Open Letter to the World - International Front in Support of the General Strike in Puerto Rico

Open Letter to the World

To: All social, labor/trade union, feminist, environmentalist, and community groups

From: International Front in Support of the General Strike in Puerto Rico
frente.solidaridad@gmail.com and in Facebook “Frente Internacional en Apoyo al Paro (Huelga) en Puerto Rico”

On October 15, 2009, labor unions, students, community associations, progressive religious groups, and environmental organizations have called for a 24-hour strike demanding that the Commonwealth’s Government stop the systematic abuse that for the last 10 months it has subjected all citizens, in particular public-sector workers, poor communities and college students.

With the passing, in March of 2009, of the Fiscal Emergency Law (Law 7 of the Commonwealth), Gov. Luis A. Fortuño and an advisory board of the leading businessmen in Puerto Rico, have launched a “severance plan” that has meant firing more than 20 thousand public-sector workers. The current governor, from the Pro-annexation Party, is imposing the most blatant extreme right neo-liberal model in the history of the country, with the establishment of so-called “Public-Private Partnerships” (Alianzas Publico-Privadas - APP), the privatization of our natural resources and institutions and an unemployment rate of over 17 percent.

On the island we are preparing for a national strike called by the Broad Front for Solidarity and Struggle (Frente Amplio de Solidaridad y Lucha - FASyL), composed of over 30 organizations. The time for action has arrived. In Puerto Rico, class struggle sharpens and the street smells of resistance. We reject the mobilization of the Puerto Rico National Guard (part of the US military) and “Shock Force” (Fuerza de Choque – anti-riot forces) by the police against the workers, who are harassed and harried because constitute the main opposition forces.

Working people in Puerto Rico demand:

1. The repealing of the Fiscal Emergency Law 7 and the APP law and the restitution of all laid off workers.

2. To establish taxes on multinational corporations, and eliminating any benefits enjoyed by these multinationals under the US Federal Internal Revenue Act.

3. The immediate halting of the evictions of working-class and immigrant squatter communities and the halting of the expropriation of poor communities for development projects, and end to the political and military abuses to all, and the recognition of the right to equal housing for all human beings.

As workers of the world we face the same enemy. That's why we call for the solidarity of your organization or collective.

In solidarity,

International Front in Support of the General Strike in Puerto Rico

Let the rich pay for the crisis!
Workers of Puerto Rico in the streets and in struggle!
Let us support the General Strike!
Another world is possible!