Art Tatum- Humouresque

Here's to a Happy Holiday

Remembering Calvin C. Hernton

I feel compelled to pay tribute, however brief and modest, to someone who I consider an icon of Black American literature but who also influenced me personally in my thinking and in my general outlook on life. I first met poet and author Calvin C. Hernton as a student working through my studies as an undergraduate at Oberlin College in the late seventies and early eighties. Aside from being a fascinating professor, one of the few that actually tried to make us think, I will always be grateful to him for helping lessen the “shock” I experienced from the racial "dynamics" that I witnessed in US society. Being born and raised in Puerto Rico, I had little to no experience or wherewithall to deal with the overt racism that I encountered in what was my first experience actually living on my own for an extended period of time in the US. It can be bewildering, not to say daunting, to someone in the early stages of his adult life.

We became friends and crossed paths on several occasions over the years. I invited him and his companion Mary Gilfus to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands where he was struck by the casual touristic approach to such historic symbols of black servitude and oppression as the plantation ruins and sugar mill remnants that scatter the Virgin Islands to this day. Much later I was able to visit with Calvin in London during my years as a doctoral student in southern England. He was always lucid and full of provocative ideas and analyses of contemporary events. I enjoyed taking time off from my studies to visit and converse with him. I came to look upon him as a sort of sage or Medicine Man, as I am sure he would have become had he been brought up and lived all his life on the African continent.

Although not a household name like James Baldwin or Alice Walker, I hold Calvin in equal stature with the great Black American writers. One thing that stands out in my memory of Calvin was his unwavering and principled stand against sexism, especially that “within the race”, as he would say. Although he is perhaps best known for his best selling book “Sex and Racism in America”, I would like to excerpt a few lines from his lesser known book “The Sexual Mountain and Black Women Writers.” The latter book, he said, “fulfills the burning need for a black male writer to speak out against the red bricks of slander and bigotry that are hurled at black women and the literature they produce.” The excerpt reads as follows:

Because much of the writing of contemporary black women is critical of black men, both in the literary sphere and in real life, the men find it unpalatable. But black writing owes its very nature to the oppressive conditions under which blacks were and are subjected in America. The function therefore of black literature has always been, as Langston Hughes so declared, to illuminate and elevate the condition of black people. It is altogether consistent with the heritage of black writing that black women write about the meanness they have experienced and still experience at the hands of black men as well as white men. It is inescapable that women writers seek to illuminate and elevate the condition of black women, their whole condition. How is one to participate meaningfully in the struggle between the races if one is the victim of subjugation within the race?

...also, a pair of poems:

TERRORIST
(for the four Negro children murdered in Birmingham while praying to God)

Like his strickened face
Stroke of midnight.
Torn by crack of thunder
Or dissonance of vowel,
The deed, like agonized tooth
Fell from his mouth

And exploded.

In a dark room in a crumbling
Heart, the deed conceived its victims:
Ninety-one nails in the breast of Christ;
The deed made terror ripped open

Flesh and bone. No one knew,
Not even he himself, eight fragile bones
Would never walk from that debris.
I am the door. Hammer me down

Ninety-one and Four!
They were like chrysanthemums,
Tender flesh cracked by thunder –
Unknown to his grotesque face.

A revolution must draw blood.

In the manacled chamber of our egos
What we do not know about death
Comes alive; and though love agonized
There, when terror expires our frail hearts

Hate is a bitter madness.

For the four who died, without tears,
outside of cognition – their end
Is everlasting;
Their beginning is eternity.

To die young, before the rodent of exchange
Imperils the flesh, when you are innocent
And immaculate to the paranoid itch,
Is lambs blood
Is bread trans-substantiated
To galaxy.

If I were loin from whose pain
The ecstacy of these four little girls
Leaped, I would wail and weep,

Seek revenge; fly, with shotgun,
Through the streets.
Yet I know

When all this raving tortured love
And flagellating hatred
Is reckoned up to stars,
Those four will illuminate
The dark more than a billion heavens.

I wish I had died as they!
Before thunder in your face is
Done, you will too; there shall be
No shaking hands later on
And forgetting; blood will heave

In your chattered streets,
Birmingham!

And God, the tornado
Shall rave down on you like an angered
Black fist, merciless

And violent!
Unto the blazing sun.
[Copyright © 1976 by Calvin C. Hernton]

THE DISTANT DRUM

I am not a metaphor or symbol.
This you hear is not the wind in the trees.
Nor a cat being maimed in the street.
I am being maimed in the street
It is I who weep, laugh, feel pain or joy.
Speak this because I exist.
This is my voice
These words are my words, my mouth
Speaks them, my hand writes.
I am a poet.
It is my fist you hear beating
Against your ear.
[Copyright © 1976 by Calvin C. Hernton]

Calvin Hernton passed away sometime between September 30 and October 1st, 2001. He is sorely missed.

Fidel Castro is revered by many

Here is a Pan-Africanist perspective on Cuban Leader Fidel Castro by Dr. Malik Sekou, a colleague and now Chair of the Humanities/Social Sciences Division of the University of the Virgin Islands, where I had the pleasure of teaching for two years. The article appeared in the August 23, 2006 edition of the Virgin Islands' Daily News.

We must be careful about our sources of information especially when it comes to Cuban politics. If you read the "mainstream" U.S. media you will only find Castrophobia, anti-Communist hysteria, and the same old drivel about Cuba's human rights violations.

Speaking from the Pan-Africanist side of the political spectrum in the Virgin Islands, Cuban President Fidel Castro's recent illness is a reminder of the mortality of revolutionaries but immortality of revolutionary ideas. We on the left wish Fidel a speedy recovery, but we are well aware that as he passed the 80-year milestone on Aug. 13, his physical presence has reached the golden stage.

I was impressed to read that priests from the African-Cuban religion invoked African gods to aid the recovery of Fidel. According to Granma, the Cuban newspaper, a priest, Victor Betancourt, insisted that: "We have to fight for health. We want to do a tambor (ritual) on the beach to Olokún (the divinity of the depths) with an animal sacrifice." The article went on to state that the Yoruba Association of Cuba prayed to the pantheon of orishas or divinities for the leader's health. "As religious believers, our position is to follow the plans of the gods, which are to understand and support the decisions taken by our maximum leader." Ase.

I know that well-wishers from every faith tradition - Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Ifa, and other African spiritual systems -sent warm birthday greetings and get-well messages. Fidel is highly respected and held in high esteem throughout the developing world, especially among African people.

Among Pan-Africanists, Fidel is within the same rank of Kwame Nkrumah, Ahmed Sekou Toure, Modibo Keita, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Amilcar Cabral, Patrice Lumumba and Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe. By the way, it is reported that he has a "lick of the tar brush," African blood runs through his veins just as most Cubans -Â even the "white" ones. Even more, his politics is the combination of many influences but two stand out - Jose Marti and Antonio Maceo. Maceo, the indomitable African-Cuban general of Cuba's two independence wars, is an ideological ancestor of Fidel.

But why do Pan-Africanists, black conscious groups, and African nationalists revere Fidel? Why do we tolerate domestic U.S. repression in order to support the Cuban people? Even more, some may ask why should Virgin Islanders embrace Cuba when its normalization of relations with the U.S. government may negatively impact our tourism?

Cuba is a part of the larger African world community and it is very much a Latin-African Caribbean society. During the early decades of the 20th century, hundreds of Virgin Islanders immigrated to Cuba in search of gainful employment. In fact, many Caribbean islanders have had close family ties to Cuban society for over a century. But more importantly, Cuba's Caribbean and African foreign policies have been honorable.

For four decades, Cuba supported just about every anti-colonial movement in Africa. In fact, guerrilla movements ranging from the MPLA, Angola, PAIGC, Guinea-Bissau and SWAPO, Namibia were aided in their struggle against imperialism, colonialism and in Southern Africa, white supremacy. The Cuban involvement in the decisive battle of Cuito Cuanavale in Angola was responsible for the retreat of South African occupation of Namibia, intervention in Angola, and eventual dismantling of apartheid in South Africa/Azania.

Closer to home Cuba has given thousands of scholarships to students within the Caribbean Basin. In fact, a standing offer to educate U.S. students in Cuba's medical schools still exists. Yes, Virgin Islanders can go to Cuba for medical school for free!

Cuba is not a threat to the United States or its territories. The Cuban Communist Party has already made a leadership succession and it includes hundreds of thousands of fervently nationalistic Cubans whose ancestry, color and faith reflect the masses. Even when Fidel leaves, his ideas will last forever within the Cuban Communist Party and Cuban People.

Dr. Malik Sekou is an associate professor of political science-history and Chairman of the Humanities-Social Sciences Division at the University of the Virgin Islands. He lives on St. Thomas.

