Protest
So, the 1981-82 crisis hit Mexico with a terrible impact that had a deepgoing effect on the productive plant. NATIONAL INDUSTRY DISMANTLED,
JOBLESSNESS SOARS
Moreover, one of the points included shows mounting tensions in the agreement with the IMF was that the Mexican government would push forward a process of re-privatization of the economy.
Up to a few years ago, the Mexican government had been increasing the state
Mexico along with Brazil, is one of the decisive countries in Latin America. It is also, like the other Latin giant to the south, one of the world's biggest debtors.
If anything, the political and economic contradictions are more tangled and explosive in Mexico than in Brazil.
The Mexican economy suffers more obviously from U.S. domination because, among other things, of the very proximity of the U.S. In fact, it lives to a considerable extent from the scraps of the U.S. imperialists' table.
The following article points out that the economic crisis is reducing Mexican industry to the role of producing detached parts for U.S. imperialist concerns.
Mexicans are directly confronted with the glaring difference between their standard of living and the one in the imperialist center, and with racist discrimination against the millions of Mexicans who have been forced to cross the 1,200 mile border with the U.S. to try to escape from absolute poverty.
Mexico is also directly affected by the revolutions in Central America and the
Yet in the past decades in particular, Mexico has been by far the most stable of the major capitalist states in Latin America.
The following article describes how the world economic crisis is rapidly undermin-
It is against this background that the first national day of protest against the declining standard of living was held on October 19.
the importance of this action and the role that the Mexican Fourth Internationalists
Sergio RODRIGUEZ
Recently the magazine Euro Money chose Mexican finance minister Jesus
Silva Herzog as its Finance Minister of the
Year. This reflects the imperialists' recognition of the capacity shown by the Mexican government to fully implement the protocol of agreement signed with the
Unlike what happened in the cases of
Brazil, Argentina, and even Venezuela,
Mexico has followed the IMF accords to the letter, and up till now has met all the interest payments on the foreign debt
The government of Miguel de la Madrid has achieved this by striking the worst blows to the standard of living of the
Mexican masses in living memory. But in so doing, it has not only dealt the masses blows but it has also shaken the tramechanisms of control that maintained the political stability of the government for more than 65 years.
The regime in Mexico has been based on a combination of various factors.
One of them is a political system built around one strong party that wins all elections - the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional - Revolutionary Institutions Party). The fact that the workers, peasants, middle strata, and the military were locked into this party guaranteed considerable stability.
Another factor was a policy of providing social benefits to the masses (social security, education, housing, etc.).
The regime has also enjoyed a considerable autonomy with respect to imperialism, essentially on the political level.
International Viewpoint 14 November 1983
The article explains
The economic crisis that set in in early 1981 threw this whole political struc-
The 1974-75 economic crisis coincided with the discovery of extensive oil world's fourth largest petroleum producer. This made it possible to deal with the crisis at the time without major problems. However, in the long run it actually aggravated the ills of the Mexican economy by giving rise to the imbalances typical of developing countries that depend on petroleum.
The Lopez Portillo government in power from 1976 to 1982 had the effrontery to say that the Mexican people had to learn to live with prosperity. In five years, petroleum sales brought 50 billion dollars into the coun-
Along with this, between 1976 and 1982, the foreign debt rose from 35 to 80 billion dollars. However, all this was not reflected in any significant increase in the productive plant.
What did happen was a geometrical growth in corruption and currency flight. Every year the Mexican government is obliged by law to give a report to the nation on its management of the economy. In the last year of the Lopez Portillo government, the authorities had to acknowledge that there had been a currency flight of more than 50 billion dollars to the U.S., where this money was deposited in banks.
Jorge Diaz Serrano, director of the Mexican state oil trust, Petroleos Mexicanos, under the Lopez Portillo government is now in iail under indictment for fraud involving 5 billion dollars.
sector at a rapid rate. Today it is selling off a lot of these enterprises.
The automotive industry is the clearest example. The Mexican government had bought the majority of the stock in Renault and American Motors. Now it has sold all the stock it held to the Renault parent company in France, including its American Motors shares.
This has been accompanied by layoffs of 2,500 workers at Renault and putting the factory on a short week, leaving the workers only 55 percent of their previous wages.
And this is only one example. So far this year the Mexican government has sold off more than 85 state enterprises.
