Puerto Rican Communist Workers and Students for Social Change (TECCS) statement at SIPRAL 27

 PRESENTATION BY TECCS

Good afternoon. Revolutionary greetings from the Communist Workers and Students for Social Change (TECCS) of Puerto Rico. First of all, we want to establish that our organization was formed in the face of the political and ideological vacuum in which our country, Puerto Rico, as well as other countries in the world, finds itself. Our name responds to the desire to distinguish ourselves from other organizations that identify themselves as Marxist-Leninists and communists, which in their methods of struggles and practices use legalistic methods to achieve power, while leaving intact the political, legal and banking structures. that make up the system of capitalist exploitation. In our case, Puerto Rico, a classic colony, dominated by Yankee imperialism for 125 years (1898), there is the dynamic in the anti-imperialist struggle of sectors of the left, which put independence of Puerto Rico in the foreground, thus subordinating the class struggle.

For us in TECCS, it is not a question of "Yankee go home" to make way for the national local bourgeois capitalist aspirants who, in the name of love for the country, continue to exploit the working class. There are those who think that the anti-imperialist struggle is a revolutionary struggle and we want to clarify that being anti-imperialist does not make them anti-capitalist or revolutionary. Nor do we believe that it is necessary, once independence is achieved, to go through the process of anti-imperialist bourgeois democracy and then enter the phase of the dictatorship of the proletariat. There are currently 35 independent (neo-colonial) capitalist Latin American countries. Being an independent country does not mean being a country free from exploitation. Therefore, we as a colony advocate the independence of the working class to free itself from all exploitation, whether it is from imperialism or from the aspiring local bourgeoisie.

We are living in difficult times. The currents and winds are moving in another direction. Uncertainty reigns. We do not know the future. But what is clear is that no empire lasts forever. We are seeing that we are living in a time of the displacement of the most powerful empire by another in the history of mankind. A new world social and political order is being forged. The globalists with their imperial agenda enter into struggle to preserve their control and hegemony. Inter-imperialist rivalry is the order of the day. The old Soviet bloc has become the battleground for the resurgence of the world fascist movement, with the support of declining U.S. imperialism and NATO, which is best represented by its acronym (Nazi Alliance Terrorist Organization).

This reality is not new. The difference is that its opponent is the second nuclear military power, Russia, and the second economic world power, China.

What role do the communists play in this new historical, conjunctural reality?

What are we to do? Where are we going? What should our tactics and strategies be?

How should we look at the current historical reality? How should we look at the reformists, social democrats and liberals? Should united fronts be created with center-left organizations? Should we participate in elections? Can socialism or communism be achieved peacefully or by elections? Is there such a thing as revolutionary nationalism? Is there progressive capitalism? Is it necessary to pass through the stage of bourgeois democracy? Is it necessary to pass through stages from semi-feudalism to bourgeois democracy and then to socialism? Are some capitalists better than others? Is there a less bad imperialism? Does being anti-imperialist make you revolutionary? Is being progressive the same as being revolutionary or is being of the left the same as being communist? What should our position be as communists on the LGBTQX struggle? What should be our position on racism and ethnocentrism? What should be our position on Pan-Americanism and Pan-Africanism? What should be our position on ethnic, racial and national chauvinism? Is wage labor necessary in the stage of development to communism?

Should we apply the principles of historical and dialectical materialism with its historically proven science or do we venture into other unknown horizons? How should we interpret and analyze this new global reality? Is Russia imperialist?

Do Putin and the Russian Federation represent the working class?

As communists, what should be our answers to these questions? Can we speculate on the answers or let ourselves be guided by the science of historical and dialectical materialism? In our organization, Communist Workers and Students for Social Change, we prefer to count on the science of the principles of Marxism-Leninism with its proven history, which, with all its victories and failures, is the only social-economic science that corresponds to our reality known as the class struggle.

Comrades, these are just some of the many questions we have to ask ourselves. The answers are not easy, but it is up to us as revolutionary communists to search for these answers if we truly aspire to change and to a new communist society free of exploitation. We will make mistakes, but mistakes are not the same as betrayal. Only revolutionary practice applying the principles of historical and dialectical materialism will lead us towards victory.

As for our country, Puerto Rico, it is the example of a capitalist industrial colony that does not need to go through the stage of bourgeois democracy. However backward contemporary colonial and neocolonial countries may be, the national and international relations are capitalist in nature. Therefore, we must not fall into the trap of supporting anti-imperialist local bourgeoisies. Ultimately, history has shown that eventually these so-called progressive anti-imperialist sectors will defend, first and foremost, their class interests: the exploitative capitalist system. Such is the case of the inter-imperialist struggle between the Russian Federation, Ukraine, NATO and the USA, which are fighting for the best piece of the pie. Fascism is nothing but capitalism in crisis and the current war between Russia and Ukraine is the struggle for who will control world economic political hegemony. As workers and communists we must see the class struggle from an internationalist perspective and stand in solidarity with the world working class who are the victims. Our slogan, the workers' struggle has no borders, the working class has no borders, is on the order of the day. As well as the slogan of Marx and Engels, "Proletarians of the world unite. We have nothing to lose but our chains."

Long live communism! War on war!

Long live proletarian internationalism!