The photo of Fidel Castro standing next to Lázaro Cárdenas (in coat and tie) was taken by my father, Dr. Thomas G. Mathews while the Cuban leader was reviewing a parade as part of the country's first July 26 celebrations following the overthrow of the Batista regime.

A Caribbean Perspective on Freedom and Independence…

The history of social revolution in the Western Hemisphere starts not with Lexington and Bunker Hill in British North America in 1775 but less auspiciously in the French tropical colony of Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean. The North-American and Latin American Wars of Independence were political events, almost devoid of significant restructuring of the social classes. Although intrinsically connected with the events in metropolitan France as well as the United States, the HAITIAN REVOLUTION sought not merely political independence for the state but also the personal freedom of the more than 80 percent of the inhabitants that were slaves. To accomplish this goal, the revolution had to be, as its metropolitan correspondent, both radical and destructive. The Haitians were forced to destroy the entire colonial socioeconomic structure that was the raison d'être for their imperial importance; and in destroying the institution of slavery, they unwittingly agreed to terminate their connection to the entire international superstructure that perpetuated slavery and the plantation economy. That was an incalculable price for freedom and independence.

The implications for the entire Caribbean – and slaveholding societies everywhere – were astonishing. From Boston to Buenos Aires, slave owners trembled at the consequences for themselves and their world. Haiti, the second independent state in the Western Hemisphere was politically quarantined, maligned by many, assisted by few. France, understandably, grudgingly granted diplomatic recognition in stages between 1825 and 1837. Only after sixty years did the United States of America offer diplomatic ties. Haiti remained poor in material terms, but its people remained strong, free, and fiercely indepenedent.

excerpted from The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism by Franklin W. Knight

Remembering Eric Dolphy

Fall Down
(in memory of Eric Dolphy)

All men are locked in their cells.
Though we quake
In fist of body
Keys rattle, set us free.

I remember and wonder why?
In fall, in summer; times
Will be no more. Journeys
End.
I remember and wonder why?

In the sacred labor of lung
Spine and groin,
You cease, fly away

To what? To autumn, to
Winter, to brown leaves, to
Wind where no lark sings; yet
Through domination of air, jaw and fire

I remember!

Eric Dolphy, you swung
A beautiful axe. You lived a clean
Life.
You were young --
You died.
Copyright © Calvin C. Hernton.

Eric Allan Dolphy died on June 29, 1964.

The US return to multi-lateralism

The economic realm is inextricably linked to the political realm and so it should be. While I argued in a previous post that the US public appears to be trending inwards after facing a series of unfavorable experiences brought on by its leadership on the global stage (not least of which is the emergence, arguably, of an Iraq syndrome), I want to step back and complement that observation with what is undeniably a new outlook in the halls of power within the US. In short, it is a return to multilateralism which represents a profound reversal in the outlook of this particular US administration (of George W. Bush).

We have seen how the Bush administration initially pursued a unilateralist approach, annointed with hubris, in world affairs which has gotten it nowhere and has actually reversed the country's fortunes (the Iraq incursion is the primary glaring example of this). The immediate fall-out is fairly evident to anyone who has eyes – the loss of support from allies, the soaring costs of a war in Iraq that still may see that country fractured into at least three separate states, and skyrocketing oil prices. Perhaps the most damaging legacy from this unilateralist approach has been the loss of credibility which the US will have to work very hard to rebuild in a post- Bush era.

That Bush has returned to a multilateralist approach, as manifested in its dealings with Iran, is truly remarkable for an administration that has resisted any change in course. It shows precisely the extent of the damage, which has reached such proportions as to force said reconsideration of policy. Although loath to admit it, this administration's ultimate aim in the middle east has always centered (in my view) around the increasingly important energy resources that the region posesses. Advocating democracy masked a greater goal: control over the energy resources that include massive reserves of oil and natural gas.

If the citizens of the US were in denial about this aim, the rest of the world certainly wasn't. It therefore wasn't long before the rest of the world and in particular the competing interests for those massive reserves of energy were galvanized into action in order to counter Washington's moves in the energy-rich region. This occurred with the formation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

SCO was created in 2001 to include Russia, several of the former soviet republics of Central Asia and China, and may yet expand to include India, Pakistan and Iran. The stated purposes of the organization are to strengthen relations among member states; promoting cooperation in political affairs, economy and trade, scientific-technical, cultural and educational spheres as well as in energy, transportation, tourism and environmental protection fields; joint safeguarding and preservation of regional peace, security and stability, among others. Western analysts have stressed that the organization represents a strategic alliance between Beijing and Moscow aimed at countering Washington's influence in a region of considerable energy resources.

Despite the timid efforts of several of the former soviet Central Asian republics at opening up to the West, this new alliance represents an effort from Moscow's (as well as China's) perspective to draw them closer to its sphere of influence. SCO bears close watching in the ever complex chess game between East and West that has broken out anew. This time, energy resources are at the center of this new game given that two interested parties (India and China) represent rapidly growing economies that will need to secure sources of energy to guarantee that they continue to grow. Given the increasing hostility of the US towards Iran, it is no surprise that the latter sought observer status in SCO along with India and Pakistan.

This scenario has forced a reconsideration of unilateralism in Washington. We have seen this played out in the new US strategy toward Iran which engages the European Union as well as Russia and China and contemplates what would have been heresy a few years ago in the Bush administration: namely direct negotiations with Iran.

In a broader sense, however, the US has other reasons to pursue multilateralism. The economy is now global and US companies depend as much on foreign operations as they do domestic ones. One simply cannot ignore world opinion when you rely on the world for your profits. Call it realpolitik with a decidedly globalized perspective. That the Bush administration has realized this (somewhat belatedly) is also evidenced in the administration's recent personnel changes.

Despite his reported aversion to Wall Street people, Bush nominated chairmen and chief executive of the globally connected Goldman and Sachs Company Henry Paulson for the Treasury Department. Some analysts have highlighted the China factor in Paulson's nomination. Together with Condoleeza Rice at the State Department, we have a decided tilt of this administration towards multilateralism both in the economic as well as the political sphere. As I said at the beginning, economics and politics are inextricably linked.

Remembering Langston Hughes

I cannot let the month of May end without remembering the Poet Laureate of Harlem:

WHAT HAPPENS TO A DREAM DEFERRED?

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Copyright © Langston Hughes.

I also have a special place in my heart for this one:

CROSS

My old man's a white old man
And my old mother's black.
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back.
If ever I cursed my black old mother
And wished she were in hell,
I'm sorry for that evil wish
And now I wish her well
My old man died in a fine big house.
My ma died in a shack.
I wonder where I'm going to die,
Being neither white nor black?
Copyright © Langston Hughes.

Langston Hughes died on May 22, 1967.

As Doha flounders, CARICOM Countries get second wind

Despite reported “modest” achievements attained during the Sixth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference held in Hong Kong, a number of important issues were left unresolved. With regard to agricultural negotiations, Ministers had agreed in Hong Kong to establish trade liberalizing formulae or modalities and tackle such issues as state trading, food aid and export competition, no later than April 30, 2006 as well as to submit comprehensive draft schedules based on these modalities no later than July 31, 2006. As it turns out, the United States and the European Union failed to reach agreement on agricultural subsidies by said deadline thereby preventing negotiations from proceeding on to new global trade rules, according to a timeline set out for 2006.

Nevertheless US officials feel a more important date than the missed April 30 deadline is the end of 2006. They maintain that negotiators could agree on the 'modalities' at some point in the summer without derailing the overall talks. However, if a Doha Round agreement is not concluded by the end of 2006, there will likely not be enough time for the U.S. Congress to consider the document before President Bush’s trade promotion authority expires in mid-2007. The real critical date for getting a new trade reform agreement, according to US officials will most likely be December 2006.

In the meantime, a group of nine Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have taken advantage of the impasse to petition the WTO to extend their export subsidy programs to the year 2018, on the basis that they are of great importance to their economic and financial needs. The WTO Committee reportedly decided that the request for an extension will be given consideration in October this year.

Bolivian President emits Hydrocarbons Decree

During May 1 International Worker's Day celebrations, President Evo Morales
emitted a decree requiring foreign companies to give the government a majorioty share in Bolivia's natural gas industry. In what some sources called a symbolic move, troops were deployed to the gas-fields. Bolivia has around 50 trillion cubic feet in natural gas reserves and exports most of it to Brazil and Argentina. Since these resources were privatizatized in the 1990s, there have been demands to re-nationalize them. Although Evo Morales won a stunning victory in the December 2005, he has made it clear that his "nationalization" plans will not infringe on the assets of the corporations.

Remembering the 1965 Revolution in the D.R.

Today marks the 41st anniversary of the popular insurrection to restore renown author and head (at that time) of the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), Juan Bosch, to the Presidency of the Dominican Republic. President Bosch was overthrown in September 25 1963 after being rightfully elected to lead the country nine months earlier in the first free elections held following the demise of the infamous dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo (an ally of the United States). A group of military personnel led by Colonel Elias Wessin y Wessin spearheaded the coup with the tacit acquiescence of Washington, abolishing the constitution in the process.