Most industries have had to cut production. In 1982 and so far in 1983 there have been more than a million layoffs in the building industry. In the automotive industry, there have been nearly 30 thousand layoffs and a similar number in the steel industry. Most small and middle-sized industrial plants have had to close their doors or reduce their workfoces to the minimum. boosted the number of unemployed to 3.5 million and the number of the underemployed to 9.5 million.
However, the Mexican government has not been content just to reduce the number of jobs. It has also attacked the wages of Mexican workers. In 1982, the real wages of Mexican workers fell to the 1942 level, and the trend in 1983 indicates that they will drop below the attained after the Mexican revolution of 1910-17.
This decline in real wages has been brought about not just by a policy keeping raises to a ridiculous minimum. Inflationary policies have also played a major role. From 1947 to 1975, inflation rates were around 7 percent, while the gross domestic product increased by 6 percent annually. In 1983, the inflation rate was 100 percent, while there was no growth at all in the gross domestic product.
So far this year, inflation has increased by 75 percent. This means it will probably top 100 percent by the end of the year, if you consider that December is the month with the highest inflation. On the other hand, the government has already announced that this year the gross domestic product has decreased by 3 percent. This sort of drop has not happened in Mexico since the first years o the 1930s.
Of course, this crisis is mak
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MEXICO
sible a reorganization of capital. The process of monopolization has stepped
Nonetheless, the extent of the crisis up. has led to bankruptcies among the Mexican monopolies themselves. This happened, for example, in the case of the Alfa group, the strongest of the Mexican trusts. In fact this group had started the production of some capital goods and some consumer durables. Its failure indicates that we are not going to see a new international division of labor enabling countries like Mexico to produce most, or even a major part of, the capital goods their economies need.
A NEW SUBORDINATE TYPE OF INDUSTRY
This had led the government of Miguel de la Madrid to pose the possibility of turning Mexico into a parts-producing
To achieve this, a law has been passed to protect the interests of foreign part-producers. It stipulates that if the Yankee companies close their factories, they can take all their machinery out of the country. On the other hand, it denies the workers in these plants the right to
All of this will generate huge for the imperialists. even be exempted from paying taxes. So, the only benefit to the Mexican economy will be that it will create a certain number of jobs, which in theory should improve the situation of the internal market.
Obviously, to advance such a policy, the Mexican government has mounted a major attack on the unions. But attacking the unions means also attacking what has been a fundamental mechanism for assuring social stability, that is, the trade-union bureaucracy (known in Mexico as
While the trade-union bureaucracy has been locked into the PRI, there is no reason to think that the unions have ceased to be working-class organizations. The present trade-union structure is the result of great struggles by the Mexican and the essential consequences of this have not changed despite the totally reactionary character of the trade-union bureaucracy.
This history has generated a two-sided
On the one hand, the government needs the union bureaucracy to maintain its control over the workers. On the other, the bureaucrats have had to offer the workers something in order to maintain their control over them. This is because the fundamental basis for their gaining control was the achievement of some essential social gains for the work-
THE UNION BUREAUCRATS when mobilizations in the biggest unions have gotten out of control, the bureaucracy has resorted to re-
But this has not been the main method it has used. Therefore, the bureacracy is under great pressure. On the one hand, it is under pressure from the government, which is demanding that it keep the masses under control without offering them anything. On the other, it is under pressure from the workers in the unions who want to fight.
This pressure has generated a series of contradictions within the union bureau-
Thus, on June 9, more than 5,000 cracy. strikes broke out. The great majority of the unions, which belong to the largest confederation, the Confederacion Trabajadores Mexicanos (CTM), decided to ask for an emergency wage increase to compensate for the soaring inflation. When the government refused, this touched off a wave of strikes.
The other confederations, which are also controlled by the government, deonly not to actions but to attack the campaign of
These 5,000 strikes reflected not only the bureaucracy but also the mood of the workers.
Most of the Mexican left was not able to respond to this situation. ity of the organizations adopted an abstentionist position, seeing these strikes only as the result of an interbureaucratic
However, in various places, especially in Mexico City, June 9 was really a day of political action by the working class. various working-class areas in Mexico City, demonstrations were held at 1:00 in the
The workers went from factory to factory demonstrating their solidarity and the importance of their united after this the union bureaucracy retreated, fundamentally for two
The workers were radicalizing and were responding favorably to the participation of the section of the left that was supporting them. But above all the bureaucracy retreated in the face of the counterattack from the government.
