WAR AGAINST ALL PUERTO RICANS
Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony
The Bernie Sanders plan for Puerto Rico
Bernie Sanders evokes memories of Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
On December 10, 2008, Sanders filibustered the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of America. The speech lasted nearly nine hours and became legendary – known simply as “The Speech.” And now Sanders delivered again…as the only presidential candidate whose website offers a specific plan for Puerto Rico. Here it is:
https://berniesanders.com/issues/puerto-rico/
The plan contains recommendations for clean energy, single payer Medicare plans, Chapter 9 bankruptcy access, Vieques cleanup, and free public college.
As the only candidate who dedicated a page of his web site to Puerto Rico, Bernie Sanders is already way ahead of all the others. But there is one area where his platform could be sharpened… Jones Act reform for Puerto Rico.
HARMFUL EFFECT ON PUERTO RICO
Jones Act compliance has forced a profoundly abusive shipping and import arrangement on all of Puerto Rico. Ever since 1920, every foreign import that enters Puerto Rico either 1) arrives directly into Puerto Rico where it pays extremely protectionist tariffs, quotas, fees and taxes which are handed to the US merchant marine; or 2) enters Jacksonville, FL where it is off-loaded from the foreign registry vessel, re-loaded onto a US vessel, and only then permitted to enter Puerto Rico.
Both scenarios raise the price of all insular imports by 15-20%. A recent study submitted to the GAO calculated the Jones Act cost to Puerto Rico at $29 billion from 1970 through 2010. Projected from 1920 through the present, this would become $75.8 billion…more than the entire “public debt” of Puerto Rico.
(Jeffry Valentin-Mati, Ph.D. & José I. Alameda-Lozada, Ph.D., presented to U.S. General Accounting Office, April 26, 2012).
BENEFIT OF JONES ACT REPEAL
Jones Act repeal would increase Puerto Rico’s control over its own coast, maritime activity, trade relations, and would generate an island-based shipping industry: ship building, operation, maintenance, and ownership.
This shipping industry would provide opportunities for many skilled laborers: carpenters, electricians, welders, electrical engineers, seamen. It would also create thousands of small businesses: metal, wood and hardware suppliers; storage facilities; shipyard building and maintenance; even ancillary restaurants and food stands.
Thirty to fifty thousand (30,000 – 50,000) new jobs would be created in Puerto Rico through the repeal of the Jones Act. On an island with 12% “official” unemployment (closer to 25%), this would jump-start the entire economy. In addition, the price of all imports – including oil and consumer goods – would drop by 15-20%.
CONSISTENCY WITH BERNIE SANDERS PLATFORM
Jones Act reform for Puerto Rico is consistent with the Bernie Sanders principles of empowering people over corporations, and economic progress from the ground up, rather than “trickling down.”
This reform will add specificity and substance to the Sanders “Rebuild America Act,” which currently promises 150,000 jobs for Puerto Rico…without identifying how or where these jobs would be created.
JONES ACT…THE NEW “VIEQUES” OF PUERTO RICO
With four dozen hedge funds eating away at Puerto Rico, and a Financial Control Board acting as their collection agency, the island urgently needs to develop its own shipping industry and international trade relations. None of this can happen without the repeal of the Jones Act in Puerto Rico.
Candidate (and hopefully President) Sanders is perfectly positioned make Jones Act reform a national priority. It is a civil rights issue that affects 3.6 million people, all of whom are US citizens. Bernie Sanders can help to make the Jones Act the new “Vieques” of Puerto Rico.
Let’s hope that he does it.
For a history of the War Against All Puerto Ricans, read the book…
Si prefiere ver la página web en español por favor visite: http://www.guerracontratodoslospuertorriquenos.com
WAR AGAINST ALL PUERTO RICANS 
Pingback: The Bernie Sanders plan for Puerto Rico | manfromatlan
Bernie just admitted he does not know and it is not familiar with The Jones Act whatsoever as of May 16TH 2016 . He is been talking about raising min salary in PR and that is an impossibility during this status quo and if he up to this point does not have any knowledge of TJA and how it works then unfortunately he can not solve anything in the Island and he is talking rubbish.
LikeLike
I hope the people of Puerto Rico join us in supporting the only candidate that has consistently stood for racial and economic justice for the poor and working families of our nation and the world virtually his whole life. Get out that vote Puerto Rico! #PresidentSanders2016
LikeLike
Si, tienes razón hay muchas cosas que Bernie puede mejorar por Puerto Rico. Pero dejalo llegar primero a la presidencia por favor, no lo hagan hablar sobre temas que le quiten votos alla. El trayecto a la nominación hay que mantenerselo lo mas suave posible, porque la otra dice hoy Si y mañana No y viceversa. Bernie es lo mas sincero , transparente, y positivo que ha pasado como candidato Sabra Dios si desde FDR.
Si la gente realizara que Bernie es la realidad de un futuro mejor para PR , se olvidarían del insularismo politico corrupto boricua, creado y fomentalo originalmente por USA.
