MEXICAN PRT CONVENTION
ATTRACTS 7,000 SUPPORTERS
It is with great regret that we announce He managed to get into Europe at the end the death of Sam Gordon. He died in Middle of the war, met comrade Junglas (one of sex Hospital, London on Friday 12 March, the founders of German Trotskyism) in Hamburg and played a big part in reconstituting
Sam joined the Communist League of the International in war-shattered Europe.
America (Left Opposition) in 1928 after at- With Michel Pablo, he became joint sectending a meeting in New York addressed by retary of the Fourth International.
James P. Cannon. He was a leading mem- Sam translated Trotsky's Germany: the ber of the SWP (US) for many years and Only Road into English, and his most recent wrote many articles and pamphlets under work was the translation of Rudolf Hilferding's Finance Capital.
He spent some time with Trotsky in Mex-
He played an active role in the formative ico and carried on a correspondence with years of the IMG and although ill-health restricted his activities in recent years, he
In 1940 he became secretary of the kept up a lively interest in the activities
Fourth International until he joined the of the Fourth International.
Merchant Navy in 1941 as a means of main- We salute his memory and express our taining contact with sections of the Interdeepest sympathy to Mildred and David.
By Fernando Zamora
The national electoral convention held February 28 in Mexico City by the PRT, the Mexican section of the Fourth International, and its allies marked a new highpoint in the revolutionists' campaign for the general elections to be held in June.
The purpose of the convention was to nominate the first list of candidates for the Senate and for the Chamber of Deputies, as well as a slate for seats to be filled in accordance with proportional representa-
The convention, held in the Cine Variedades in the center of the Mexican capital, was not only filled to capacity but hundreds of people had to sit on the floors and stairways. Almost 7,000 persons attended the convention and the march that took place afterward.
The PRT is supporting the country's best known human-rights activist, Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, for president. It has sought to make the campaign a broad socialist alternative to the ruling demagogic nationalist party, the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional). In a bloc with the PRT are the Movimiento Revolucionario del Pueblo (MRP) and the Union de Lucha Revolucionario (ULR).
The convention presidium indicated the broad support attracted by the PRT camafter a long illness. the name of Stuart. him for many years. national during the war.
paign. It included representatives of an Artists Committee supporting Rosario Ibarra de Piedra; trade-union activists; leaders of the peasant movement, such as Gregorio Paredes from Veracruz, Fausto Leon from Sonora, and Aurelio Vazquez Gomez from Chiapas (all of whom are PRT candidates); leaders of the gay movement and women's liberation movement; as well as leaders of the shantytown dwellers associations.
America Albaroa, a deputy in parliament, leader of NAUCOPAC, a slum dwellers association known for its combativity; and a former leader of the Morenista Partido Obrero Socialista, addressed the convention. He called on "all democratic and revolutionary forces, and in particular those considering themselves Trotskyist to unify their forces to fight for one single objective, revolutionary socialism. " Abaroa is the PRT candidate for senate in the state of Mexico, one of the most important in the Mexican federal union.
A new development was pointed up by the presence of several ex-leaders of the Mexican Communist Party (now called the Partido Socialista Unificado de Mexico-PSUM). Led by Joel Ortega, a former CP Central Committee member, they came to express their support for the campaign.
Ortega told the convention that his new grouping, the Movimiento Communista SAM GORDON DIES IN LONDON
Libertario, was formed "because we realize that the only way to continue the groundswell of unity that is developing today behind the candidacy of Rosario Ibarra de Piedra is to fight to build a movement that reflects the unity that the various political parties associated in this campaign are experiencing. This is a nonbureaucratic communist movement, built in particular in broad mass struggles, an organization that does not subordinate its policies and struggles to wheeling and dealing with the authorities. "
Also represented at the convention was a dissident state committee of the Partido Socialista Unificado de Mexico.
The highpoint of the convention was a fighting speech by Rosario Ibarra de Piedra. She concluded by saying: "For us every vote represents a commitment to struggle, an activist ready to fight in the battles that will come in other areas after the elections. That is what we are mainly interested in."
The next major activity scheduled in the campaign after the convention was a meeting March 14 to form a Front of Women's Committees in support of Rosario. This will be the first time in Mexican history that women have organized as women to defend and popularize their struggles through an election campaign.