### PEOPLE WHO LIVE
IN GLASS HOUSES SHOULDN'T THROW STONES
One of the slogans of the new government presided over by Miguel de la Madrid has been for the moral rearmament of
The depth of corruption reached by former rulers created very strong discontent in society. Before the eyes of the impoverished masses, there arose a layer of new rich, all of whom were functionaries in the previous government. Generally, they made an insolent display of their new wealth. For instance, the former chief of police built a house in the suburbs of Mexico City fronted with a replica of the Greek Parthenon made entirely of marble. And this is only one
The other major bourgeois party, the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) began campaigning mainly around the issue of corruption. And on this basis it won a enough to really worry the PRI. For example, in the last national elections, the real results pieced together by a German
Indians constitute the poorest layers of Mexican so journalist (since the official ones were obviously faked) were 25 percent for the PAN, 10 percent fo the PSUM (a coalition dominated by the Mexican CP), and 6 percent for the PRT, Mexican section of the Fourth International.
This trend also reflects the feelings of a substantial section of the bosses, who of course want a government that offers subsidies but not one whose officials divert millions of dollars into
Thus, from the beginning Miguel de la Madrid's government tried to clear itself from the stigma of corruption that marked all previous Mexican governments. To achieve this, it jailed several functionaries in the previous government and did everything to create the impression that it was going to continue doing so.
However, it is not only the government officials who have made corruption a way of life but also the union bureau-
There are multimillionaire bureaucrats who traffic with union dues and with jobs, who pocket millions of pesos for negotiating sweet-heart contracts, who sell out strikes for money.
For example, the petroleum workers union has a clause in its contract that says that 10 percent of the profits from any deal Petroleos Mexicanos makes with private parties has to go into the coffers of the union. And, of course, it is the union bureaucracy that controls the millions and millions of pesos that come in as a re-
It is well known, for example, that the secretary general of the petroleum workers union, Salvador Barragan Camacho, went every month to Las Vegas and to Reno in the U.S. and that on one night alone he managed to lose 100 million dollars gambling.
Given all this corruption, the Mexi-
International Viewpoint 14 November 1983
Dozens of U.S. sen- One of the first results of this was
(DR) can government has very powerful weapons to pressure the union bureaucracy not to call any more actions like June 9.
Immediately after the day of action, the government set a trap for the petroleum workers union bureaucrats, and they began to fight among themselves, accusing each other of corruption. This led to the jailing of one of the union leaders and the publication throughout the country of facts about the corruption. If you consider the importance of this union (which has 110 thousand members and controls two state administrations and dozens of city governments) and the role it plays as the leading sector of the CTM, you can understand better why the government is putting on the heat. But all this has a boomerang effect, because the government is striking at its main ally. Thus, we can say that which ever side wins this struggle, it will also be a loser.
DESTABILIZATION OF THE ONE-PARTY SYSTEM
One of the other key features of the present situation is the division within the bourgeoisie over both economic and political questions. The growing electoral support for the PAN has reached a point where it makes the PRI's life rather difficult.
Most of the cities on the U.S. border are controlled by the PAN. Last year it won the elections in Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, which is the most important agricultural state. This year, it won the elections in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, the two most important cities in the state of Chihuauhua; in Durango city, the capital of Durango state; in Monclova, where the country's main engineering industry is located; and in Coahuila. Moreover, recently the PRI had to fall International Viewpoint 14 November 1983 back on its old method of election fraud to keep the PAN from winning in Mexicali, the capital of northern Baja Califor-
The problem for the PRI is not just that it has lost elections but also that the employers organizations, ments of the PRI itself, have openly or covertly supported the PAN. This development is important because it challenges one of the foundations of the system of political control, that is, the lack of par-
The one-party system produced the best results. However, it would be foolish to think that differences among the bosses are going to lead to a change in the form of political rule. The immense majority of the bourgeoisie is indebted to this system of political rule and is obviously not going to change it as long as it gets results in controlling the masses.
What is happening is that the extent of the economic crisis is generating serious wants an end to corruption among government officials and trade-union bureaucrats. It does not want any more nationany more social spending, and it does not it wants to leave the system of political rule as it is, although with some modern-
The problem is that it cannot have its cake and eat it too. wants to keep the present system of political rule but without corrupt bureaucrats and political bosses, and these two are mutually exclusive.
All this has generated a powerful political crisis in the country. because major sectors of the monopolist bourgeoisie are against the government's economic policy. It is because they want to assure that the present economic policy will be maintained and that there will not be a reversion to the former one, that is, nationalizations, state takeovers, big social spending. In this context, the bourgeoisie is playing a more active political role today than ever before and it is acting with a relative autonomy vis-a-vis the government.
