The PRT in parliament relations between the PRI and the trade union bureaucracy. The very powerful trade union movement in
Mexico is dominated by a bureauunde inclu wom cand cracy which is directly linked to the PRI. But this bureaucracy did not come to power simply by crushing the left in the union. It came to power because at one time economic conditions in Mexico allowed the Mexican government to make social espe and most inde
W draw oper
ON JULY 7, 1985, legislative elections were held in Mexico (see
International Viewpoint, July 29, 1985). In those elections, the
Mexican section of the Fourth International, the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores (PRT), made some important breakthroughs.
Despite widespread electoral fraud by the government, the PRT obtained, officially, more than 300,000 votes (1.7% of the votes expressed), which entitled it to six representatives in parliament.
Three years before in the presidential and legislative elections, the
PRT had failed to reach the quorum of 1.5% and its success in these elections is testimony to the party's involvement in all the different struggles across the country. It also demonstrates the economic and political crisis inside the country, a crisis which is rapidly undermining its 'stability'.
Below, Sergio Rodriguez, a leading member of the PRT outlines the conduct of the election campaign in an interview given just after the elections and before the results were fully known.
Partido Revolucionario tucional (PRI - in power since 1929)
presents itself as coming people, as the guardian of the spirit of the revolution but at the same time
Despite this and the fact that it is well-known that the election results will be fiddled as they have been before, this party is still in power and has been for the last 56 years! They are now saying that they have received
70 percent of the votes cast. These facts taken together are rather difficult to fathom.
The PRI did not get
70% of the votes. They might have picked up 55 to 56 per cent of votes cast but the turnout for the elections only about 45%. This means, therefore that the PRI continues to hang on to power with the support of only one quarter of the electorate.
I believe we are witnessing the most the crisis ever undergone by severe
PRI and this is expressed in four ways.
Firstly, the
PRI built itself a definite anti-imperialist image which, at the time, rested on its very real opposition to US interests.
22 to and economic concessions the workers. In exchange the trade union kept social bureaucracy peace and made propaganda for the PRI. Once the PRI began to adopt a policy of austerity, the trade union leadership had to take its distance in order to survive, although it only did so in half-hearted manner. Since a very then, the dissatisfaction of the workers with the trade union leadership has increased.
Finally, for several decades now the PRI has relied on the mobilisation of the masses to support
This doesn't happen any more.
Now you hear people everywhere in the marketplaces and on buses complaining about the government.
A large section of the population still vote for the PRI, but it can no longer rely on popular mobilisation.
So there is a crisis of the system of rule of the PRI without any real
The PRI were saying to the masses;
left alternative to the crisis develop-
If the US takes retaliatory measures ing. Popular discontent is widespread against us we are counting on you but it is not as yet expressed in an organised way, except in certain imperialism": But in the last sectors. This has been achieved, for years the Mexican government, under independent example, with the leadership of the PRI, has aligned peasant organisations in which the itself more and more with the econ-
PRT plays an important role such omic and international policies of as the
US imperialism.
de
Ayala (CNPA) which organises
500,000 peasants. (1) The problem is relationship between the PRI and the that within the industrial working
Mexican bourgeoisie.
In the frameclass no such organised class struggle work of the "Pri-ite' state machine current exists. The bureaucracy still and under its protection, the bourcontrols the trade union movement.
grown in strength and
So the proletariat is not yet in the is more and more tied up with US leadership in the country, it has not capitalism, since the Mexican econyet proved itself to be the caudillo omy is very dependent on the USA.
(commander) linking up with the
This bourgeoisie wants to see an to present a workers' peasantry stronger alignment alternative.
Mexican state with the USA. On the other hand it wants further ration-
Q. Did you present parliamentary alisation of Mexican capitalism. For lists in every area of the country and how were they made up?
some of the benefits that the peasants
A.
We presented lists in every have received as a result of the area, yes. They of were made up
Mexican revolution. Agrarian reform
850 candidates for parliamentary in Mexico has meant that the vast representation. If you add our partimass of the peasantry have access to the land. On these issues an import-
April 10,
1985, the Coordinacion
Nacional Plan de Avala organised a 50,000.
ant section of the Mexican bourstrong march of peasants to the capital.
would prefer the geoisie
Mexican
This was one of several regional demonstro government to switch its policies tions involving a total of one million people.