The popular insurrection that aimed to restore President Bosch to power came to be known as the Revolution of 1965, and was led by Colonel Francisco Alberto Caamaño Deño. Four days after the initial uprising, the United States intervened and occupied the country militarily (tens of thousands of troops were stationed on the island for the duration of the occupation which lasted about a year and a half – during this period, thousands of Dominicans reportedly died fighting for constitutionalism).

Howard Wiarda, in his book The Dominican Republic: Nation in Transition, notes that restoration of the revolutionary Constitutiton of 1963, as drafted by Bosch's PRD, rapidly became the focus of the Revolution: “Later, it became clear, ...that the issue of 'constitutionalism' and the principles for which this term served as a symbol were among the most important of the revolution – perhaps even more important than any of the personalities or groups involved in the conflict.” He added further on that “The revolutionary Constitutiton of 1963... did not differ substantially from the previous constitution insofar as the mechanics of government were concerned – the powers of the executive, legislature and judiciary were virtually unchanged. Where it did differ radically from all previous constitutions in Dominican history was in its emphasis on the state as a positive force in promoting social justice. In keeping with the Bosch administration's orientation, the 1963 Constitution committed the government to far-reaching social reforms ... .”

Tribute to my Father

Six years ago this day, my father passed away. While it is tempting to write something very personal about someone as central to one's life as my father was to mine, that is not my purpose here. Instead, I am presenting (and remembering) him in his role as a researcher. He was an historian, an educator and one of the leading Caribbeanists of the twentieth century. It should also be recalled that perhaps his most important work was about Puerto Rico. In this vein, I would like to reproduce here part of a report he submitted (before I was even born) on materials related to Puerto Rico held (at the time) by the U.S. Library of Congress:

General Survey of the material related to Puerto Rico held by the Library of Congress. Report submitted by Thomas G. Mathews, August 8, 1956. Published by Historia 6 (2) October 1956.

Following the suggestion of Dr. Howard Cline, Director of the Hispanic Foundation in the Library of Congress, The University of Puerto Rico granted me permission to spend four weeks surveying the material related to Puerto Rico in the Library of Congress. The Foundation requested that a report of this survey be drawn up in the hopes that it would offer a clear appraisal of the strength and weakness of the Library's material on Puerto Rico. This report could also serve as a guide to future action by the Library by indicating obvious gaps in the material or collections which needed rounding out. Obviously such a report would also enable the Library to better serve its readers and researchers in this particular field.

The University of Puerto Rico and scholars concerned with insular affairs should find the survey helpful in view of the fact that no previous effort has been made to describe in one study the Puerto Rican material found in the various divisions of the Library of Congress. In 1901 there was drawn up under the guidance of A.F.C. Criffin A List of Books on Porto Rico found in the Library of Congress. This, of course, is long out-dated and made no effort to explore the holdings of other divisions. It is hoped that the following survey will supply the reader with a ready guide to the material of the Library related to Puerto Rico, as well as an appraisal as to the quality of those holdings.

I wish to express my appreciation to Dr. Cline for the ready cooperation which he and his staff offered me during my four weeks. In all divisions of the Library I was willingly and readily served to my complete satisfaction, even when the requests were sometimes obviously out of the ordinary. I am indebted to Mr. Jorge Morales Yordan for the time he took to orient me as to the procedures, holdings, and classifications of the Law Library. If I have any criticisms to make in no way should they be interpreted as personal but rather in an effort to enable an under-staffed Library to serve more efficiently its readers.

Introduction

The material concerning Puerto Rico in the Library of Congress forms the largest single holding outside of the Archivo General de las Indias in Spain and the Library of the University of Puerto Rico. In the British Museum, the Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris, the New York Public Library and the National Archives [1] Puerto Rican material of importance can be located. For the most such holdings are limited in scope, in period covered, and by obvious national interests.

[1] The holdings of the National Archives is a residue of a collection of official papers relating to the Spanish Government in Puerto Rico which was shipped to the United States by a representative of the Library of Congress shortly after the American occupation. The body of material --some 200 boxes-- was returned to the island where it is reputed to have been partially destroyed by fire in 1926. The remaining material was sent from the Library of Congress to the National Archives where it can now be consulted.


The Library of Congress holdings relating to the period of discovery, conquest, and period of colonization can be located principally in the divisions of Rare Book and Manuscript. Copies of the classics of Latin American history in which there is always some mention of Puerto Rico--even though it be just in passing--can be found in the card catalog of the Rare Book Room. To the known accounts of Oviedo, Gomara,, Herrera, Las Casas, Laet,, etc. I would like to add a hitherto unknown visitor to Puerto Rico. "Captpitaine Gourges" writes of his brief visit to the shores of "Sainet Germaine de Porterique" in the latter quarter of the year 1569. [2] In the Manuscript Division the reproduction of material in European archives contains material on Puerto Rico, even though the reproductions were made with the purpose of securing material relative to North America. These holdings will be studied in detail below.

[2] "La Reprise de la Floride” in Histoire de la Floride franaise by
Paul Gaffarel, pp. 489-490 refer to Puerto Rico.

The holdings of the XVII and XVIII centuries should also be sought in the Rare Book and Manuscript Divisions. For works related to the lost half of the XVII century the general card catalog should be consulted in the general shelf area of Puerto Rico a copy of the 1788 Madrid edition of Fray Iigo Abbad y Lasierra’s Historia, geografica, civil.y politica de la Isla de San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico (Imprenta de Don Antonia Espinosa) can be found. This of course should be placed in the Rare Book Collection. On this period, the Map Division also has material such as the four items of the Howe Collection which are described below.

The Library's holdings in the XIX century broaden out considerably, particularly toward the latter half of the century. Not only can more material be found on Puerto Rico but the quality is better. For example, the Manuscript Division can boast of not just mere reproductions of European archival holdings by an impressive collection of original material. The same is true of maps. Only the Divisions of Prints and Photographs and Music fail to show any holdings in the XIX century.

As would be expected, the material concerning the Spanish American War, as it is related to Puerto Rico, is plentiful. The collection of Col. Hoes, a U.S. Army chaplain, which has been integrated into the general holdings helps to explain this more complete coverage. A spot check on the more recent publications seems to indicate an adequate coverage as far as printed books are concerned. There may be a few exceptions to this which will be taken up later.

After this generous introduction, each division will be separately examined. It should be noted that I am not pausing to call attention to generally known material, but rather I prefer to single out that which can not be readily found. In some cases, such material may have little value in comparison to the more commonly known works but I prefer to run this risk since to do otherwise would be to reproduce what is found in the general card catalog under Puerto Rico (or Porto Rico since some divisions, like Rare Books, have failed to change their file to be in accord with the proper spelling) and thus give little justification for the report.

Manuscripts Division
Aside from the general collection of' the Library, this division has the largest amount of material on Puerto Rico and, in spite of the fact that a great number of the holdings are reproductions, the manuscript collection, while quite sparse as to the XIX century, is very valuable. A list with a brief description of the reproductions from the British Archives can be found in Appendix A; the French in Appendix B; and the Spanish in Appendix C.

Among the few reproductions of the French archives there is a hitherto unknown collection of outstanding interest to Puerto Rico. These manuscripts are found in the Museum d' Histoire Naturelle, having been sent there by one August Plee.

August Plee was, according to the Biographie Universalle (Tome Trente Troisime 1856) a botanist by profession. In 1819 at the age of thirty-two, he was sent by the royal government of France on a botanical excursion of the new world. He visited Canada and the United States collecting samples of plants and animals of all varieties. What he could not collect and ship back to France he carefully described and sketched.

From Norfolk, Virginia he journeyed south by boat into the Caribbean arriving at Puerto Rico the first month or two of 1822. He continued to collect specimens of fish, fowl, and sea life, such as mollusks. He also continued to sketch. As he traveled all over Puerto Rico from Mayaguez and Cabo Rojo, through Adjuntas and Ponce to Fajardo, and back to San Juan, he created beautiful sketches of the towns and countryside. His drawings which are listed in Appendix B are carefully done in perfect perspective and with such precision that one can recognize familiar buildings, such as churches, which are still standing today.

Mon. Plee in the brief introduction to his sketches explains that they will serve as a visual guide to the Journal of his explorations. Careful search in the catalog of the manuscripts of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle [3] has failed to indicate that this Journal is among their collection. An effort should be made to locate it in the Museum. However, the chances are very good that the Journal failed to reach Europe just as its author failed.