THE BOURGEOISIE'S "ANTI-IMPERIALISM"
Traditionally, the Mexican government has enjoyed considerable room for maneuver with respect to U.S. imperialism. It has been able to use its foreign policy as a means for assuring tranquillity within the country. In this way, it has usually been able to control and channel strong anti-imperialist feeling that naturally exists in the Mexican people. However, now the situation is more complex. Once again, the grave economic crisis has begun to upset this political relationship.
government's policy toward Central America is putting a lot of pressure on the Mexican government. Reagan is demanding that Mexico take a more conservative stand toward Central America.
both Democrats and Republicans, have been coming to Mexico to press for more loyalty to Washington.
The problem is a simple one. The U.S.
banks can continue lending, but they insist not just on economic interest but also on political dividends. Thus, Mexico has never had a Yankee ambassador who intervened so much in Mexican affairs as the present one.
Mr. Gavin gives press which he administers lessons to the Mexican government about what sort of economic policy it should follow. He meets with the leaders of PAN and the church [to which the PAN is linked], and this is immediately seen to be support for this
He gives press conferences in which he says without the slightest compunction that he is sick of every catastrophe in Mexico being blamed on the
On one occasion, for example, Gavin
"If there is an economic crisis, the Mexicans blame the U.S., if there is an earthquake they blame the U.S., if it doesn't rain, they blame the U.S." the government let this provocation pass.
A few years ago, such a statement could have brought a great hue and cry from the government and all the PRI mass organizations would have declared Gavin "persona non grata." Today, the task of answering Gavin falls entirely on the left. It is the left that has to take up the defense of the nation.
Here another contradiction arises. imperialists want a greater subordination to their international policy, but above all, they want a stable Mexico with the left kept in a tiny minority. manding the sort of subordination they are pressing for undermines the fundamental basis of the Mexican government's policy for controlling the masses, that is, the certain degree of anti-imperialism that stood by sections of the bourgeoisie, which are demanding that Reagan take a more discreet policy toward the Mexican government. Nonetheless, this situation is increasing the pressure on the Mexican regime.
The workers have seen the need to fight back against the government's aggressive policy. The first means for this
However, the treacherous policy of the trade-union bureaucracy has enabled the government to attack and defeat every one of the unions the crisis is aiding the bosses and the government. the possibility of an isolated strike arises, the bosses and the government present the workers with an ultimatum: want higher wages, that means less jobs. It's one or the other." Overall, they were freezing wages at the same time they are laying off thousands of workers. The result has been grave defeats for key unions, such as the auto workers and steel work-
However, the pressure of the workers is generating movement
formation of the National Front to Defend Wages and Fight Shortages (Frente Nacional en Defensa del Salario y Contra la Carestia - FNDSCAD). This front includes the unions free of bureaucratic control, the National Coordinating Comof Educational Workers (more than 200,000 members), the National Coordinating Committee of the People's Urban Movement (CONAMUP), which organizes several tens of thousands of and the Plan de Ayala National Coordinating Committee, which embraces most of the independent peasant organizations. Although this front is a minority force in movement, it has been able to serve as a rallying point and a means of coordination for various struggles.
However, so far the most important response of the workers to the austerity drive has been the fight for the first national civic strike. It should be noted how this proposal arose.
In early February, a strike broke out in the Dina-Renault auto and truck factory. The union at this plant is part of the Independent Labor Confederation (Central Obrera Independiente - COI), an organization that stands outside the sphere of the bureaucratic confederations. led by an ex-Stalinist lawyer who is today strongly opposed to the PSUM, Juan Ortega Arenas.
The PRT has had a rather strong base in the COI for some years now. abled our comrades to play the leading the strike committee, which combativity On February 5, a demonstration was held in Mexico City The only party that took part was the PRT. The other left parties were against participating because of the differences with Ortega Arenas, whom they consider a union bureaucrat corrupt and reactionary as the charros.
For the PRT whatever might be wrong
FNDSCAC of the correctness of this initiative and to propose coordination with the COI. The second was to press the PSUM to join the work of building
At first, the PSUM was totally tical about participating and continued to put forward a policy of cooperation with the government. However, the ultrarightist character of the government's policy, as well as a certain process of radicalization going on in some sections of this party, forced the PSUM leadership after several months to come out in support of the national civic strike idea.
