During the past academic year, 4 Prescott College Sustainability Education Doctoral Students studied Fair Trade Learning and developed a program based on its principles. Now, their insights and commitments from Vieques are pushing them forward to engage in social change work with Vieques community partners. Read on to learn about their experience and interest in the power and possibility of public radio in Vieques today. – EH

By Eric Lassahn, with input from Jen Christion Myers, Meg Ferrigno, and Lindsey Laret 

Prescott College’s limited-residency Ph.D. program in Sustainability Education allows students to design and plan their second year fall colloquium. Students in the 7th cohort decided to create a new model for the second year residency according to Fair Trade Learning (FTL) principles, an approach to global service-learning developed by Amizade. The colloquium was held on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, and incorporated FTL design to create a cross-cultural service-learning experience. Fair Trade Learning emphasizes fair wages and working conditions, balance in value between volunteer participants and the host community, shared participation in program planning, and appropriate personal, professional and educational opportunities for community members.

The U.S. usurped Vieques in 1898 at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War. The U.S. Navy began purchasing large tracts of land on the island in 1939 and used it as a major military weapons testing site from 1941 until local protests compelled them to terminate operations in 2003. Activists were motivated by the death of civilian employee David Sanes in 1999. The site has since been declared a Superfund site and a National Wildlife Refuge.

During our colloquium, we set out to examine social and environmental justice. This was achieved through visiting the local headquarters of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and meeting their staff who manage the Vieques Wildlife Refuge on former U.S. Navy lands. We also visited with Robert Rabin, a leader of the resistance movement that led to the Navy’s departure and the re-appropriation of federal lands. These two presentations provided a juxtaposition of perspectives on land use and the Navy’s legacy on the island.  Colloquium participants spoke with local community members about their views on tourism, the Navy occupation, the civilian protest movement, economic development, and community health.

Our time in Vieques also included the study of sustainable development efforts on the island. Robert Rabin shared with us the island’s community development plan, which included provisions for micro-enterprise and ecotourism development.

We found our time with Robert to be the highlight of our colloquium. It was clear to us that he was a central figure in the peaceful movement to oust the Navy in 1999, and we have come to realize that he maintains a crucial role in current efforts to prompt the Navy to take responsibility for the cleanup of the various hazardous waste left behind in the wake of their activity on the island. At the conclusion of our colloquium, one of our cohort members shared the following:

Robert Rabin’s presentation was incredibly moving. What a person and what an experience he and his fellow activists had. The history of the island was informative, but the perseverance and resilience of the people is amazing to me. What I really took away from this was a reminder about perseverance, the importance of community organizing, the role that servant leaders can play, and questions about how to organize such efforts when there aren’t readily apparent, immediate threats. How do we take what was learned from the eviction of the US military on Vieques and apply it to the pervasive threats of ecological destruction and social  inequity? How do we engage and mobilize around a vision for a sustainable, regenerative future for human and more than human life on Earth and specifically in our communities that may take decades (like the efforts on Vieques to remove the military) to achieve when people are so transient, disconnected from place, overwhelmed by other pressures in their lives, and acculturated in the existing paradigm of consumer society?

Since our meeting, Robert was featured in an interview on Democracy Now!, which leant a great deal of context to the ongoing struggle for the Vieques community.

At our May Symposium at Prescott College, we conducted a Skype call with Robert Rabin and other community activists. In attendance from Prescott were students, faculty, and administrators. During the call, we discussed needs such as health care infrastructure, funding for Radio Vieques, education issues, and  environmental and food systems concerns. In order to raise community awareness regarding these issues, the activists have decided that Radio Vieques is a priority that will lead to focus on and improvement around identified community concerns. Robert is calling this our Academic Solidarity Movement.

Robert Rabin shared that,  “Radio Vieques will help the people of Vieques in the continuing struggles to force the US government to clean up the horrific contamination left from a half century of Navy bombing and other military practices; make the Federal and Puerto Rican governments take action to alleviate the suffering of Vieques cancer  – and other catastrophic illness – patients on an island without a hospital; push for sustainable, community based social-economic development in this post bombing phase of Vieques’ life.”

In an effort to continue our relationship and identify ways to support the Vieques community, members of our cohort created an Indigogo fundraising campaign to support the development of Radio Vieques. Please donate now to support community news, information sharing, and free press – all essential for a functioning democracy. All funds raised will support Radio Vieques.

What happens from here depends on our efforts to raise awareness of this little-known chapter of US history and the reality that the situation is playing out today in real-time. Members of Prescott College will continue to learn more about this community and its needs while continuing to strengthen our existing relationship. It is our sincere hope that our government chooses to take responsibility for this situation. We can encourage this by educating ourselves, bringing attention to these issues, donating to the cause, and advocating for change.

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Eric Lassahn is The Director of Residence Life and Civic Engagement at Susquehanna University. Among many other responsibilities at SU, Eric has led six Hurricane Relief Teams to the Gulf Coast, regularly leads a global service-learning course called Peace and Youth in Northern Ireland, and teaches a global citizenship course to support students’ reflective processing after intercultural immersion experiences.

More resources: 

Watch the Democracy Now! interview:

Watch the Radio Vieques Video: