The 1920s was a decade in which the U.S. pushed out all other imperialist rivals from the Americas, with a near constant deployment of the U.S. military in countries of ‘Latin America’ as United Fruit, et. al., took possession of the hemisphere. J. Nevarez of the Puerto Rican Communist League on the tasks facing the Latin American proletariat under the hegemony of U.S. imperialism.

‘Tasks of the Latin American Labor Movement’ by J. Nevarez from The Daily Worker. Vol. 4 No. 178. August 10, 1927.

(Organizer Communist League of Porto Rico.)

The recent convention of the Pan-American Federation of Labor, held in Washington, D.C.; the brazen defense of the Monroe Doctrine and the up to date U.S. imperialist policy pursued in Latin America, by the chief sponsors of the Pan-A.F. of L., such as William Green and Matthew Woll, thru their stifling of all resolutions which dared to criticize recent events in Latin America; and the selected make-up of the delegations to this congress, (many delegates representing no real labor movements, except of the Wall Street dictators.) The particular introduction of a resolution embodying the Monroe Doctrine of Labor which “will not permit others to dictate to us or impose principles or tactics” (which infers nothing more than that the Yankee bureaucratic leaders of the Pan-A.F. of L. reserve for themselves the right to dictate to the Pan-American labor movement)–all these facts go to warn the workers of Latin America that they are not only faced with the necessity of struggle against the political and military aggression of Wall Street’s government against their countries, but that the working class of Latin America must meet the additional challenge of the American labor bureaucracy, who with the aid of such flunkies as Santiago Iglesias, are maneuvering under the veil of Pan Americanism, to get their grip on the organized labor movement in Latin America and betray it so that it will become helpless to struggle against imperialism.

Latin American Workers Must Fight Imperialism.

The workers of Latin America, with its most militant elements in the lead, must muster themselves to face the challenge of the “Monroe Doctrine of Labor.” In fact the working class of the entire Americas must be mobilized to challenge the attempt to shackle it with Monroe Doctrinisms. But for the workers of Latin America, it remains for the present to reject the false conception of Pan Americanism raised by the Pan-American Federation of Labor and its Matthew Woll conceived “Monroe Doctrine of Labor.” This task can be achieved by the Latin American workers uniting their trade union forces and creating and strengthening an all embracing Latin American Federation of Labor, on the definite basis of struggle against North American imperialism and the so-called “Pan” A. F. of L. and the Woll theories of Monroe Doctrinism of or over labor.

Now the question arises what are some of the immediate concrete points upon which a Latin American Federation of Labor can naturally base itself, in order to become a real instrument of struggle in the hands of Latin American labor? Limitations of space permits us only to name our proposals which are the proposals of the All American Anti-Imperialist League, for a platform on which a militant anti-imperialist labor movement in Latin America must base itself.

Militant labor organized into Latin American Federation of Labor must insist on the following:

Demand End of U.S. Rule.

1. Withdrawal of all United States troops from Latin American soil.

2. Complete and immediate independence for Porto Rico and the Philippines: Self-determination for all United States colonies.

3. Immediate termination of United States occupation and rule in Nicaragua, Santo Domingo and Haiti, and indemnity to the victims and to the families and dependents of victims of U.S. military and naval operations in those countries.

4. Abolition of the Platt amendment in Cuba; abrogation of special treaties forced upon Cuba and the “republic” of Panama which make these countries protectorates of Wall Street.

5. Hands off Mexico!

6. The internationalization of the Panama Canal Zone.

7. Unification of the five Central American republics in accordance. with the clearly expressed sentiments of the peoples of these countries, which have been largely thwarted thru the maneuvers of U.S. imperialism.

8. Abrogation of all authority from President, Coolidge or the United States government in the settlement of the Tacna Arica question; investigation and arbitration by a Latin American committee to be named in accordance with recommendations of the trade union movements of the countries concerned, by the Latin American Union, the Ibero-American Council of Intellectuals and the All American Anti-Imperialist League.

9. For World Trade Union Unity. The Task of Porto-Rican Workers. In concluding I desire to deal with the specific tasks of the militant workers in the Island of Porto Rico, which may in general way correspond to those facing the workers in other countries under American imperialism. In order to revive once more their new stagnant labor movement, militant workers in Porto Rico must accept the following line of procedure:

Workers Must Enter Unions.

1. In spite of the indifference of the present leaders of the Federacion Libre for the carrying out of practical steps towards the organization of the workers, the few militant elements, particularly those of the Communist League of Porto Rico, must bend all efforts to organize the workers in the Federacion Libre, wherein the masses will be enabled to struggle and eliminate (first) the pro-imperialist reactionary Iglesias leadership. (second) to wage struggles against the exploiting trusts and corporations, and individual employers, demanding better wages and improved working conditions.

2. Militant workers must advance and popularize the call issued by the Nationalist Party of Porto Rico, for the calling of a constitutional assembly representing the broadest masses for the purpose of dictating the Constitution of, and declare the existence of, the Republic of Porto Rico, regardless of the presence of the so-called “Insular Government” and the imperialist authorities.

3. Practical unity with other Latin American Nationalist liberation and anti-imperialist movements, and with the militant working class organizations in the United States proper, which are struggling against American imperialist exploitation.

4. Practical measures on the part of the militant workers and Nationalists for the defence of the Republic of Porto Rico. In this effort the militant workers and the Nationalists of Porto Rico will have the material and moral support of their brothers in the rest of Latin America as well as of the class conscious and militant workers in the United States proper. And in our concluding statement we call upon all militant workers in Porto Rico who understand the menace of Iglesiasism and are ready to steel themselves for struggle in the real interests of the workers in Porto Rico, Latin America, and of the World, to line themselves up with their organization which best recognizes the revolutionary aspirations of the working class of Porto Rico, as of the entire world,–that organization is the Communist League of Porto Rico.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1927/1927-ny/v04-n178-NY-aug-10-1927-DW-LOC.pdf