The Workers' Socialist Movement (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

: ''Movimiento Socialista de los Trabajadores'', MST) is a Puerto Rican

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-mana ...

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

organization, formed in 1982 and dedicated to the

self-organization Self-organization, also called spontaneous order in the social sciences, is a process where some form of overall order and disorder, order arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system. The process can be spont ...

and self-emancipation of the

working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

, as well as international solidarity with the workers struggles worldwide. It is usually known as the "MST", and its youth section is the '' Unión de Juventudes Socialistas'' (Union of Socialist Youth), also known as the "UJS-MST" or simply "UJS". The MST supports a socialist and independent Puerto Rico.

Politics

The MST politics are

, understood from the centrality of class as a motor of history. Rather than describing itself as "

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

", it prefers the term "

Dialectical Materialist Dialectical materialism is a materialist theory based upon the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that has found widespread applications in a variety of philosophical disciplines ranging from philosophy of history to philosophy of scienc ...

", feeling the term "

" to have been narrowed by history to represent a single set of views on

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and class-based revolutionary struggle. As a multi-tendency organization, with a culture of debate and ideological discussion, there are people within its membership and leadership who visualize themselves as

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy, primarily targeting the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state w ...

, Anti-Revisionists,

communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...

Maoists Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China and later the People's Re ...

revolutionary socialists The Revolutionary Socialists (; ) (RS) are a Trotskyist organisation in Egypt originating in the tradition of ' Socialism from Below'. Leading RS members include sociologist Sameh Naguib. The organisation produces a newspaper called ''The Social ...

syndicalists Syndicalism is a labour movement within society that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes and other forms of direct action, with the eventual goal of gaining ...

, and

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

s. What they do have in common is a commitment to

action, and to worker's self-emancipation, which leads to a belief that differences in opinion are a positive feature in a revolutionary organization.

Organization

The MST is a cadre organization, which means that membership is not open to the wider public. This is both a result of a need for dedication and trust building from cadres, and as a way to prevent the state repression that has plagued other organizations in Puerto Rico. This does not mean that the organization is in any way "secret", its members are public, vocal, advocates of the organization's politics.

History

The MST was formed in 1982 by the merger of two important (and previously rival) socialist groups, the

maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...

Partido Socialista Revolucionario/PSR ( Revolutionary Socialist Party) and the Guevarist/ Marxist-Leninist Movimiento Socialista Popular ( Popular Socialist Movement). Later, in 1984, the Liga Internacionalista de los Trabajadores/LIT ( Workers' Internationalist League (Puerto Rico)) also dissolved into the MST. Influenced by the

Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew ...

, especially

Che Guevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara (14th May 1928 – 9 October 1967) was an Argentines, Argentine Communist revolution, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and Military theory, military theorist. A majo ...

, the Chinese Revolution and

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

, and a number of similar revolutionary experiences worldwide, the MST began to replace the declining

Puerto Rican Socialist Party The Puerto Rican Socialist Party (, PSPR) was a Marxist and pro-independence political party in Puerto Rico seeking the end of United States of America control on the Hispanic and Caribbean island of Puerto Rico. It proposed a "democratic worke ...

as the predominant

far-left Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some ...

group in Puerto Rico. In 1990, the MST founded the Socialist Front along with the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Puertorriqueños-Macheteros/PRTP-Macheteros ( Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers' Party-Macheteros) and the Taller de Formacion Politica-TFP ( Political Education Workshop), an alliance of radical-left groups. Among its supporters are Rafael Feliciano Hernández twice-elected leader of the

Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico The Teachers' Federation of Puerto Rico (, FMPR) is a trade union federation of teachers in Puerto Rico. With currently 32,000 members, it is one of the most important non-US-aligned unions in the territory. Its primary base is among employees o ...

, on an openly socialist platform; Victor Rodriguez, student leader and spokesman of the UJS in the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras; Pedro Colon Almenas, former political prisoner.

Current activities

The MST publishes a monthly 8-page newspaper, ''Bandera Roja'', formerly of the MSP, and in continuous publication since 1974. Its webpage first went online in 1996, acquired the domain name "bandera.org" in 1997 and has had the current PHP driven format since 1999. It is currently asserting itself after leaving the Socialist Front, as in heavily involved in the struggles against re-structuring programs, including the current fiscal crisis in government. It is also visible in the struggle to call attention to the untried murder case of MSP founding member and Cuban exile Carlos Muñiz Varela, and the attempts on the part of the government to repress protests against the continued coverup in that case, including the recent homage paid for by the Legislature to suspected intellectual author of Muñiz's murder, Julio Labatud.

External links

''Bandera Roja'' online
{{Advocacy groups in Puerto Rico 1982 establishments in Puerto Rico Communist parties in Puerto Rico Democratic socialist parties in the United States Multi-tendency organizations in the United States Political parties established in 1982 Political parties in Puerto Rico State and local socialist parties in the United States