[3] Mss.de la Bibliothque du Museum d' Histoire Naturelle por A. Boinet in Catalogue General des Mss des Bibliothques Publiques, Paris II (Librairee Plon 1914)

Leaving Puerto Rico in 1823 Plee passed through the Virgin Islands and the Leeward Islands stopping finally at Martinique. Here he contracted some tropical malady and died the 17th of August, 1825 at the age-:of thirty-eight. His collections of plant and fowl have found their way into proper care. His journal should be diligently sought. The reproductions of his sketches held by the Library are disappointing in that they are photocopies (white on black surface). My recommendation to the University of Puerto Rico is that they secure actual size black and white (if original are pencil sketches) photographs of this valuable collection of art works.

With the reproductions of the vast holdings of Spain, I utilized the unpublished work of two former employees of the Library of Congress. Dr. John Finan was working on a guide to the Spanish reproductions held by the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress before he severed his relations with this division of the government. The state of the notes for this guide was such that with some effort Puerto Rican references could be singled out. This list of references is included in Appendix C.

Dr. Arturo Morales Carrion spent three months in 1946 in the position I temporarily hold, as consultant on Puerto Rican documents. Appended to this present report is a list of Spanish reproductions located by Mr. Morales pertaining to Puerto Rico. Copies of these reproductions were secured by the University of Puerto Rico for use by the History Department.

As can be seen by examining the list of Puerto Rican material drawn up from the work of Dr. Finan, the holdings are sparse and scattered over a three hundred year period. The reproductions held by the Library of Congress, and this is true of the French and British more so than the Spanish, pertain primarily to material concerned with North America. Therefore, while a diligent search would undoubtedly turn up more concerning Puerto Rico than has been revealed by Dr. Finan’s work, it is obvious that such time would be better spent in the Archivo General de las Indias of Spain. However, it goes without saying that Dr. Finan’s valuable work should be brought to completion and published so that researchers might be better served.

The manuscript material on Puerto Rico which is listed in the Handbook and can be found on the shelves in the general area assigned to Puerto Rico is so scattered and disorganized that it would be hopeless to do other than list the material with a brief description for each item. This is done in Appendix D. These documents are from the XIX century, although there are a few items-- as noted-- pertaining to the previous and the present century. In some cases (a lottery ticket or a canceled stamp) the value as historical material is negligible, in other cases-- the listing of foreigners or the memorandum on the telegraph system of the island-- the importance for historical research is obvious. On the whole, this material is very spotty and considered as a unit - which it is not - has little value.

The Puerto Rican Memorial Collection, donated to the Library by Miss Alice Gould, is the most valuable material of the Manuscript Division concerning Puerto Rico. Dr. Morales Carrion in his report discussed the manuscript part of this collection. His report is also appended to this study. (Appendix E) I have added to his work a more complete guide to the material found in the collection. The Library wisely adopted Dr. Morales' suggestions for the sorting and classification of these documents.

The Manuscript Division holds two very valuable microfilms, one of these is the original inventory typed under the direction of Sr. Cayetano Coll y Toste, of the 289 boxes of official documents shipped to the Library shortly after the United States occupation of Puerto Rico. This useful inventory of a vast quantity of material--much of which has been lost at this point--is in sufficient detail to be of service to historians interested in searching for material in the residue held by the National Archives. I urge the University to secure a copy of this microfilm for its own readers.

The other microfilm is not available to researchers until 1972. It is a copy of a diary of Eugenio Mara de Hostos. The original is in the possession of the sons of de Hostos but with their agreement and with the noted restrictions, the Library of Congress was able to secure a film of this priceless journal.

Material relative to Puerto Rico can also be found in the collections of private individuals donated to the Library of Congress. The manuscript Division holds some material donated by Chaplain Hoes of the Spanish American War. In Box 1 (Ac. 4159) can be found a collection of Correspondence with Congressional leaders concerning the War and federal relations with the newly acquired possessions. This material provides an excellent guide to congressional comments on Puerto Rico at the turn of the century.

Victor Clark, former Commissioner of Education of the island has also turned over material, which is indispensable to any study of the educational problems of the island. As Clark notes in his own description of the gift, many of the problems encountered when he was serving as Commissioner are still unsolved today.

The collection of two members of Congress also provide some scattered comments on Puerto Rico. One is a collection of letters of John Benson Foraker in which there are brief comments on Puerto Rican affairs by Nicholas M. Butler, Theodore Roosevelt and others, as well as the Senator himself. A list of some of these items is appended. The very extensive collection of John Sharp Williams, Senator from Mississippi contains very meager references to Puerto Rico. His material prior to 1914 in which should be found more material on Puerto Rico, has not been received by the Library. The material which is present contains comments on the island affairs and the general political scene but most of the correspondence refers to patronage. Since spot checks in the 192 boxes failed to turn up any extensive material on Puerto Rico, the limitation of time prevented a thorough search. There is in Appendix D a guide to the material which was located.

Two fairly recent donations to the Manuscript Division containing material relative to Puerto Rico complete the results of the search of this Division. Admiral William Leahy has turned over his diaries to the Library of Congress. Diary 5 covers the period from 1939 to 1940 during which Admiral Leahy served as Governor of Puerto Rico. The diary is quite disappointing in that it merely records activity with little or no personal comment interjected. A person very familiar with the administration of Leahy could sense some subtle references.

The other recent donation is the extensive (157.30 ft.) collection of private papers of Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior during the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. This collection can be examined only with the permission of Mrs. Ickes and therefore cannot be fully described in this report. Mrs. Ickes was kind enough to grant me permission to examine the material.

Without violating any confidence, I feel free to state that while the Puerto Rico material is not as extensive as one would like, what is in the collection is of top historical value. For further information the reader is referred to my, forthcoming study on the New Deal and Puerto Rico.

The holdings of the Manuscript Division cover in time a four hundred year span: from the letter of Salazar, a reproduction from the Spanish Archives, to the late 1940's with the papers of Harold Ickes. This spreading out of course means very spotty coverage. However, the holdings are still of great value. Proof of this is found in the book by Dr. Morales Carrion, Puerto Rico and the Non-Hispanic Caribbean. Dr. Morales relied heavily on the reproductions of the European archives held by the Library of Congress. However, until Dr. Finan's work is completed, this material will not be fully utilized. The Gould material on Padre Rufo Fernndez is perhaps the only single collection of that pioneer educator who played such a key role in the training of the dominant figures of the latter half of the XIX century political scene. Any study of the Autonomista political party could not overlook the Gould material.

The Division's holdings of XX century material are also strong but could be made much stronger. The material on the Spanish American War could be added too. The Hoes Collection of manuscripts is disappointing. The veterans of this war and their descendents could be urged to turn material over to the Library. With the situation in Puerto Rico as it now is, the Library of Congress is in a much better position to secure this material, which is pertinent to one small branch of the Federal Administration, than any unit on the island.

Finally it should be admitted that a great deal of the odds and ends mentioned in the Appendix D is of little value unless there is wide knowledge of them by scholars. Even then I hardly know how one can make use of a lottery ticket but perhaps the fragmentary letter on the ambulance corp. could be utilized. Publication of this report and others--such as Dr. Finan's will serve this purpose.

Rare Books

The holdings of this Division related to Puerto Rico are quite unexpected and very limited. Unexpected is the word used because there are no examples of the very rare works on Puerto Rico such as the above--mentioned 1788 edition of Fray Inigo Abbad y Lasierra’s History, which is found on the general stacks. The two bound books of the Division relating solely to Puerto Rico are Las Clases Jornaleros de Puerto Rico by Salvador Brau and El Campesino Puertorriqueo by Francisco del Valle Atiles (this is an 1889 edition and not the 1887 edition noted in Pedreira).
Of course the Caribbean classics in which Puerto Rico is often mentioned are here. To those mentioned earlier in the general introduction the following authors could be added: Richard Blome, Johann Theodor de Bry, Pierre Franois Xavier de Charlevois, Thomas Coke, Thomas Jefferys, and Fathers Labat and DuTertre. In one book, De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld: of Beschryving van America en t' Zuid-Land ... door Arnoldus Montanus t' Amsterdam 1671, there are several references to Puerto Rico (pp. 167-170; 406-408) and an engraved plate of San Juan dated 1625. The material refers to the Dutch exploits in the Caribbean and specifically, on the pages cited, in Puerto Rico. The artist, however, has let his imagination run away with him and as a result the view of San Juan, while artistically pleasing, is a mixture of fact and fancy.

One other unexpected holding of this Division is a beautifully bound volume of periodical publications of the Nationalist Party. With the principal periodical—Pro Republica de Puerto Rico Ao I 1925 Nums. 1-10-- there are diverse flyers mixed in. Most of these are reprints of articles published in 1939-1940. A list of some of these articles and other broadsides found in the Rare Book Room is found in Appendix G.

Music Division
Little can be said about the meager holdings of this division. For an island of the Caribbean which is as productive in folk and popular music-to say nothing of its own danza-as is Puerto Rico, it is surprising and disappointing to see that the Library of Congress can refer to only a dozen or so items relating to insular music. Some attention should be directed both on the island and in the Library toward a remedy of this gap.

