Jorge Farinacci Garcia, 1950-2006

Frente Socialista de Puerto Rico Spokespersons: Rubie Alicea, Manuel Rodríguez, Rafael Bernabe 939-640-8530, 787-487-0600, 787-225-7071 The Socialist Front Informs The Country About the Death of Our Spokesperson Jorge Farinacci García The Socialist Front today (Saturday August 26th) has the sad task of informing our entire country about the death of our spokesperson, Comrade Jorge Farinacci García. The death of Jorge Farinacci leaves a monumental void in the life of our people. All those in Puerto Rico who struggle against any form of oppression are today in mourning faced with the loss of this fighter and untiring activist. Jorge Farinacci dedicated his life to the struggle for the independence of Puerto Rico and for socialism and from that perspective was present in practically all the social and political struggles in Puerto Rico in recent decades. Jorge began in the decade of the 1970’s as a student activist in the struggle against the military draft, against the presence of the ROTC at the University of Puerto Rico and against U.S. interventions in Vietnam, the Dominican Republic and other countries. Since he graduated from law school he was active in the workers’ movement as a labor lawyer. As such he participated in dozens of workers’ battles both big and small: from the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements in small shops to the big national strikes against privatization. There was no arena of struggle in which Jorge Farinacci would not get involved, from the diplomatic efforts at the United Nations for the self-determination for Puerto Rico, to armed self-defense against the attacks of the death squads of the police. He was an organizer of independent electoral campaigns and was also imprisoned in the United States for five years as a leader of the Macheteros. For years he was one of the main promoters of the journal Pensamiento Crítico (Critical Thought), when this publication became an important forum for the analysis of our reality. Fari, as his friends and comrades call him, was well known for his untiring energy: he was never still. There was always something else to do. We do not doubt that this commitment without pause helped to undermine his health. But Fari was equally known for his indomitable optimism. Sometimes we would joke with him about this, but in reality we nourished ourselves from day to day from that optimism. It is one of the elements of his personality that we miss the most. At the beginning of 1990’s, faced with a period of incarceration and at a moment when the world spoke about the “death of socialism”, Comrade Jorge Farinacci, with contagious enthusiasm, joined efforts to build a unitary political Project, the Socialist Front, that focused precisely on the relevant of the anti-capitalist Project. For those of us that got to know him in that process, Fari was a political teacher and alongside him we were able to see how the most terrible effects of capitalism were ever increasing and how a new anti-globalization movement was emerging that once again placed in the forefront the need for a profound social transformation. Jorge loved Puerto Rico and at the same time, as a socialist, he was an ardent internationalist, who felt that any struggle against oppression was his own. From his solidarity with the Cuban Revolution to his defense of unity of Puerto Rican and Dominican workers, Fari embodied a level of patriotism that was always generous, loyal to the working class in any part of the world and that can only be described as exemplary. The Socialist Front, all its members and sympathizers, conveys our message of support and solidarity to all of Jorge’s family and especially his wife Rosa Meneses and his children. We cannot avoid the inevitable and we cannot bring Jorge back to be among us especially now that we need him most. But what we can do is what Jorge would have most wanted: to continue the struggle for the ideals to which he so dedicated himself during each moment of his existence. To insist in the struggle for another world which is more just and filled with solidarity. This is the tribute that is within our grasp and which our unforgettable Comrade Jorge Farinacci García deserves.