José A. Soler Papers

This series contains a number of biographical materials of Soler’s, including certificates, correspondence, personal items, newspaper clippings, and educational, professional, and legal records. All reveal deep-rooted interconnections between the personal and public in Soler’s life and passions. His commitments to Puerto Rican independence and social and labor rights are evident from the earliest items documenting his involvement with socialism in Cuba and labor education in New York, to the last materials, covering his work as an educator and advisor at the UMass Dartmouth Arnold M. Dubin Labor Education Center. Soler’s views on the history of Puerto Rico and the labor movement there and in the United States, particularly in relation to Hispanic workers, are well documented in published and unpublished articles, as well as in his syllabi, readers, and assignments for labor courses taught at Rutgers and UMass Dartmouth. Offering the perspective of an educator deeply ingrained and active in the labor and left movements, these items reflect Soler’s commitment to taking up the actions behind his words.

Of course, engagement for change and dissatisfaction with the status quo is not always seen in a virtuous light, and Soler was also among the thousands of individuals who came under secret police surveillance in Puerto Rico during the 1970s and 1980s. Extensive carpetas (files) were collected, often for political reasons, with the independence movement as the primary target both in Puerto Rico and in the Puerto Rican communities in the US. Soler’s carpeta, covering nine years of investigations, documents the intelligence patterns and concerns of the police and powerful in Puerto Rico during this period, and offers a unique view into Soler’s various activities as well as those of the PSP and larger independence movement.

The series contains several interesting visual and physical items as well, including posters, LPs, and board games, such as Sociopolio, about an imaginary socialist Puerto Rico where the currency has pictures of famous Puerto Rican pro-independence figures, and the object of the game is to become a national work hero.

Predominantly in Spanish, the items in this series offer a rare view into the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Puertorriqueño, PSP) and its United States sections during the years of its highest activity and influence. Published and unpublished materials such as periodicals, newsletters, organizational papers, educational manuals, as well as official meeting programs, declarations, and reports reflect the attempts of the PSP to understand and articulate its platform of socialism and independence as intertwined solutions for a Puerto Rico it saw weakened by a US colonialist-capitalist regime. Heavily influenced by Marxism, Leninism, and the Cuban revolution, the Pro-Independence Movement (Movimiento Pro-Independencia, MPI), which became the PSP in 1971, saw Puerto Rico as formed by coupled economic and political forces, and argued that the popular mobilization of a workers movement and party was necessary for independence and a better political, economic, and social future on the island.

The various iterations of these arguments and the discourse of the PSP around them as it gained influence in the 1970s, and then slowly waned over the course of the 1980s and beyond, can be traced in the rich collection of published materials that make up the majority of the series. While the collection has only later editions of the principal periodical of the PSP, Claridad, it does contain several other distributed serials, such as early editions of the magazine Nueva Lucha, and the highly ephemeral newsletters of the PSP and the PSP Central Committee: Carta Obrera, Carta Quincenal, Carta Semanal, and Carta Sindical. The collection also has the similarly rare Carta Obrera and Carta Roja newsletters of the US section of PSP, of which Soler was the editor at the time. These regularly produced and distributed materials, offering Party updates on activities, interpretations of national and international news, and continued promotion of socialist theories on independence, labor, and class struggle, highlight not only the ideologies and discussions of importance to the PSP at the time, but also their methodologies for promoting and cultivating radical organization and social mobilization. A unique example of these efforts is a coloring book produced with political cartoons from Claridad. The series also contains some visual materials, including PSP insignia and flags.

A more formal aspect of the PSP is found in the numerous official declarations and reports, often stemming from an annual party meeting, or Congress. These materials include Congress programs and procedures, declarations of formal political theses, agreed upon projects and resolutions, and regulations covering Party undertakings, organization, membership, and representation. Further organizational, educational, and promotional strategies are documented in materials from the PSP Secretary of Education and Propaganda, in the documents collected and used by the PSP in schools to educate and mobilize socialist political and militant activists, and in the articles authored by the Party, on topics including Marxism-Leninism, unions, and the US military.

