The Santiago Iglesias Case, 1901–1902: Origins of American Trade Union Involvement in Puerto Rico

Abstract

In November of 1898, Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, lashed out at the expansionists and denied most emphatically that there was “justification for our enforced conquest and annexation ”of the “semi-nude people ”of Puerto Rico, living in a state of “peonage.” At large, the American trade union movement appears to have been caught up in the movement for Cuban independence—both political and economic. Puerto Rico, however, was a different matter. The trade union leadership had shown no special awareness of the island or of conditions prevailing there and, following the American occupation, adopted a strongly anti-imperialist stand. Yet, in February of 1901, the American Federationist (edited by Gompers) warmly applauded the Louisville conventions decision “. . .to organize the 15,000 skilled workers of the island of Puerto Rico on the unshakable basis of the trade union.” By the summer of 1902, trade union opinion had largely reversed itself and fraternal ties between the American Federation of Labor and the Federación Libre of Puerto Rico had been irrevocably forged.