Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Path: utzoo!lsuc!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!ucbvax!mcgeer From: mcgeer@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU (Rick McGeer) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: One for our side Message-ID: <10873@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: Fri, 1-Nov-85 21:55:58 EST Article-I.D.: ucbvax.10873 Posted: Fri Nov 1 21:55:58 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 2-Nov-85 21:36:26 EST References: <973@decwrl.UUCP> <12580@rochester.UUCP> Reply-To: mcgeer@ucbvax.UUCP (Rick McGeer) Organization: University of California at Berkeley Lines: 58 In article <1630@uwmacc.UUCP> myers@uwmacc.UUCP (Latitudinarian Lobster) writes: >many to despise the US.) Regardless of its legal status (which is best for >many groups to leave in limbo), Puerto Rico is very much occupied >territory since it was wrested from Spain several dozen years ago. By that argument, all of the United States is occupied territory -- the east from Great Britain, the West from Mexico, and teh midwest from various chilled Indian tribes. Forget it! >There >has always been an active movement, supported by UN resolutions, to make >Puerto Rico independent, (1) There has always been an active small movement; and (2) The UN is more than happy to spend its time kicking around the world's decent nations and praising its more bestial organizations. UN resolutions have all the moral authority of the agreements of the local gangsters. >which the US is as eager to repress as it is to >not allow successful progressive governments in the rest of Latin America. EVIDENCE? The last time I looked, the independence party was running in the territory's elections. They kept getting drubbed, but they sure did try...periodically some people get tossed in the jug, but it's always for bomb-throwing and the like, which I hardly consider political crimes. And I don't know what you mean by "progressive" governments, but I suspect anti-American is a pretty good approximation. >Every source I have ever heard of considers Puerto Rico part of Latin >America, which trancends national boundaries. Having lived in San Jose, >California (working for Big Blue) for a summer, it's clear that it is part >of Latin America, too ;-) Again, by that argument, most of the southwest is Latin America, including East LA. > >Vieques was taken over without any consultation with the people who lived >there -- they were forceably moved en masse to the least desirable part >of the island. Most of the people had been fisherfolk, but their livelihood >has gone down the drain as their nets have been torn away by propellers and >fish destroyed by constant practice bombardments. You might be interested >to know that Vieques was where the invasion of Grenada was practiced a >year or two before the actual event. Were they compensated? If not, they certainly have a case. > >What is Kahoolawe? Were there people there before it was bombarded? Kahoolawe (pronounced cah-O-o-lah-v-ay) is an island ~10 miles southwest of Maui. It is uninhabited (and always has been, I gather), and from the mid-fifties to the present day has been used as a target by the US Navy. Some Hawaiians are upset about it: it is not clear to me that the number upset is anything like a majority of the peoples of the Islands: Hawaii is pretty much kept afloat by the military. Rick.