Newspapers
The collection of island newspapers is deceptive. There are many titles listed under Puerto Rico in the card catalog but closer examination reveals that few have any unbroken run. In fact, most of the papers are represented by only one number. The oldest Library of Congress paper is El Fenix of Ponce which runs from October 13, 1855 to December 23, 1858 with many issues missing. The picture fails to improve with the XX century. There are fewer newspapers but La Democracia is the only one which has an unbroken run up to the time of the Second World War. Concerted efforts should be made to complete the files of important dailies like El Mundo, El Imparcial, and La Correspondencia. With these three papers something could be done, but for El Pas, El Da, and others the gaps are too great to be filled. It is unfortunate that there is no major run of periodicals in the XIX century. The National Archives has an excellent series of a St. Thomas newspaper for most of the XIX century. Although printed in Danish, enough is in English to make it useful to American scholars. Finally, an effort should be made to secure copies of two recent English periodicals The Island Times and The World Journal, both published in San Juan and both important. (See Appendix H for a list of newspapers)

Map Division
This Division has a fine collection of originals and reproductions concerning Puerto Rico. The reproductions include copies of works in the Archivo General de las Indias and the Vatican Library in addition to copies of material found in various rare atlases. Four items purchased from the descendents of Lord Admiral Howe, pertaining to the XVIII century, are described in the Appendix I.

One of the prize finds of my month's work was the turning up of three very pleasing water-colored paintings of San Juan, said to be about 1824. Just why they are Maps is a little difficult to understand. The three views are A. from the east looking toward the west into the town and its fortifications; B. from the south looking north into the harbour area of San Juan; and C. from the west, slightly southwest, looking into the fortifications guarding the entrance to the harbour of San Juan. The colors are cool and pleasing with pastel shades and the work is excellently executed. The coincidence of the discovery of these three views after finding the sketches of August Plee makes me jump to a probably erroneous conclusion which is drawn more from wishful thinking than any factual comparison. The facts that the paintings are marked 1824 and Plee's visit was in 1823 lead one to speculate. While the reproductions of Plee's work are hard to compare with the original paintings, superficial similarity to an untrained eye makes me want to believe that August Plee is the anonymous painter of the three views.

Two other interesting items are 1) a plan of the hacienda Sta. Barbara of Bayamon dated 1824, and 2) a plan of a section of the harbour of San Juan with proposed expansion of dock facilities (early XIX century). Notes on these two plans can be found in the Appendix I.

The Map Division has a number of old atlases in which Puerto Rico can be located. These atlases with the appropriate plate are noted in Appendix I.

The holdings of this Division broaden out considerably around the turn of the century and the files are well stocked with recent maps of the Puerto Rican Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Administration and the present division of the insular government such as the Planning Board. The material in the Map Division is efficiently organized and easily gotten to.

Prints and Photographs
There is nothing in this division before the XIX century. However, there is abundant material after the turn of the century. There are about two hundred and fifty colored pictures for stereoptican viewers of the towns and countryside of the island about 1900. Victor Clark, Carl Grassl and others have contributed private collections of photographs to this division. These and other collections of views taken during the first decades of American rule are listed in Appendix J.

In the thirties two government agencies undertook two projects which have produced valuable holdings for the Library of Congress. The Survey of Historical American Buildings carried out about 1938 has contributed various views and plans of La Fortaleza, Porta Coeli, El Polvorin, El Morro and other historical structures around the island. The other project was carried out by the Farm Security Administration from December 1937 to January 1942. This produced a collection of some 1,500 enlarged pictures of all phases of Puerto Rican life, from cock fighting to labor troubles. The material in this division is also efficiently arranged and easily gotten to.

The Law Library
The material which I saw on Puerto Rico in the Law Library is not extensive nor is it complete. Futhermore, except for the items on the XX century, Puerto Rican material would be hard to locate. Material on Puerto Rico when it was a Spanish colony is rarely cataloged separately since Spain handled her colonies as a unit. Thus legal documents referring to Puerto Rico can be mixed in with material on Mexico or Argentina. Of course, there are some XIX century compilations of laws and royal orders pertaining to Puerto Rico. Too, decisions of Audiencias should not be hard to find. Some material can also be found under legal treatises and miscellaneous matters. All of this is cataloged under the Spanish colonies--Puerto Rico.

The holdings since the United States sovereignty are cataloged under Puerto Rico and are divided into the eight conventional categories of the Law Library. These with comments are listed in the Appendix. Strangely enough, under the seventh division is found Baldorioty de Castro’s signed copy of J. J. Acosta's edition of Fray Iigo Abbad y LaSierra’s Historia. Since this was a donation of Miss Gould to the Library, the Law Library, so it would appear, has questionable title to the work. There are a few other items which are misfiled in this section.

In the Law Library there has also been dumped some 150 pamphlets of the Gould collection. Most of these pertain to the previous century and are listed in the Appendix. They have been jammed into the dusty shelf, unarranged, uncataloged and almost forgotten. The explanation for the inexcusable neglect of this valuable collection is the lack of an adequate staff. This collection should be processed and the duplicates (of which there are quite a number) should be transferred to other libraries.

Thomas Mathews' book The Caribbean: History, Politics and Culture can be purchased at Merino & Sanchez Distributors, Inc., Ave. Las Palmas 1108 Pda. 18, P.O. Box 9024, San Juan, PR 00908-0024; Tels. 787-723-7827 & 787-723-0088; Fax 787-723-5850; email merinoysanchez@excite.com

Run-off almost certain in Peru Elections

It is not expected that any of the leading candidates, Ollanta Humala of the Partido Nacionalista Peruano, Lourdes Flores of the Unidad Nacional Front or Alan Garcia of the Partido Aprista Peruano will win an outright majority in today's Peruvian elections. There is almost certain to be a second round. For those interested in keeping tabs on the election, LANIC provides some essential links.

Breaking News!

As of 8:32 PM, Peruvian time, and based on 83.5% of the vote, Ollanta Humala leads with 30%, followed by Lourdes Flores with 24.9% and Alan Garcia with 23.5%. This according to Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado, as cited in El Comercio.

Is the U.S. Public Turning Isolationist?

Does anyone else sense it?, because I certainly do. Furthermore, I think
the writing is on the wall for anyone who cares enough to look and the
U.S. politicians, in particular, had better take notice. The people of
the United States are shifting their concerns inward toward domestic
affairs after years of “outward orientation”, both economically and
politically as well as militarily. I think Iraq has a lot to do with it,
but also hurricane Katrina, the Mexican immigration issue and a host of
other salient US domestic problems. Even the whole Dubai Ports World affair
reflects what seems to be this growing trend “inwards”. Juxtapose these
rising domestic concerns with what is perceived as the insistent
determination of past and present US administrations to involve the
country in and “police” the rest of the world and I think we might be
witnessing a major “tectonic shift” in US public outlook that may if not
determine at least significantly influence the next presidential election.

It is widely known that the current Bush administration has been totally dominated ideologically (until recently) by the Neo-Conservatives which many see as being encapsulated or exemplified by the “Project for the New American Century.” Critics have called it a plan to establish American economic and military hegemony in world affairs following the “vacuum” left by the collapse of the Communist-block. The invasion of Iraq was certainly a part of that agenda as the first step in spearheading a wider democratic tranformation of the Middle East that would ultimately benefit the US. President Bush has said as much to the American public on numerous occasions.

Regardless of what one may think about the Neo-Conservative outlook or its
proponents, it is hard to escape the feeling that the entire “project” has
collapsed after colliding with the brick wall that is the Iraq debacle.
Conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr. is the latest and perhaps most
important in a growing number of conservative leaders to have criticized
the war, even going so far as to call the effort a failure. One need
only look at a whole slew of polls over the last year related directly or
indirectly to US policy in the Middle East to get the distinct impression
that large (and growing) portions of the American public feel the policy
is flawed. Advocacy for democratic change in the region has come up
against a stark reality: Hamas in Palestine, the inroads made by the
Muslim Brotherhood in recent Egyptian elections, Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, not to speak
of the prospects of an Islamic theocracy in “liberated” Iraq. The US
public is inevitably asking if this is what their blood and treasure has
be expended for.

When people in the US look abroad they see a similar if not analogous
scenario in the economic realm that also affects them directly. In the
Far East, they see monumental economic developments taking place in China
and India. To the US public, the citizens of these countries are the
beneficiaries of an “outward economic orientation” or globalization
endorsed by alternating US administrations (both Democrat and Republican)
which translates into the loss of US jobs. To them, the scenario doesn't
look much different closer to home within their own hemisphere. Look
south and on the one hand you see a significant political shift of the
leadership in Latin America if not towards anti-American stands at least
towards policies at odds with the US. In the realm of economics and
trade, witness the resistance there was toward the Central American Free
Trade Area (CAFTA) as well as to other regional trade initiatives.