Subsequently, the COI broke away from the united campaign and decided to work on its own for a Workers Civic Strike. What this really reflected was that this project was getting out of the control
COI bureaucrats and they were frightened by the involvement of the left.
ground work had been done, and despite the CO's boycott, the idea of a civic strike kept its hold. We all realized that what we could accomplish would be more a national day protest than a civic strike. We knew that we were not going to bring out the heavy battalions of the working class but that we could achieve a successful day of protest that could lay the foundations for a more extensive action.
The PRT threw all its energies into this
All the TV time that is given to the PRT by the electoral law was devoted to the question of the civic strike.
programs, trade union leaders, peasants, shantytown dwellers explained how to take part in this action and help
On October 3, more than 100,000 people took part in a demonstration to build the strike. At this point, the government realized that the action was going to be bigger than it expected, and it arrested some people. But this did
On October 19, the National Coordinating Committee for the Civic Strike made the following balance sheet. The held a rally of 50,000 in 1982 to wind up it election campaign — a huge mass meet-
And the great majority of the people living there turned off their house lights from 7:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Then they marched to the city center banging on pots to protest the hunger that afflicts the country.
On this day also, the march of the Tzotzil Indians from Chiapas (the state bordering on Guatemala) came into Mexico City after a week on the roads. Some 700 Tzotzils, sick of the repression and hunger they suffer, decided to take part
As they passed through the outdoor market areas in Mexico City the small merchants went to meet them carrying baskets of food and medicine for them as a gesture of solidarity.
Almost all the country's primary and secondary schools were paralyzed. than 250,000 teachers announced that they were striking and called upon the parents to join them in the action. In all, on the day of protest there were more than sixty demonstrations in the Valley of Mexico.
The day of action was discussed in the Chamber of Deputies. The PRI, along with the PAN and two left parties that are accomplices of the PRI's policy the Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores and the Partido Popular Socialista - condemned the action and blamed the PSUM and the PRT for it. National TV and the papers also blamed the PRT and the PSUM for the action and accused them of wanting to destablize the country.
put a lot of pressure on the PSUM, inducing some of its leaders to take their distance from the strike.
### MAJOR ADVANCE TOWARD
UNITY IN ACTION
On October 19, we got two phone calls in the PRT national headquarters warning us that a bomb had been planted and that if we wanted war, we would get
These provocations were denounced with Ortega Arenas was no reason not to action was a success, going far beyond by the civic strike coordinating com-
In fact, during the strike a what was thought possible. More than a mittee, which declared that the Mexican front formed between the followers of this bureaucrat and the trade-union backed by the PRT. Obviously, we have no confidence in Ortega Arenas, but today trade-union unity
During the Mexico City demonstration, Ortega Arenas proposed holding a big national civic strike. clear that this had to be a united action, since he was perfectly aware that nobody has the strength on their own to undertake such an action.
demonstration coincided of the Central Committee of the PRT, which decided to make building a national civic strike the central axis of its activity. Thus, the PRT is the first party that supported this initiative, and in fact became the sponsor of this idea.
TOWARD THE NATIONAL CIVIC STRIKE
The first step was to convince the and a half people participated. The action extended to 28 of the 32 Mexican states.
states, including Puebla, and Sonora, highways were of Veracruz, Sinaloa, and Sonora, peasants occupied
But in the Valley of Mexico [the Mexico City area] the actions were far
Some 18 million people live in this area. In the working-class centers of Nezahualcoyotl, Naucalpan, rallies and demonstrations of more than 5 thousand people took place.
front of the Policia Federal de police body mainly responsible for the disappearance of more than 530 left activists, Frente Nacional Contra la Represion held a mass rally.
In the Tlalteloleo Housing Project -where hundreds of students were massacred 15 years ago and where the PRT government would have to take the responsibility for any attack on our party.
first protest action was a This is not only because of the dimensions it assumed but because it was a day of unity.
A few months ago it would have been impossible to think that we would see activists from the PSUM, the PRT, and other organizations working together, holding mass rallies, organizing demonstrations, blocking highways, and so
Moreover, we can also say that the day of action was a new success for the PRT, which had committed itself to advancing a united-front policy that promote the process of extending and centralizing the struggle. is to build the following action and to put forward a policy to get the workers to play the predominant role in
The next strike has to be built
International Viewpoint 14 November 1983
izing in self-defense, they were attacked by some members of the crowd and had their signs torn up.
Participants in the march included many wealthy opponents of the revolution as well as U.S Ambassador Anthony Quainton. Quainton, in keeping
New