Skip to content

Puerto Rico

Hidden Employment Stats & Puerto Rico’s Ongoing Disaster

May 17, 2018 Eleanor Goldfield, Occupy.com , ,
Next up, unemployment rates may be going down but what does that actually mean? Hint: no, our economy is not doing well. And neither are the soon-to-be-homeless elderly of Louisiana – because you know, budget cuts – and screw grandma. Finally, Alex Cohen of Earth Defense Coalition joins us to talk Puerto Rico – a colony wrestling with both climate change and colonial capitalism – and what aid and autonomy look like on the ground. ALSO: we will soon lose funding from occupy.com. WE NEED YOUR HELP TO KEEP ACTING OUT! Please visit our Patreon page - anything you can contribute will help us keep producing these weekly activist news updates AND there are some activist give-aways in store...

Police Unleash ‘Brutal Attacks’ On Austerity Protesters In Storm-Ravaged Puerto Rico

May 3, 2018 By Jessica Corbett, Commondreams.org , , , , ,
Police in Puerto Rico deployed tear gas and fired rubber bullets to shut down May Day protests as thousands of people took to the streets of the U.S. territory, which is still battling the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria—and a debt crisis that preceded the storm. While people worldwide demonstrated Tuesday to demand improved labor conditions on International Workers Day, Puerto Ricans also turned out to protest the Trump administration's failed response to the humanitarian crisis that followed the hurricane as well as austerity measures imposed by the federal government both before and after the storm struck last September.

From 1937 To 2018: The Militarized Suppression Of Protest In Puerto Rico

May 3, 2018 Jorge Juan Rodríguez V, Jjrodriguezv.com , , , ,
As I look on at my beautiful Puerto Rico and see the people rising against colonialism and economic tyranny only to be beaten and illegally searched and arrested by a militarized police, I keep thinking about the 1937 Ponce Massacre where 19 protestors and 2 police officers were killed. On March 21, 1937 members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party held a peaceful march in Ponce, Puerto Rico to commemorate the abolition of slavery (1873), protest US colonialism, and challenge the arrest of nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos. Gaining word about the march, then appointed Governor Blanton Winship ordered the Insular Police of Puerto Rico to stop the demonstration in Ponce—approving the use of force in this mission.

Amid School Closures, Puerto Rico’s Teachers Fight Privatization

April 9, 2018 By Emily Wells, Truthdig.com , , , ,
Puerto Rico’s Department of Education announced Thursday it will close 283 schools this summer after a sharp drop in enrollment, thought to be partly a result of displacement of families after Hurricane Maria. However, many teachers in the island’s school system say the issue might be more complicated and believe the system’s recent acceptance of charter schools and voucher programs could be contributing to the deprioritizing of public schools. The Associated Press reports that Puerto Rico is currently operating 1,100 public schools with 319,000 enrolled students. Puerto Rico’s Education Secretary Julia Keleher said of the closings, “We know it’s a difficult and painful process. For this reason, we’ve done it in the most sensible way, taking in consideration all the elements that could impact the daily lives of some families and the school communities in general. …

Six Months After Hurricane, Puerto Ricans Are Still Without Light

March 26, 2018 EL Jennings-Maldonado, We Act Radio. , , ,
Yabucoa is a municipality located in the southeastern part of Puerto Rico. On Wednesday September 20th, 2017 at 2 AM, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. Now, six months later, only 35 percent of Yabucoa has access to some form of power, which is provided by generators. Of this 35 percent, it is mostly comprised of municipality buildings (i.e. grocery stores, hospitals and local businesses), and the very few families who can afford a generator. A generator is used to run household utilities such as a few lights, a refrigerator (a place where medicine & food is stored), as well, if fortunate enough, a washer and dryer.

