contents the event
2
Mexico: a new country?
• José Martínez Cruz
• Markets reassured by left victory
• Results • The Zapatistas and the
"new left" • PRD: reasonable and respectable? • Small parties collapse, except for the Greens • The
PRD and the social movements •
What's left of the Mexican left?
• Dan La Botz americas
8
USA: inside the UPS strike
• Martha Gruelle
10
APEC versus humanity
• Harold Lavender
12
Canada: Anti-ecological populism • Harold Lavender
14 The São Paulo Forum
• José Martinez Cruz
16 Latin American news briefs europe
19 France's Socialist government
• Raghu Krishnan
21 EuroMarch news (unemployment)
23
Britain: Uniting against communalism and racism
• B. Skanthakumar asia
24
Thailand: Labour party (re)founded
25
Hong Kong: Solidarity against the
World Bank/IMF • G. Greenfield
26
East Timor: Mandela v. Suharto
• B. Skanthakumar
26
Australia: Fast track deportation •
The greatest land grab since 1788
• New Labour Party holds national conference • John Tully regular features
32 book notes
34 conference notes
36 NetWorking
36 well read • the radical media
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3
Markets reassured by left victory
International capital reacted enthusi- an enormous crisis. The U.S. could not
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"This has to be very positive and healthy and is going to generate confidence in Mexico," Hugh Pace, president of Goodyear Mexico told the Wall Street Journal shortly after the election.
Why should Mexican and international capital apparently be so delighted with the victory of Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas and the PRD? Quite simply because the PRI has not been very effective recently. The January 1994 Chiapas Uprising led by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) provoked a national political crisis, followed in December of 1994 by the devaluation of the peso, and the "tequila effect" which threatened the international banking system.
Those two events were followed by appearance of a second guerrilla organisation, the People's Revolutionary Army (EPR) and the subsequent militarisation of several Mexican states -- Chiapas, Tabasco, Guerrero, Oaxaca.
In addition military-style conflicts between and among drug dealers, the police and the army led to the militarisation of northern border states such as Chihuahua
Taken altogether, the PRI appeared by 1997 to be leading Mexico -- the neighbour of the United States and one of its most important economic players--Into permit Mexico to become a Colombia or a Peru. Political and social disturbances threaten the orderly operation of banks and corporations and jeopardises investment.
The rising level of discord and disturbances in Mexico led international capital, and the United States government which acts as its agent in Mexico, to understand that the Institutional Revolutionary Party's seventy-year old regime had exhausted itself and no longer served to keep things in order. So things
Top leaders of the PRI also perceived that their ability to control the old system was breaking down. Despite enormous repression--like the killing 500 PRD activists between 1989 and 1997 and the militarisation of several state--the PRI was losing its grip
Bankers and businessmen, the U.S government, and the PRI came to the conclusion separately and together that the time had come for a new political system in Mexico. The PRI would have to give up its one-party rule in Mexico not in order to bring about democracy, but in order to protect capital.
The National Action Party (PAN), a junior partner to the PRI during the Salinas years, had lost the credibility which might have made it the primary benefactor of political power sharing So, the PRI had no choice but to include Cárdenas and the PRD. [DLB] * control of the intelligence services. • public works projects by the armed forces, to improve their image among the population.
Low intensity war has had a terrible effect on the people of Chiapas. According to La Estación Norte, a non-governmental mission in Chiapas, "over the last two years, more than 4,000 people have become displaced. About 300 people have died, and 100 have been imprisoned. The number of beatings and injuries cannot be estimated."
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), through its Subcomandante Marcos, announced that its members and supporters in Chiapas would not vote because of the continued military occupation of the area; on-going attacks by guards" who beat, rape and murder indigenous activists; and the failure of the government to fulfil earlier agreements.
In many areas protesters made it impossible for the National Electoral Institute (IFE) to put up voting booths. Out of 3,520 voting booths to be installed, only 2,910 were installed in Chiapas. About 35% of the electorate either did not or could not vote.
In the rest of Chiapas, the Civic Alliance (Alianza Civica) which engaged in election watching confirmed "serious violations of voters' rights." According to Subcomandante Marcos, the EZLN called for a boycott, but would "respect the decision of those who did
Nevertheless, and despite the real problem of landlord violence, a large number of social organisations led by Zapatista and PRD supporters decided to participate in the elections, usually calling for a vote for the PRD. What now?
There is still no legislation on the rights of indigenous peoples. President Zedillo sabotaged the San Andrés Sakamcheen negotiations with the Zapatistas on a constitu-
Adolfo Gilly, Helena Hirata, Carlos M. Vilas and the PRT (Argentina) [40 pages]
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INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION: Populism in Latin America
Front for National Liberation (FZLN, presumably cannot last forever. [DLB] *
No-one expects the PRD to seek a radical rethinking of the neo-liberal agenda. PRD leader López. Obrador says that the party only seeks to "file the roughest edges of neo-
But the PRD victory does mean a step forward for the movement against neo-liberalism. Particularly in the field of opposition to privatisation and defence of the social security system. The PRD's parliamentary base may prove an important ally in campaigns to reverse or slow down the privatisation of pension funds.