As I indicated above, when you juxtapose these international developments
with a series of domestic “problems” as perceived by the US public, I
think there is fertile ground for (lets say) a populist US candidate that
eschews the international ambitions of the country in favor of
an overwhelmingly domestic focus on solving such problems as immigration,
healthcare, disaster preparedness, poverty, jobs and corruption. I think
a growing number of Americans are asking: “Why must we take care of the
rest of the world when we cannot even care for our own?”

While this shift in US public sentiment may be imperceptible to some, I
can assure you it will become painfully obvious if (or rather when) an
economic downturn rears its ugly head in the US. Already, January's trade
deficit has been called the largest monthly imbalance yet for the country
and the day of reckoning might just be right around the corner. While
concerns about the deficit have been around for quite some time, most
economists agree the gap will have to be brought down eventually. The
question is whether it can be managed smoothly (ie a soft landing) without
creating much hardship or not. In the event of a sudden and painful
downturn, rest assured that the American public will make itself heard
unequivocably regarding whether the country should or shouldn't have such
a prominent role in world affairs.

International Women's Day

Happy International Women's Day!

Note: Sorry I haven't been posting very often. The semester has been quite a demanding one for me so far, plus I am looking forward to participating in the Latin American Studies Association's XXVI Conference.

Aristide to Return to Haiti?

Following the election of René Garcia Préval to the Presidency of Haiti, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide vowed that he would return to his country. Préval had served as Aristide’s Prime Minister from February 13 to October 11, 1991, and is considered a protégé of the former President.

Préval was named President after authorities, keen on avoiding further violence and bloodshed, agreed on February 16 to redistribute more than 80,000 blank votes (reportedly just over 4% of the total tally) on a pro-rata basis between the candidates, giving Préval 51.2 percent of the votes, rather than the 49.8 percent he had when the blank ballots were included in the total. A result less than 50 percent would have forced a runoff with second-place candidate Leslie Manigat. Manigat called the agreement "the imposition of a victor" and claimed it was "a reward for violence".

Préval had claimed that fraud prevented him from winning on the first round and called for an investigation. A Haitian television station had reported the discovery of thousands of ballots which were thrown out at a garbage dump near Cite Soleil. Some of them were cast in favor of Préval, and UN officials expressed concern because the bags were only supposed to include blank and annulled votes.

With the election finally resolved, the prospect of a return of Aristide brought mixed responses. Jonathan Clayton, writing for the Times of Britain, cited analysts as saying Aristide “would be deeply destabilizing and polarizing, and would destroy Mr. Préval’s hopes of reaching out to Haiti’s business elite — who orchestrated the ousting of the former President — the masses and the international community.” In an interview with that reporter, Aristide denied he had aspirations of returning to power: “I always knew that when I was elected my mandate would come to an end. My mandate ended and that is that.”

Protests follow Haitian Elections

On Monday, irate protesters demanding the final results of the February 7 general election in Haiti erected roadblocks across Port-au-Prince and occupied the Montana Hotel in Petionville in the hills east of the capital, where election officials had been announcing the results. Barricades made of old tires were set afire across the capital, sending smoke into the sky while protesters allowed only journalists and Red Cross vehicles to pass. One protester was killed but UN peacekeepers denied witness accounts that they were responsible.

René Garcia Préval, the clear winner with about 90 percent of the votes counted, returned to the capital for the first time since the election. His supporters claimed that electoral officials were tampering with results to prevent him from getting the majority he needs to avoid a runoff. Préval had obtained 48.7 percent of the vote, according to the Conseil Electoral Provisoire (Haiti’s Electoral Council). His closest opponent, former president Leslie Manigat, had garnered 11.8 percent. According to press reports, about 125,000 of the 2.2 million ballots cast have been declared invalid because of irregularities, raising suspicion among Préval supporters that polling officials were rigging the election. Another 4 percent of the ballots were reportedly blank but were still added into the total, making it more difficult for Préval to obtain the 50 percent plus one vote needed. The Director-General of the Electoral Council, denied accusations that the council voided many votes for Preval.

Preval headed for a Runoff in Haiti?

Despite previous reports that placed René Garcia Préval with a comfortable lead in the elections for Prime Minister of Haiti, it now appears he might be headed for a run-off. The 61 percent the candidate had garnered by Thursday (9 February), with just 15 percent of the vote counted, was subsequently reduced to 50.3 percent on Friday with roughly half the votes counted. Leslie Manigat, a former President, was in second place with 11.4 percent while Charles Baker held third with 8.3 percent, according to the Provisional Electoral Council. Préval needs at least 50 percent of the popular vote to avoid a runoff on March 19.

Former World Bank official Marc Louis Bazin, who is running under the political party Union pour Haïti, an alliance between the Mouvement pour l’Instauration de la Démocratie en Haïti and the Fanmi Lavalas party of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has claimed that the State Electoral Council is manipulating the results to force a run-off. International observers have reported some irregularities at polling stations but have not suggested the results were tainted by fraud.

René Garcia Préval was born on January 17, 1943 in Port-au-Prince, one of four children. He holds a degree in agronomy from the College of Gembloux in Belgium and has a background in both engineering and geothermics. He was an ally of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and a leader of the Fanmi Lavalas party but has since distanced himself from that party, choosing instead to run on the ticket of the Lespwa party which is the Haitian creole form of the French “L'Espoir”, meaning “Hope.” He was inaugurated President of the Republic of Haiti in 1996, making him the second democratically elected head of state in the history of the country. Prior to that, Préval directed the Fonds d'assistance èconomique et sociale (FAES) in 1995.

Préval served as Prime Minister in the administration of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from February 1991 until the military coup of 29 September forced him to eventually flee and join the exiled Constitutional Government in the United States from 1992-94. Préval retained the Premier's portfolio as well as those of Interior and Defense until August 1993 when he was retained by President Aristide as chief adviser.

St. Kitts-Nevis economy rebounds according to IMF

The economy of St. Kitts-Nevis is rebounding from a series of adverse shocks over recent years that included three major hurricanes and a decline in tourism following the 9/11 attacks in the United States. According to an International Monetary Fund Executive Board staff report, real GDP growth exceeded 6 percent in 2004, and is projected to approach 5 percent for 2005. Tourism surged since 2003 thanks to favorable global growth as well as large recent investments in infrastructure. A number of new tourism developments were undertaken along with preparations for the 2007 Cricket World Cup, spurring construction activity. Inflation has been contained despite higher oil prices.

Following the closure of the state owned sugar company after the July 2005 harvest, IMF officials expect fiscal balances and growth prospects to strengthen over the medium term. According to the report: “Burdened by high costs, the sugar industry had become a major contributor to the fiscal deficit, with annual losses on the order of 4 percent of GDP, and accumulated debt of about 30 percent of GDP. The situation was only set to worsen with the impending loss of preferential access to EU markets.”

St. Kitts Nevis was recently singled out in Finance and Development along with five other countries (three of which are also in the Caribbean basin) as particularly at risk from the loss of such trade preferences in general.

CARICOM Single Market Ceremony Held in Jamaica

CARICOM member states Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago formally signed the document for implementation of the CARICOM Single Market (CSM) on Monday January 30, in a move towards greater regional unity. Although the CSM formally began on January 1 with the six member countries, it is expected to become the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) by 2008. The ceremony, which was held at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies, did not see the ratification of CSM by the seven-member sub-group, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).

While the OECS had originally planned to enter the single market by March 31, it was announced that they would now sign on by the end of June. Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and current Chair of the OECS, Ralph Gonsalves, said: "The OECS has taken the principled position that, while we are fully committed to the process of regional integration, and intend to be fully participants in the CSME, we must ensure that the provisions of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas which speaks to our own special needs are in effect."

The region is expected to finalize the single market and economy (CSME) by the year 2008. To this effect Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and current CARICOM Chair, Patrick Manning explained: "It is absolutely necessary to co-ordinate and harmonize, inter alia, our economic policies, interest rates, laws and tax regimes in order to create more even development across member states; enter more effectively and smoothly into trading arrangements and economic links with other countries and regional groupings; and ensure that our region improves its attractiveness for the increased inflows of new capital for the development of all our nations."

According to CARICOM data for most of the decade of the nineties, CARICOM intra-regional imports as a percentage of the region's total imports accounted only for between 8 and 10 per cent, while intra-regional exports accounted for between 12 and 23 per cent of the region's total exports.

Bolivia After The Election of Evo Morales

Given the dearth of background information on the situation in Bolivia, I have reproduced an insightful article here by Rico Blanc, a university student and activist who has spent several months in Bolivia. While I may not share the viewpoint of the author, the information contained therein is important enough to outweigh any reservations I have in its reproduction here.