Media Ignoring Puerto Rico’s ‘Shock Doctrine’ Makeover

February 12, 2018 Reed Richardson, Fair.org , ,
Nearly five months after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, more than a hundred thousand US citizens there still lack clean drinking water, and almost one-third of the island has no reliable electric power. As initial life-sustaining recovery efforts still grind toward completion, Puerto Rico’s Gov. Ricardo Rosselló has wasted no time using his territory’s recovery as an opportunity to push a number of policy proposals right out of the “disaster capitalism” playbook: from privatizing the island’s power utility to converting nearly all of its public schools to charters. And while the mainstream US press has been mainly focused on the Trump administration’s woeful institutional response to the storm, it has barely noticed this much more radical political transformation of Puerto Rico, and the potentially disastrous long-term consequences for the citizens who live there.

Puerto Rico Pt 1: Disaster Is The Colony, FEMA Is The Problem + Aid On The Ground

February 1, 2018 Eleanor Goldfield, Occupy.com   ,
This week on Act Out! A special two part episode all on Puerto Rico. In part one, we look at the disasters before the hurricanes that made the disaster afterwards inevitable. Puerto Rico’s economy was in shambles thanks to both colonial capitalism and local government corruption. Post storm, FEMA has done its usual bang up job of providing people with little to no help but plenty of additional headaches. Finally, we take a look at some aid efforts on the ground, scratching the surface of part two...

Puerto Ricans Brace For Another Disaster: Foreclosures

January 1, 2018 David Dayen, Theintercept.com , ,
The foreclosure horrors add to Puerto Rico’s Dickensian experience of late. Close to 35 percent of the island remains without power after Hurricane Maria, with full restoration not expected until May. At least 100,000 people have left the island. Abandoned pets are everywhere. Government services have been slashed or hobbled. Even one major proposed solution, wiping out Puerto Rico’s debt, will take a personal cost: The bonds represent the life savings of many residents to whom the financial products were aggressively marketed without explanation of the downsides. Ultimately, the expected wave of foreclosures could prove worse than what happened in the most hard-hit areas in the U.S. mainland during the Great Recession.

‘Disaster-In-Chief’ Trump Was ‘Disrespectful’ To Puerto Rico

December 30, 2017 By Justin Baragona, Mediaite.com ,
A hundred days after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, there are still huge swaths of the island without power. The Army Corps of Engineers estimates that the territory won’t be at 100% power restoration until May. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans have migrated to Florida and it is estimated that more than 1,000 have died due to the storm and its aftermath. Speaking to ABC News about the federal response to the storm, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz tore into both the feds and President Donald Trump. “He was disrespectful to the Puerto Rican people, he was disrespectful to the American people who were leaving their homes to come help us here,” she told ABC News.

Puerto Fears School Privatization After Hurricane

November 11, 2017 Aída Chávez and Rachel M. Cohen, www.theintercept.com , , ,
By Aída Chávez and Rachel M. Cohen for the Intercept. As Hurricane Maria departed Puerto Rico, leaving utter ruin in its wake, one community in Vieques picked itself out of the wreckage by focusing on getting school back open. “The community took out of their own time and said, ‘Let’s do this, we need to repair and reopen this,’ and we started working,” Josuan Aloyo told The Intercept in Spanish. “Cleaning out the trash and debris, and trying to find people that had the proper tools.” Right after the hurricane, Escuela Adrienne Serrano had 40 students, a number that steadily increased each week until they managed to bring 80 students back. But then, on October 18, Humacao School District’s regional director told Escuela Adrienne Serrano to suspend classes. The guerrilla campaign to open schools is running headlong into a separate effort from the top, to use the storm to accomplish the long-standing goal of privatizing Puerto Rico’s public schools, using New Orleans post-Katrina as a model.

Puerto Rican Teachers Occupy Education Secretary’s Office

November 11, 2017 Staff, www.fightbacknews.org , ,
By Fight Back News. San Juan, Puerto Rico - In an escalation in their fight to stop the government from closing or privatizing public schools in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, the Puerto Rican Teachers Federation occupied Education Secretary Julia Keleher’s office Nov. 7 in an act of civil disobedience. 21 teachers were arrested standing up in defense of public education in Puerto Rico. All 21 teachers were released late the night of Nov. 7. In a press conference the morning of Nov. 8, the Puerto Rican Teachers Federation called on school communities to intensify the struggle to demand that their schools be reopened.