LikeLike
As a mainlander who loves the island I don’t feel like I have a say in how it operates. I support the people of PR in any endeavor they take on, be it independence, statehood or commonwealth. That being said I think a solution to part of the problem of the Jones act could be including PR as part of the Jones act where foreign ships could enter and discharge cargo as on the mainland, but maintain the relationship with Cruise lines being able to use PR as a port of call. Just a thought from a retired US merchant mariner. I would hate to see the good paying US flag jobs replaced by low paying foreign flag jobs. Much better to pay for all the people of PR. Perhaps even extend the Jones Act so ships carrying cargo from the US must be Puerto Rican ships. Lets get creative and save Puerto RIco!
LikeLike
Cuando estaba Albizu Campos teniamos recursos para una trayectoria de independensia pero Los grigos nos an esplotados mucha oprtunidades con su capitalismo. Se yevaron nuestra industria de can~a Ingreyeron a nuestra juventud y compraron nuestros politicos. Nos sepurtaron con el Jones act y tienen un monopolio con nuestra sicolojia puertorique~a. Nos tinen dividido. Creo que estos tiempos son mui diferente a los tiempos de atras. Se define como socialista democrático y ha aglutinado un amplio movimiento de las fuerzas más progresistas de E.U. para la acción política concertada que le ayude a implantar su programa desde la Presidencia. sería desperdiciar una oportunidad única en la historia para contribuir a provocar un cambio positivo en la nación más poderosa del mundo, un cambio que repercutirá positivamente en nuestro país. Yo lo apollo porque hay que cambiar esta estupides que tenemos en las plataformas de Puerto Rico….
LikeLike
I have discovered the reason that politicians refuse to repeal or take a hard stance on the Jones act is because they realize how it would affect domestic port jobs in the US. They don’t want to be held accountable for passing legislation that would effectively cut jobs in the major ports in mainland American to send them “overseas” to the island of Puerto Rico. There has been too much of a marketing campaign in the US that portrays PR as “other” in a way that subjugates it to a less than status that deserves justice only when it doesn’t interfere with the comfort of the mainland Americans. So it isn’t just pitting the working class against big corporations. It is pitting the working class of the mainland and the port worker unions against the working class people of the island. And without fail each politician has chosen the working class people of the mainland and the unions that represent them.
LikeLike
The Republicans from Congress in Washington DC are planning a complete take over Puerto Rico. They wish that President Obama select 4 Republican and 1 Democrat to be in the Finacial Control Board.
While at the same time the Hedge Funds from Wall Street are going into court to freeze the Money of Puerto Rico.
This is a total, complete take over Puerto Rico’s Economy and Assets.
Is there any doubt now that we are a Colony?!
What does the United Nations have to say about this?!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bernie Sanders has (FOR DECADES) committed himself as the champion of the American worker and the shrinking and dying middle class. He has opposed TRILLION dollar oil-wars repeatedly, the en masse re-location of MILLIONS of American jobs to 3rd world rat-holes where the Wall Street thieves have funded the construction of factories, corporate farms or “calling centers” where when you call to pay a credit card bill on the phone you get someone on the phone who sounds like they are in a Bollywood extravaganza with dancing, hissing Cobras on their desks.
HE knows the price that American citizens have paid for this corporate “fleecing” of America and the problem is EVEN worse for Puerto Rico which is saddled with obscene taxation/tariff structures that squeeze every dime from the Insular residents’ pockets all day everyday!
Billary on the other hand has consistently had a very warm relationship with the Wall Street vultures who have funded her campaigns to the tune of MILLIONS of dollars for DECADES…thepaid for her carpet-bagger campaign for her NYS Senate seat, as they mounted campaigns to present her as a “real New Yorker”, when up to that point, the only thing “real New Yorker: about her was shopping at Tiffany’s or stopping her limousine on the NYS Thruway to urinate at a MacDonald’s where she hugged more illegals. I can still remember seeing her on the news, hugging MORE illegals outside of restaurant kitchens and promising them she would protect their (non-existent) “rights” to remain in the US.
And I still have nightmares of her repeatedly marching in the Puerto Rican Day parade, while she stopped to hug MORE illegals along the way as she waved the Puerto Rican flag. Apparently, no one told her that all of us have been “citizens”, albeit 3rd-class ones, for a CENTURY!
“Hilarians” bristle at the sight of commentaries such as mine because they KNOW that the American voters (that does NOT include 4 MILLION of us on the Island)…talk about a century-old obscene and indefensible political travesty of “colonial”……errrrrrr, I mean “commonwealth” proportions, CANNOT be camouflaged or costumed any longer. Even her ONLY daughter is married to a Goldman Sachs money-changer who also just happens to funnel MILLIONS of dollars to her current campaign with the help of her loving Bill’s greasy palms.
Sanders, knows Puerto Rico is in bad shape and has been for over a century!
