Solidarity and Cooperation: Alternative Premises for an Economic National Plan, Part II

The market competition is unjust and unfair. The economic structures protect the interests of the capital owner. Their goal is personal gain, an aim for higher profits. Individualism governs their conduct. By that logic it is intended to address collective problems. The economic and social costs of such behavior are ignored. For this reason, the economic program adopted by the New Progressive Party can not be considered a master plan for the nation’s future. It is simply the agenda of the private business sector, a social group that does not represent the majority of the Puerto Rican people and the diversity of interests prevailing in it.

National Strike Videos

Here is a collection of videos from last Thursday's National Strike, prepared by MRZINE. (Click "Read More" to see the rest).

Puerto Rico: Ready for the National Strike

by Firuzeh Shokooh Valle

Puerto Rico is getting ready for the national strike on Thursday, October 15. Since governor Luis Fortuño layed off about 17,000 government employees the first week of October, there has been tremendous mobilization from different sectors of the civil society: workers and members of trade unions, women, environmentalists, students, and professors, among others. There have been multiple demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience to protest the economic policies that the government has assured are necessary due to the financial crisis. In total this year, the recently elected government has laid off around 25,000 public employees.

Solidarity and Cooperation: Alternative Premises for an Economic National Plan, Part I

In 2007, a year before the elections, the Private Sector Coalition was incorporated. This alliance is made up of professional organizations from various industries of the country such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Homebuilders Association, the Association of Insurers, Certified Public Accountants Bar, Products Association and the Association of Industrialists, among others. Their biggest concern has been the decoupling of the island’s economic trends of those observed in United States of America. The aim is to increase their participation in the decision making process in Puerto Rico. With these purposes they suggest a plan for the economy that, from their perspective, would create the necessary conditions to give the country more competitiveness. The reduction in taxes paid by corporations, the review of the permit granting process, the diversification of energy sources and the labor market deregulation are some of their proposals. The result, they say, will be a steady growth in the annual production of goods and services by more than 4%. [See Caribbean Business, June 25, 2009]