BOLIVIA AFTER THE ELECTION OF EVO MORALES: WHAT WAY FORWARD?

By RICO BLANC

On Dec. 18, 2005, Evo Morales, the indigenous peasant leader of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), won the Bolivian presidential elections by an unexpectedly large margin, receiving 54% of the votes. The runner up, right-winger "Tuto" Quiroga, received less than 25% of the votes.

This stunning victory for Morales -- in the 2002 elections he received only 20.9% of the votes -- is an expression of the massive revolutionary movement that has rocked the Bolivian nation during the last three years in its struggle for the nationalization of the oil and gas resources.

Hopes are high in Bolivia and around the world that Morales -- the country's first president of indigenous descent, who has self-proclaimed himself "America's worst nightmare" -- will break Bolivia, South America' poorest country, out of its dire situation of near-starvation and subordination.

"With this government, discrimination will come to an end, the xenophobia we have been living through will come to an end; we are going to work to bring an end to the neoliberal model," declared Morales upon receiving news of his electoral victory. "These are new times. This millennium will be for the peoples, not for the empire," proclaimed Morales, on Jan. 2, from Caracas.

The international media has presented the elections as a defeat for the U.S. government, highlighting Morales' friendship with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro and the fact he is the leader of the Bolivian coca (cocaine's base plant) growers, an important traditional plant in Bolivian culture -- which the U.S. government would like to eradicate.

Morales' victory has created tremendous expectations in the new government. For many workers, peasants, and students, the new government is seen as "our government." Their vote for Morales was a vote against the corrupt bourgeois parties and the subordination of Bolivia to foreign interests. It was a vote for the nationalization of the oil and gas, a vote for fundamental change.

Caught Between Two Fires

But the new Morales government will be caught between two fires from the moment it takes office on Jan. 22, 2006.

On the one hand, it faces immense pressure from U.S. imperialism to protect the considerable foreign economic interests in Bolivia -- particularly the "inalienable right" of the multinational oil corporations to dominate and pillage the country.

The U.S. government is using the threat of a possible military intervention in Bolivia to ensure that Morales doesn't break with the status-quo. As the newspaper El Diario reported on Dec. 17, 2005: "At the beginning of 2006, when the new government of president-elect Evo Morales takes power, special U.S. troops will march to the border between Paraguay and Bolivia to begin a series of counter-insurgency exercises."

But a military intervention is only "Plan B" for the U.S. government. From its perspective, the ideal situation would be for Morales to act as a "Bolivian Lula" who uses his left-wing prestige -- as Brazilian President Luis Inacio "Lula" da Silva has done -- to contain and demobilize the mass movement and implement all the reactionary austerity measures that the traditional bourgeois parties could not push through.

On the other hand, Morales will face a powerful and radicalized popular movement which has overthrown four presidents in less than three years -- a movement, moreover, which Morales does not control and which has not at all given the new government a blank check.

The burning question is thus: Will Morales respond to the demands of the U.S. government or those of the Bolivian people?


Nationalization or Renegotiation of the Contracts?

The principal demand of the mass insurrections of October 2003 (which toppled President Gonzalo "Goni" Sanchez de Lozada, who wanted to export Bolivia's gas to the U.S. via Chile) and of May-June 2005 (in which a workers' and popular insurrection toppled President Carlos Mesa, but was demobilized when a deal was made to convene early elections in December) was "Nationalization, without Compensation, of the Oil and Gas!"

This is a demand for Bolivia's sovereignty over its abundant natural resources. Bolivia has more than 53 trillion cubic feet in natural gas reserves -- resources that were sold off through privatizations in the 1990s.

The demand for nationalization is so incredibly popular that all the presidential candidates, from the left to the right, in this electoral campaign were obliged to say they were in favor of "nationalization" -- though each of them gave a different content to this word.

Morales has made it clear that his "nationalization" plans will not infringe on the assets of the corporations.

In early December 2005, the Center for the Study of Labor and Agricultural Development (CEDLA), a respected independent political think-tank in La Paz, published its analysis of the different candidates' proposals concerning the hydrocarbons (the oil and gas). The Bolivian newspaper El Diario comments on this study:

"The positions taken by the main political parties participating in the elections in relation to the hydrocarbons [including the MAS- Ed. Note] is criticized by CEDLA, an institution which, moreover, blames them with 'trying to conceal their interests to preserve the multinational corporations' monopolistic control over the country's oil and gas resources with a few scant alterations.' ... CEDLA believes that the only way for the State to appropriate the surplus income generated from exploiting oil and gas resources is to radically alter the policy in this sector by having the State assume a 'monopolistic control' over all the activities involved in the oil and gas production." (Dec. 11, 2005)

The day after his election, Evo Morales announced: "We will respect property rights; our government will be dedicated to respecting the law" (El Diario, Dec. 20). One week later, Morales declared: "I don't want to harm anybody. I don't want to expropriate or confiscate anything." (Econotocias.com, Dec. 28)

Evo Morales was elected primarily on his promises to nationalize the oil and gas. Now the new government has reduced this pledge to a call to renegotiate the economic contracts with the energy corporations.

But how can the Bolivian people benefit from their natural resources if the real control of the gas and oil remains in private foreign hands?

Didn't President Carlos Mesa also say he was "nationalizing" the gas and oil by raising the percentage of taxes on foreign investments? And didn't the workers and people of Bolivia respond with the mass uprisings of May-June 2005 that declared Mesa a "traitor" and kicked him out of office?

For their part, the Bolivian employers have applauded Morales' declarations. After meeting with Morales on Dec. 27, the leader of the Chamber of Commerce of the Santa Cruz region expressed his relief that the new president "spoke of creating jobs, respecting the law, and attracting investments." Rosendo Babery, president of the Eastern Exporters of Bolivia, added, "I consider positive and conciliatory the position of the president-elect of Bolivia; moreover, he asked for help governingŠ Now let's see if these words will be translated into deeds." (Econoticias, Dec. 28)


Response from Workers' Movement

The workers' movement, not surprisingly, has responded differently to Morales' statements on the hydrocarbons.

The National Summit of Workers and Peoples, a representative gathering of labor and social movement activists, gave the new president 90 days to nationalize the hydrocarbons without indemnities. The Summit met on Dec. 8-10, 2005 in the city of El Alto at the initiative of the country's main labor organizations: the Bolivian Workers Federation (COB), the Miners' Federation (FSTMB) and the Regional Workers Federation of El Alto (COR-El Alto).

The Summit's Final Declaration stated that if the government failed to take action on nationalizations in the allotted time, mass mobilizations would begin again in April 2006.

Jaime Solares, the current general secretary of the Bolivian Workers Federation (COB), declared in the immediate aftermath of the elections: "Nationalization, without compensation, is a political act that does not require consultation with Brazil or the United States of America. We don't want them [Evo Morales and the MAS - Ed. Note] to tell us they need two or three years to implement this demand. During this time, the multinationals are going to continue making millions of dollars while the majority of our people continue to starve. We are not going to allow this." (El Diario, Dec. 20)

"Autonomies" or Unity of the Nation?

With the ascent of the mass movement for the nationalization of the hydrocarbons, the semi-fascist oligarchy of Santa Cruz -- a resource-rich region in eastern Bolivia that sits on most of the newly discovered natural gas reserves -- has raised, with full U.S. support and funds, the demand for its political, social, and economic "autonomy" from the rest of Bolivia.

The Bolivian Miners' Federation exposed the reactionary character of this "autonomy" demand in a document titled, "The Struggle for the Nationalization of the Hydrocarbons." The authors explain that the goal of the oligarchies of Santa Cruz and Tarija is to "create autonomous governments that in addition to dismembering the country permit the corporations to keep the control over the natural resources on a departmental level. Š Nationalization, in this way, could not be effective because the departmental government would forbid it. Š There is a very real danger that our country could be dismembered." (FSTMB, June 30, 2005)

But what is the position of Morales? In his meeting with the business and political leaders of Santa Cruz on Dec. 27, he was unequivocal: "We are going to guarantee your autonomy," he said. "It is necessary to recognize that Santa Cruz has been the vanguard spreading consciousness about this theme." (Bolpress, Dec. 28)

This autonomy/secession demand stems from U.S. imperialism's strategy to divide and dismantle nations throughout the world (e.g., Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Iraq) in its drive to ensure super-profits. Thus, the National Summit of Workers and Peoples, in its Final Declaration, called for "the intransigent defense of the unity of the nation and the struggle against the divisive maneuvers of the oligarchy of Santa Cruz and Tarija, under the pretext of autonomy."

The Constituent Assembly of June 2006

During the insurrections of October 2003 and May-June 2005, the second most important popular demand (after nationalizations) was the call for the immediate convening of a Constituent Assembly that would write a new constitution and create a new State in the interest of the majority.