Any Puerto Rican on the US Mainland (or other American citizen) that does not support him, is complicit in perpetuating the economic and political rape of the Islanders and had better be ready to accept Billary’s view of us as non-existent.generic “La Tinos”, who in her mind have nothing to do all day than mow her lawns, detail her limousines and polish her marble floors.
Wake-up mi gente…ya e’ tiempo, no? Your 3rd rate “citizenship” has cost us a century already.
My Mallorca-born grandfather born in Utuado who farmed his “fincas” in Quebradillas and used to take me as a 2 year old for walks naked (me, not him) on the beach near the Guajataca Tunnel used to say (often)…
“Mi’jo, cuando el hombre pierde la verguenza, no hay NADIE que se la devuelva”.
And while I didn’t know what those words meant then, I sure do know what they mean today!
I think it’s time for us to find our collective “verguenza”! And Bernie is the only presidential hopeful who understand and supports our human and civic rights toward that end.
So my advice to our “leadership” on the Island is to shut-up, get off your pastel-colored golf-carts, put down that Mai-Tai with the little Chinese paper umbrellas in it and remember how much that little umbrella cost YOUR parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents to “import” to the Island.
And as for our bought-and-sold faux “leadership” IN the States (you know who you are), perhaps if you read a book about how Puerto Rico has been forced to live the life of the tattered Caribbean whore and still remains tethered to that broken palm tree, you might find your “verguenza” too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bernie Sanders has (FOR DECADES) committed himself as the champion of the American worker and the shrinking and dying middle class. He has opposed TRILLION dollar oil-wars repeatedly, the en masse re-location of MILLIONS of American jobs to 3rd world rat-holes where the Wall Street thieves have funded the construction of factories, corporate farms or “calling centers” where when you call to pay a credit card bill on the phone you get someone on the phone who sounds like they are in a Bollywood extravaganza with dancing, hissing Cobras on their desks.
HE knows the price that American citizens have paid for this corporate “fleecing” of America and the problem is EVEN worse for Puerto Rico which is saddled with obscene taxation/tariff structures that squeeze every dime from the Insular residents’ pockets all day everyday!
Billary on the other hand has consistently had a very warm relationship with the Wall Street vultures who have funded her campaigns to the tune of MILLIONS of dollars for DECADES…thepaid for her carpet-bagger campaign for her NYS Senate seat, as they mounted campaigns to present her as a “real New Yorker”, when up to that point, the only thing “real New Yorker: about her was shopping at Tiffany’s or stopping her limousine on the NYS Thruway to urinate at a MacDonald’s where she hugged more illegals. I can still remember seeing her on the news, hugging MORE illegals outside of restaurant kitchens and promising them she would protect their (non-existent) “rights” to remain in the US.
And I still have nightmares of her repeatedly marching in the Puerto Rican Day parade, while she stopped to hug MORE illegals along the way as she waved the Puerto Rican flag. Apparently, no one told her that all of us have been “citizens”, albeit 3rd-class ones, for a CENTURY!
“Hilarians” bristle at the sight of commentaries such as mine because they KNOW that the American voters (that does NOT include 4 MILLION of us on the Island)…talk about a century-old obscene and indefensible political travesty of “colonial”……errrrrrr, I mean “commonwealth” proportions, CANNOT be camouflaged or costumed any longer. Even her ONLY daughter is married to a Goldman Sachs money-changer who also just happens to funnel MILLIONS of dollars to her current campaign with the help of her loving Bill’s greasy palms.
Sanders, knows Puerto Rico is in bad shape and has been for over a century!
Any Puerto Rican on the US Mainland (or other American citizen) that does not support him, is complicit in perpetuating the economic and political rape of the Islanders and had better be ready to accept Billary’s view of us as non-existent.generic “La Tinos”, who in her mind have nothing to do all day than mow her lawns, detail her limousines and polish her marble floors.
Wake-up mi gente…ya e’ tiempo, no? Your 3rd rate “citizenship” has cost us a century already.
My Mallorca-born grandfather born in Utuado who farmed his “fincas” in Quebradillas and used to take me as a 2 year old for walks naked (me, not him) on the beach near the Guajataca Tunnel used to say (often)…
“Mi’jo, cuando el hombre pierde la verguenza, no hay NADIE que se la devuelva”.
And while I didn’t know what those words meant then, I sure do know what they mean today!
I think it’s time for us to find our collective “verguenza”! And Bernie is the only presidential hopeful who understand and supports our human and civic rights toward that end.
So my advice to our “leadership” on the Island is to shut-up, get off your pastel-colored golf-carts, put down that Mai-Tai with the little Chinese paper umbrellas in it and remember how much that little umbrella cost YOUR parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents to “import” to the Island.
And as for our bought-and-sold faux-leadership IN the States (you know who you are), perhaps if you read a book about how Puerto Rico has been forced to live the life of the tattered Caribbean whore and still remains tethered to that broken palm tree, you might find your “verguenza” too.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Bernie …. the only candidate mentioning Puerto Rico! This is why he’s my pick! If he’s not the nominee I’ll still vote blue …
LikeLiked by 1 person