A People’s Recovery: Radical Organizing In Post-Maria Puerto Rico

October 23, 2017 Juan Carlos Davila, www.indypendent.org ,
By Juan Carlos Davila for The Indypendent - SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — After Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, most telecommunications services collapsed, particularly cell phones and internet providers. People struggled for days to contact their loved ones, and although there have been some improvements, making a call, sending a text message, and connecting to the Internet is still a challenge in most areas. Only certain analog and satellite telephones managed to survive the category-four hurricane, and the landline of Cucina 135, a community center located next to San Juan’s financial center, was one of them. “Having a phone line was an invaluable resource,” said Luis Cedeño, spokesperson for El Llamado, an organization focused on providing support and unifying social movements in Puerto Rico. El Llamado (The Call) is supported by the Center for Popular Democracy and is led by a group of organizers from different sectors, including artists, communicators, social workers and student leaders. The second day after the hurricane, El Llamado began calling Puerto Ricans in the diaspora from the landline of Cucina 135 to organize relief efforts independent of government agencies or big NGOs like the Red Cross. Cucina 135 is based in a small house that has been converted into a communal kitchen and meeting space.

Solidarity In Action: Puerto Rico Relief Efforts Underway

October 21, 2017 Leninz Nadal, www.indypendent.org , , ,
By Leninz Nadal for The Indypendent - I grew up in the Lower East Side as a Nuyorican, and this has been a really emotional experience. My extended family lives in the municipalities of Loíza and Carolina in the northeast of Puerto Rico. They do not have power. We spent a lot of time trying to find them. It’s hard to know that my family is in this urgent, desperate situation, and at the same time, I also feel disconnected. There is a lot of guilt and feeling like we can never really do enough. The Trump administration’s mistreatment and lack of knowledge is infuriating. It is so callous. I’ve been really inspired by the Nuyorican and Puerto Rican diaspora coming together. It makes me hopeful that we have a strong resilient foundation. We had a healing space at UPROSE where a lot of people came and were able to grieve and also plan our next steps together. We communicate regularly with folks on the island and are organizing to send sustainable supplies. The groups we are working with are asking about bicycles, quality soil, non-GMO seeds, water supplies and solar panels so Puerto Rico can move toward economic sovereignty. On Oct. 11 we held a rally at Union Square as a part of a national day of action for a just recovery. The following day we sent supplies down with bikes and generators. What we really want is a just recovery for Puerto Rico. We don’t want investment capitalists to further a plan that prioritizes their corporate interests. We want the communities that have been directly affected to determine what needs to be done for Puerto Rico.

Newsletter – Mobilize For System Change

October 15, 2017 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org , , , , , ,
By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. Decades of neo-liberal economic policies in the United States and debt, which is required by the bottom 90% to survive, have fanned political unrest and the call for revolution, rather than reform. Just as Obama and the Democrat's populist façade disintegrated under a growing wealth divide, worsening climate change and militarization of our communities and woke many self-described progressives up to the need for systemic changes, the Trump presidency could have similar effects on conservatives. Voters who thought they were ending the status quo, "draining the swamp," by voting for Trump may find that loss of health care, trade deals that drive a race to the bottom and tax cuts for the wealthy move them to be open to solutions they may have once rejected.

How To Erase Puerto Rico’s Debt Without Hurting Mom And Pop

October 15, 2017 Ellen Brown, www.ellenbrown.com , , , ,
By Ellen Brown for Web of Debt. During his visit to hurricane-stricken Puerto Rico, President Donald Trump shocked the bond market when he told Geraldo Rivera of Fox News that he was going to wipe out the island’s bond debt. How did the president plan to pull this off? Pam Martens and Russ Martens, writing in Wall Street on Parade, note that the U.S. municipal bond market holds $3.8 trillion in debt, and it is not just owned by Wall Street banks. Mom and pop retail investors are exposed to billions of dollars of potential losses through their holdings of Puerto Rican municipal bonds, either directly or in mutual funds.
«12345678910»
assetto corsa mods

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here
Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.