In June 2005, a deal was made for President Carlos Mesa to step down, for elections to be held in December 2005, and for a Constituent Assembly to be convened in June 2006. The Miners' Federation called it "an agreement between the multinationals, Mesa, the Parliament, and Evo Morales -- against Evo's own base. The objective was the preservation of the dominant political and economic system, with its corrupt parliamentarians." (FSTMB document, June 30)

Evo Morales has made the convening of the Constituent Assembly in June 2006 one of his main campaign promises. But what kind of Constituent Assembly can this be if the real power will remain in the hands of the very same corrupt institutions that are kept in place with the December 2005 election?

According to Limber Surco, a leader of the influential Regional Workers Federation of El Alto (COR-El Alto), this June 2006 Constituent Assembly "will be organized the way the bourgeoisie wants, with the goal of implementing its objectives." This is exactly true.

In an article titled, "Autonomies will be axis of the Constituent Assembly," La Razón newspaper explained that "six of the eight political parties participating in the election [the MAS being one of these six parties - Ed. Note] agree that the Constituent Assembly should be the framework through which the country shifts from a centralised State to a State based on autonomous regions." (Dec. 5, 2005)

La Razón reported that "the European Union authorized one million Euros to finance the Constituent Assembly and the Autonomy Referendum within the framework of an emergency program to permit the survival of Bolivian democracy." (Ibid.)

In response, the National Summit of Workers and Peoples held in early December in El Alto adopted the following motion: "We have been informed of the interference by the European Union into the electoral process scheduled next June for the so-called 'Constituent Assembly.' The sole purpose of this 'Assembly' is to promote the regional 'autonomies' and thereby dismantle the Bolivian nation.. Š We condemn this drive to finance the destruction of our nation."

In opposition to the fraudulent June 2006 Constituent Assembly, important sectors of the Bolivian mass movement have put forward the call for a Sovereign Constituent Assembly, with full powers to enact laws in the interest of the workers' and peasants' majority -- beginning with the nationalization of oil and gas.

As Surco of the COR-El Alto explained, "The Sovereign Constituent Assembly should be organized by the people themselves. Once such an Assembly is convened, all other branches of the State must submit to it. This would require the dissolution of the Congress and all other intermediate bodies, and the creation of new institutions to serve the people. ... This is the change the people were demanding in the streets."


Morales and the Workers' Movement

For the workers, the unemployed, the youth, and the peasants -- all of whom catapulted Evo Morales into office -- the presidential results are perceived as a great victory. But now the workers' and popular movements are faced with new and formidable challenges.

The workers and their organizations will face immense pressures to give up their class independence. The pressure will be most intense upon the COB, the Miners' Federation, and the COR -- all organizations that have been in the forefront of the mass mobilizations over the past three years.

Evo Morales' vice presidential running mate, Alvaro García Linera, argues that "Andean capitalism" is the solution for Bolivia. He and Morales are shining stars of the "alter-globalization" movement and the World Social Forums in their capacity as spokespersons for the "indigenista" cause.

The Bolivian Miners Federation has explained that such "indigenista" rhetoric does not serve the interests of the Quechua and Aymara majority of the Bolivian population. They write:

"Substituting this reality [the class struggle] with the valorization of ethnic, or 'indigenista,' concepts to the point of converting them into principles is part of the imperialist strategy to preserve and consolidate capitalism. Its effect, in practice, is to minimize the role of the trade unions and the organizations that base their action on the class confrontation between workers and capitalists. Thus the objective is the humanization of exploitation, not the conquest of political power and the overthrow of the oppressive system."

Evo Morales and García Linera already have begun an ideological offensive against the concept of class struggle and, thus, the necessity for the existence of independent workers' organizations.

In a post-election interview with the BBC, García Linera was asked, "Are you scared that you won't be able to fulfil the expectations of the most radical left in Bolivia?" He answered with a controversial provocation against the Bolivian workers' organizations, stating:

"There is a dying pseudo-Marxist left from the 1950s and 1970s which is already a ghost. They have never participated, or been decisive sectors, in the recent mobilizations. There is a new indigenous left -- which is something new -- that doesn't share the principles, political recipe-books, or conservative pseudo-radicalism of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. Š Thus, I would speak of confrontation between the last vestiges of an old pseudo-Marxist left and an emerging and vigorous indigenous left." (El Diario, Dec. 22)

What Way Forward?

In addition to this ideological offensive meant to divide the movement and discredit the workers' organizations, Evo Morales is seeking to co-opt the workers' and popular organizations into the new government by offering them cabinet posts.

Offers to participate in the new administration already have been made to the peasant federations, the COB, the Miners' Federation, the COR-El Alto, and the Federation of Neighborhood Councils (FEJUVE) of El Alto. So far only the Miners' Federation has categorically rejected the offer.

A heated debate is now in full swing within these organizations, with many leaders and rank-and-file members stating vehemently that it's not possible to defend the specific interests of the workers and peasants if their organizations participate in the new government, thereby assuming responsibility for its policies -- including its stated refusal to nationalize the oil and gas resources.

Clearly, a crucial task today is to guarantee the independence of the workers' movement by insisting that the workers' and popular organizations should refuse to be co-opted into joining the new government. Central to this task, as well, is the need for the workers' organizations to launch, as soon as possible, the much-talked about "Political Instrument of the Workers."

The proposal to form an independent workers' party was raised by the COB and has been championed by various sectors, particularly the mineworkers. The need for such a workers' party also was highlighted in the Final Declaration adopted by the National Workers and Popular Summit in El Alto.

A new situation is opening up for the Bolivian workers' and popular movements. Expectations -- and illusions -- are high in Morales and the new government. Large sectors of the Bolivian population hope the new government will implement profound and positive changes in their living situation.

Meanwhile, Evo Morales is redoubling his pledges to the employers and foreign investors, telling them they have nothing to fear from a MAS government. Prior to the election, Morales went so far as to tell the leaders of the Bolivian Private Business Association (CETB) that "the MAS is the only party capable of guaranteeing social peace in Bolivia." (El Diario, Oct. 6, 2005)

If the revolutionary mobilizations of the Bolivian masses are not to be taken back into safe channels for imperialism, it is imperative that the working class organizations that spearheaded the mass uprisings of October 2003 and May-June 2005 not relent in the struggle to win the central demands around which the workers and people have mobilized these past three years. This, of course, is bound up with the need to maintain the independence of the mass workers' and popular organizations in
relation to the government of Evo Morales.

To this end, sectors of the Bolivian labor movement, including La Chispa -- the sympathizing group of the Fourth International in Bolivia -- are calling on the main workers' organizations -- the COB, the Miners' Federation (FSTMB) and the COR -- to launch an Open Letter to Evo Morales that would essentially state the following:

"Compañero Evo: On Dec. 18, the people gave you their votes and a clear mandate: Immediate nationalization, without compensation, of the oil and gas! Unity of the nation, against all the reactionary secessionist attempts organized under the pretext of autonomies!

"We -- workers, unemployed, peasants, youth and shanty-town dwellers -- cannot wait any longer. You have the power to implement these demands. As Compañero Jaime Solares of the COB stated, nationalization without compensation is a political act that does not require consultation with, or authorization from, anyone else. He went on to note there is no reason to delay carrying out the demands of the people.

"Compañero Solares is right: We are hungry, we are unemployed, and we want the nationalization of the oil and gas now. If you were to take such action, you can be assured of the overwhelming support of the Bolivian people!"

Last December, just prior to the national election, the National Workers and Popular Summit, issued a call to organize Local and Regional Popular Assemblies and a National Originary Popular Assembly in April 2006. (1) It is necessary for the main workers' organization to reaffirm their pledge to organize these Assemblies. There, working people, organized in their own name, can take stock of the new political situation and discuss how best -- in these new conditions -- to wage the struggle to win their demands.

It cannot be ruled out in advance that the workers' and popular movements could succeed in pushing Evo Morales and the MAS to move further on the road to a break with imperialism than what's proposed in their program. But for that to happen, it will require the sustained independent mobilization and self-organization of the workers, peasants, and students.

It will require that the workers' and popular movement seize hold of the Local and Regional Popular Assemblies and the National Originary Popular Assembly, slated for April 10, to continue and deepen the struggle for the nationalization of the oil and gas, as well as the unity and sovereignty of Bolivia.

Roger Pardo Maurer, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, spoke of the danger of the "revolution going on in Bolivia, a revolution that potentially could have consequences as far-reaching as the Cuban revolution of 1959. ... The things going on in Bolivia could have repercussions in Latin America and elsewhere that you could be dealing with for the rest of your lives."

This is not an over-statement. The stakes are high in Bolivia.

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Rico Blanc is currently touring the United States to speak about the new
political developments and challenges in Bolivia. To contact him to speak at your
campus or to the members of your organization, please write to ryi_irj@yahoo.com
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The opinions contained in the article above are strictly those of the author and are not necessarily shared by Caliban.