Mexico marks 1968 massacre
Over 125,000 marched in Mexico City on October 2, commemorating the bloody events of 1968. Peter Gellert
JOURNAL
A RAP
Yes the new leadership. It is not a luxury, it is a crucial question for any development of the coalition. ...but still essential
Building the Electoral Coalition called by the RAP should be the left's first priority.
We must find ways to bring together all the tendencies seen and heard at the founding convention. This has a political aspect (a common platform, a common name on the ballot) and an organisational aspect (how will candidates be allocated specific electoral constituencies)?
It will only be possible to build unity if the meeting to establish the Electoral Coalition is preceded by open discussion at both national and regional levels to permit the democratic elaboration of the Coalition platform.
The main task of the new RAP leadership, then, is to create a democratic process for developing a platform. Hopefully, the new co-ordinating committee will produce an initial dratt platform and then redraft it on basis of amendments from the regions. Unfortunately, this did not happen after the regional preparations for the founding convention.
Contentious amendments should be set aside for later, when the reformulated platform can be discussed in workshops and then in the plenary, on the basis of a new synthesis prepared by the coordinating committee.
To facilitate a unitary and democratic development, the discussion process should involve contributions from political parties like the [far left] Parti de la Democratie Socialiste (Party for Socialist Democracy) and other forces we hope will make up the Coalition.
A democratic process will allow a maximum of mobilisation. The electoral organisation will be strengthened in so far as the development of the platform is Source: La Gauche, Summer 1998, #59. Translated by Tom Patterson and edited by Alan Sears for republication in New Socialist.
reports
Thirty years ago, the army suppressed the Mexican student movement, opening fire on a demonstration in the Plaza of Three Cultures
As the anniversary approached the events of 1968 were commemorated with special TV and radio programmes, extensive commentaries in the mass media, dozens of well-publicised round table discussions with the country's leading intellectuals and surviving leaders of the student movement, and the publication of numerous books.
Most of the marchers this year were students, though numerous veterans of the struggles of the 1960s and 1970s participated. From the Zocalo to Tlatelolco, a sea of humanity carried placards and government slogans, some portraits of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Cuban Revolutionary of the 1968 era. Dozens of speakers addressed the final rally in the Plaza of the Three Cultures in the Tlatelolco housing complex
A message from Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation Army (EZLN) was particularly well received, although few marchers carried signs or banners referring to the current
The Mayor of Mexico City, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, declared October 2 a day of mourning, with all flags at city buildings at half mast and a commemorative plaque unveiled at the City Assembly.
All this is particularly striking since for many years the student October 2 massacre, have been a non-event, not even mentioned in school history books.
The demonstration refutes the assertion that students in Mexico are now complacent or apolitical, or that continuity has been broken with the struggles of the past.
There is an intense debate on the historical factsof 1968 - did the students initially fire on the army, as the government claimed at the time, or was it a premeditated bloodbath? The second thesis is increasingly accepted by society.
Who gave the orders to open fire on the students - the president, the Minister of the Interior (Gobernación), or the army?
Were the '68 events the product
Mexico * of an international communist conspiracy, the explanation advanced then and cautiously defended even today by a minority of ruling party "dinosaurs" and some military leaders, or a legitimate expression of student and popular grievances?
And how many students were killed? The official death count ranges from 27 to 40, but student leaders of the time say as many of 400 to 600 may have been killed. Hundreds were jailed in the subsequent repression. The democratic transition
Much debate has centred on the broader significance of 1968 as a watershed in Mexico's democratic transition, a time for intense soul
While no one denies that the massacre took place, differences have emerged. Mayor Cardenas declared that the Mexican Army is free of responsibility, arguing that the orders came from the top Others on the left are not so quick to absolve the armed forces.
Demands have been raised, including by the Mexican Congress's commission investigating the 1968 events, for the government to open
The Interior Ministry has refused to consider such a step, arguing national security considerations. The legislative threatening to take the case to Mexico's Supreme Court, although it is highly unlikely that the case would receive a favourable ruling
The 1968 events forged an entire generation of militants and social activists in Mexico, many of whom went on to play leading roles in the urban popular, peasant, student, and trade union movements, or in international solidarity campaigns. Many say 1968 was a watershed that give rise to a new Mexico, and that the student movement was ultimately responsible for the democratic openings that are today a prominent part of the country's
Yet 30 years later the wounds have not totally healed, as the intense debate and scrutiny of the past few weeks have shown. * Source: Mexican Labor News and Analysis, 3436 Morrison Place, Cincinnati, OH 45220, USA. E-mail <103144.2651@compuserve.com>. Internet <www.igc.apc.org/unitedelect/>
International Viewpoint #305 November 1998 19