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27
A FIGHT TO THE DEATH

As a member of the first graduating class for the MA. in English at the University of Puerto
Rico, I am heartbroken and dismayed at the spectacle of one of its present faculty members
acting against a duly taken strike vote, approved by the students and supported by faculty. His
verbal and physical aggression is made all too clear in the accompanying video, as well as his
political position: “This is illegal. I can arrest you, you know”.

In the 60′s, professors of English at UPR were professionals, not strike-breaking thugs.
Moreover, many of them shared and participated in the never-ending struggles of Puerto Ricans
to hold on to their cultural and natural heritage. Let us remember Prof. Lewis Richardson, an
ardent pro-independence fighter, who taught my mother, aunt and sister, and whose name now
graces the English Department’s Seminar Room.

I learned, during the struggles of the 60′s and 70′s, that when a law is unjust, the only moral
course is to disobey it and break it. I learned this lesson both as a student and then as an
instructor at UPR. I also learned it while I was doing my doctorate in Binghamton and later, as a
faculty member of City University of New York. Whoever keeps silent, concedes the fight.

And that is why the people, be it in Wisconsin or Puerto Rico, have taken to the streets. The
neoliberal project is very clear as to its aims. Governor Fortuño has already successfully tried it
out in my unfortunate island. Gov. Walker now wants to emulate it in Wisconsin. In both
places, and very soon in many others within the USA, we will see an explosion of what Naomi
Klein has called “the Shock Doctrine:” the use of crisis, whether natural or man-made, to stun
the population into surrendering their rights so that those in power can consolidate capital and
take over the planet’s dwindling resources. It’s called “globalization.”

Puerto Ricans need to realize they are being governed by an individual who responds to a
mainland, Republican party agenda: curtailing of public services, dismantling of unions, and
wholesale privatization , all in the name of “balancing the budget.” Fortuño has done much
more. He has brazenly gone after the institutions that represent Puerto Rican identity, throwing
them into a total state of chaos. However, just as in the mainland, corporations and very rich
individuals are exempted from taxes, or have a myriad ways of avoiding them. Fortuño is
another assimilated whore, servicing his masters, who have promised him a prominent role in
their harem in exchange for turning his country into a Republican-controlled state.

The American Government exempts itself from its own laws. The very members of Congress
who want a budget shutdown will continue receiving checks when everyone is furloughed. The
very members of Congress who want to destroy Obamacare will continue receiving government
health benefits. America is no longer a democracy but a plutocracy. Even its Government is a
supermarket commodity. So is its entire territory. Let us sell the Grand Canyon in exchange for
oil rights. Let us privatize Puerto Rico’s public beaches.

A long time ago, as I discussed the future of the USA with a friend, he predicted with Cassandra
accuracy: “When the United States finds no other country to exploit, it will turn on its own
citizens.” Puerto Rico has just been an experiment. The real Neo Conservative takeover begins
now.

Unless the fight is to the death.

Alfredo Villanueva Collado, PhD.

Prof. Emeritus, English Department
Eugenio María de Hostos Community College
City University of New York.