Black Agenda Report has always been a staunch defender of the rights of the Eritrean people to live free from U.S. domination. BAR exposes the lies that are told about that nation by the U.S. and their partners in corporate media. The late Glen Ford was especially keen to explain why this country, which is referred to as a “prison camp” and which is described in the most negative and inaccurate ways possible, is in fact a functioning state which overcomes the hardships created by U.S. sanctions to care for its people.

Puerto Rican Groups Give Deposition To UN Decolonization Committee

July 2, 2023 Berta Joubert-Ceci, Resumen English. Resist! Decolonization, Independence, Puerto Rico, United Nations

This past week, the UN Decolonization Committee held a hearing on what has been called the Puerto Rico case, on Puerto Rico’s inalienable right to self-determination and independence. Since the UN passed Resolution 1514 (XV) in 1960 for the eradication of colonies, recognizing independence as a fundamental human right and in accordance with the UN Charter, 41 hearings have already been held on our case. Recall that the U.S. disguised the colonial state of PR by naming it a Commonwealth in 1952 so as not to have to report to the United Nations. But this farce was unmasked in 2016 when the US Supreme Court concluded in a double exposure case, that it is the US Congress who rules in PR.

After 60 Years Of Independence Algeria Remains A Center Of International Affairs

April 12, 2022 Abayomi Azikiwe, Popular Resistance. Educate! Algeria, colonization, Imperialism, Independence

In March 1962, after eight years of armed, diplomatic and mass struggles, the National Liberation Front (FLN) compelled the colonial leadership in Paris to commit to relinquishing its control to an Algerian Provisional Government (GPRA), overturning 132 years of French imperialist domination. The FLN and its allies were able to defeat the colonial regime in France setting an example for other states throughout the African continent who were then waging a revolutionary guerrilla war against settler-colonial and imperialist-backed European regimes. This victory against French imperialism was a Pan-African project bringing in newly independent governments such as Tunisia, Morocco, Ghana and Mali. Dr. Frantz Fanon, a Martinique-born French-trained psychiatric physician went to Algeria to work on behalf of the colonial regime when he shifted his allegiance to the FLN becoming an ambassador and contributing editor to a leading journal (El Moudjahid) allied with the national liberation movement.

Barbados Becomes A Republic

December 4, 2021 La Izquierda Diario Argentina, Left Voice. Create! Barbados, Caribbean, Decolonization, Independence

At midnight on Tuesday, November 30, Barbados, an island nation in the Caribbean, declared itself a republic. Sandra Prunella Mason was promoted from governor general to president after by Parliament. In a formal ceremony, attended by Prince Charles representing Queen Elizabeth II, the country ceased to be a constitutional monarchy, removing the queen from her position as head of state. The country, however, will remain part of the Commonwealth of Nations.

French Finance Minister Issues Declaration Of Independence

October 14, 2021 John V. Walsh, Popular Resistance. Educate! China, France, Independence, US Foreign Policy

“Clear Differences Remain Between France and the U.S, French Minister Says,” is the headline to a remarkable piece appearing in the New York Times. The Minister, Bruno Le Maire, is brutally frank on the nature of the differences as the quotations below Illustrate. (Emphases in the quotations are jvw’s.) In fact, they amount to a Declaration of Independence of France and EU from the U.S. It is not surprising that the differences relate to China after the brouhaha over the sale of U.S. nuclear submarines to Australia and the surprising (to the French) cancellation of contracts with France for submarines. Mr. LeMaire, sounding very much like a reproving parent, characterized this as “misbehavior from the U.S. administration.”

Decolonizing Pan-Americanism

August 2, 2021 William Camacaro and Frederick Mills, Council on Hemispheric Affairs. Educate! Independence, Joe Biden, Latin America, Pan Amercanism

The concept of Pan-Americanism has been a contested space since the early nineteenth century between the Bolivarian project of uniting the newly independent states of Latin America against foreign interference, on the one hand, and Monroeism, which has sought to establish the Americas as a protectorate of the U.S., on the other.[1] The idea that the U.S. has the historic mission of leading a process of Pan-American unity against any European incursion contains the contradiction of introducing a new process of colonization, with all its multiple hierarchies of domination (race, class, gender, culture), but this time by Washington, in the name of regional autonomy and mutual assistance.

The Spirit Of Carabobo Will Overcome The Stench Of Monroe

June 26, 2021 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Strategize! Independence, Latin America, Monroe Doctrine, US Imperialism

Two hundred years ago, on 24 June 1821, the forces of Simón Bolívar trounced the Spanish royalists at the Battle of Carabobo, a few hundred kilometres west of Caracas, Venezuela. Five days later, Bolívar entered Caracas in triumph; the Spanish fortresses of Cartagena and Puerto Cabello had been seized by the Liberator’s armies, making a return to power for Spain impossible. In Cúcuta, a congress assembled to draft a new constitution and to elect Bolívar as the president. Bolívar, now the head of the Republic of Gran Colombia (today’s Colombia and Venezuela), would not rest. He got on his horse and rode south towards Quito, where Spain’s forces remained and would eventually be defeated on 24 May 1822 at the battle of Pichincha. It would take two more years to eject Spain from the hemisphere, but the trend was inevitable.

The End of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

May 22, 2021 Pedro Cabán, Dissent Magazine Educate! colonization, Congress, Independence, Puerto Rico

U.S. representatives have introduced two bills that would finally end Puerto Rico’s subordinate Commonwealth status. But continued colonial rule may be the only option Congress seriously considers.

Puerto Rico 2021: A Shift In Perspective, A New Opposition

December 14, 2020 Luis Fernando Coss, NACLA. Organize! 2020 Elections, Independence, Left Politics, Puerto Rico

One of the things often taken for granted by the independence and socialist movement is knowing when to claim a victory. As a consequence of suffering so many blows throughout its history, the movement has become reflexively cynical when having to assess some kind of partial victory or progress. Let’s recall, among other signature chapters, in 1976 the Puerto Rican Independence Party received 80,000 votes, which, when combined with those of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, equaled nearly 100,000 votes. Or the founding and progress of the Workers United Movement (MOU), which managed to bring together the country’s top unions and mobilize a sizable radical movement.

Provisional Government Of West Papua Won’t Bow Down To Jakarta

December 2, 2020 Benny Wenda, ULMWP.org. Resist! De-colonization, Independence, Indonesia, West Papua

Today, we announce the formation of our Provisional Government of West Papua. We are ready to take over our territory, and we will no longer bow down to Jakarta’s illegal martial rule. From today, December 1, 2020, we begin implementing our own constitution and reclaiming our sovereign land. On this day in 1961, the elected West New Guinea Council raised the Morning Star flag in Jayapura. Our national anthem and name, West Papua, were accepted. Diplomats from Australia, the Netherlands and the UK, and a delegation from colonised Papua New Guinea had already witnessed the formation of the Council on April 5, 1961.

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