One such report, "La Alternativa Socialista," or the "Socialist Alternative," is the notable and most thorough political thesis of the PSP, issued in 1974, available in English in several forms in the series. All sectors of the political, economic, and social reality of Puerto Rico are described as false, harmful, and unbalanced as imposed by US money, desire, and geopolitical and military needs. The PSP proposed in this thesis that with careful planning, education, and activity, a united and mobilized workers movement would break the corrupt status quo of US imperialism, capitalism, and environmental destruction, and eventually establish Puerto Rico as an independent and self-determined socialist nation.

It was imperative that the PSP, in seeking to be a mass working class movement, connect all levels of Puerto Rican society to its program, and that they advocate for more incremental change via education, political action, and alternative power structures, (while still conceding the need at times for more violent disruptions,) and that they garner international support by casting their struggle in a larger global context of anti- imperialist and colonialist movements. These connections are described in the 1974 thesis, but also documented in the series. Newsletters from the PSP mission in Cuba are available, as are materials concerning PSP involvement with the Anti-Imperialist Organizations of the Caribbean and Central America, the United Nations, and on the topic of apartheid in South Africa.

The most significant global link was of course with the large Puerto Rican community living abroad in the US, with whom the PSP imparted a key role in its ultimate mission, stating in 1974,

The series has a rich collection of documents from the PSP US based section given Soler’s substantial engagement and leadership roles with the Party. It is also clear that many of his and others’ activist and labor commitments beyond the official congregation of the PSP were influenced by the Party’s vision and mission, and that the legacy of the PSP is strong not only in Puerto Rico, but in the United States as well.

This series contains materials from Soler’s efforts as a labor, political, and social justice activist, outside of his involvement with the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Puertorriqueño, PSP) and as a professional teacher and mentor. Numerous organizations are represented, some with more materials than others, epitomizing the endless energy of Soler towards his social, political, and labor commitments, including: Puerto Rican independence, anti-imperialism, socialism, communism, unions, Hispanic workers, civil rights, and the anti-nuclear, anti-apartheid, and pro-peace movements. Printed materials make up the majority of the series, including periodicals, newsletters, pamphlets, proceedings, reports, fliers, advertisements, posters and other memorabilia. While involved in movements of a global scale, Soler was also dedicated to local issues, so many organizations or their concerns are focused on New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts communities.

Of note are two large collections of printed material, one covering over forty years of published reports from the North American Congress on Latin America, and the other covering over thirty years of publications from the Communist Party, USA, including a folder of printed speeches and reports by Gus Hall and a nearly full run of the CPUSA magazine, Political Affairs, from the 1980s through the 1990s and beyond. Several labor organizations are also well represented, including the somewhat radicalized union District 65, as well as CWA New Jersey Local 1040.

Materials from Puerto Rican organizations are also available, including highly ephemeral and rich educational and organizational materials from the Instituto Laboral de Educación Sindical (ILES), established in 1977 to provide education and training for laborers and union workers in Puerto Rico. Early materials include course syllabi and literature from courses on economics and politics, industrial relations, and current labor laws, as well as documentation on collective agreements, unions, and public sector strikes. Materials from the early 1980s include promotional materials, introductory correspondence, Articles of Regulation, and coverage of the ILES sponsored Conferences for Women Workers.

The series contains several interesting visual and physical items as well, including posters, protest bumper stickers and buttons, and coloring books. Of note is a poster-sized screen print by Norman Ramírez Talavera protesting the arrest of fifteen Puerto Ricans on August 30, 1985 for association with the Puerto Rican clandestine organization Ejército Popular Boricua (also known as Los Macheteros) and the robbery of $7.1 million from a Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, CT in September 1983 (the largest cash heist in US history at the time). Talavera was one of those arrested, and it is believed he created the print while out on bail in 1986. He was later convicted, fined, and served five years in prison. The case remitted under the terms of President Bill Clinton's clemency offer in September 1999.

This series contains photograph albums, photographs, contact sheets, negatives, and slides documenting Soler’s life and his interests as a photographer. Early albums show Soler as a college student and his family life and travels, particularly during his marriage to his first wife Ester "Pepi" Bloom. Pepi’s childhood and family are also documented. Many photographs reveal Soler’s activist concerns, as well as his interests in journalistic and documentary photography. There are numerous images of protest movements, activist groups, and labor union gatherings. The slides include the New York/New Jersey US section of the PSP and their 1983 activities and Congress.