El colonialismo en Puerto Rico: debates militantes sobre su caracterización (1960-1984).

Abstract

This article sets out to undertake a historical reconstruction, from a materialist perspective, of the debates on the characterization of colonialism in Puerto Rico –a colony of the United States since 1898– as they developed between 1960 and 1984 among revolutionary organizations of the pro-independence movement and the left, as well as among intellectuals linked to these. The leitmotif is the debate between, on the one hand, the Pro-Independence Movement-Puerto Rican Socialist Party (MPI-PSP) and its category of “classical colony,” and, on the other, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (PSR) and its concept of “industrial colony.” 
The article further seeks to analyse these controversies in the light of regional discussions contemporary to them, such as the Marxist theory of dependency and the controversies over modes of production. Finally, it analyses the evolution of these debates against the backdrop of the collapse of the industrial model in Puerto Rico and the consequent transformation of its productive structure and class composition.