International Viewpoint 16 September 1985 we lies l gave orga is lin the whic shan peas the 198 the in 1 wer littl a lo tion an pres Ibar agai righ cant and cam cent star we stat encE cam we agai men foru tune mas resp to mas the sati
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Interview with Sergio Rodriguez
ARRIBA LOS
DE ABAJO
International Viewpoint 16 September 1985 cipation in certain regional elections, the total number of candidates is
One third of the candidates were under thirty years old. Our lists included the largest number of women. We had lots of working class especially in electricity, rail, textiles, and in the finishing industries. mostly we had mass leaders of the independent peasant organisations.
We took a great deal of care in drawing up the lists and as we had opened them up to mass organisations we were able to call electoral assemblies locally to finalise the lists. We also gave an important role to the mass organisation in the urban areas which is linked to our organisation, that is the Bloque Popular Revolucionario, which organises the fightback in the shantytowns and the popular quarters.
Q. You say that certain peasants' organisations participated in the PRT campaign. Yet wasn't the 1985 campaign more centralised under the party banner than was the case in 1982?
A. Yes, of course. In 1982, we were still a small party with very little electoral experience. We had a lot of nerve, but no real organisational roots. In 1982, we organised
PRT an electoral campaign around the presidential candidature of Rosario. Ibarra, the main figure in the fight against the government for democratic rights. In 1985, Rosario was again a 'Down with those at the top' Up with those at the bottom' (DR) candidate in the legislative elections and she did a series of meetings in the campaign, but this time it was less centred on her candidature. At the start of the 1982 election campaign, we had members in 15 of the 32 states and we stood 171 candidates.
There is also a political differbetween the 1982 and 1985 campaigns. In 1985, in the elections, decided to conduct a campaign against all the policies of the government and of imperialism. We put forward a programme which was in tune with the preoccupations of the masses and which provoked a popular corresponded to the level of consciousness of the
Also, this campaign characterised by its firmer roots in the society and by its superior organisational capacity and more developed response from the membership.
Q. What were your main slogans?
A. We had two main slogans; "Arriba los de abajo!" ('up with those who are down!') and Democracy, wages and land'.
Before we would have simply taken up the slogan for a workers peasants government' but this was not the best way of expressing we want. The Mexican people are very critical of the government, they are against corruption, but they not understand all corruption of the PRI and the exploitation in the capitalist system as a whole.
The PRI mounted its campaign around the theme of 56 years of stability and social peace. We said;
of exploitation corruption! country should be brought down!' This slogan was very popular. For example in different regions of the country the peasants composed three songs around the theme of the campaign, 'Arriba abajo!" And these songs are becoming more and more popular.
were other slogans which have more of a relation with social and economic issues. We put forward the demand for the nonrecognition of the foreign debt. This
La cross between the demand for a moratorium and the non- recoof the debt. We explained that the foreign debt had already been paid by profits made in Mexico by international capitalism capital abroad. And we said: If someone has to pay this it should be the bourgeoisie and the Mexican government who used and organised external borrowing and the flight of capital? We also demanded: Who has been consulted about this debt? Who was consulted about renegotiating it? And if we repay it, what effects will this have on the standard living of the masses?'
We also put forward anti-imperialist
'Defend the country understood that this defence could not be achieved through an alliance sections of it or even with the government. Because these people are in a position of total subordination to the interests of US imperialism, especially on the economic level. The struggle for the defence of the country means that the proletariat must act as the *caudillo' and must place itself at the head of the oppressed and exploited in this country and must direct their national allies, the government and the Mexican bourgeoisie.
We also put forward a whole series of demands democracy. The first thing we said was that there is no such thing as democ-
23
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5.2
International Viewpoint 16 September 1985 in the abstract. The most тасу right is the important democratic peasants.
eat, to earn a decent living right to work and the wage, the right to campaign, right to adequate housing. Thus we the left, question of democracy on posed the very in the context of class, in the context of the interests of the working class are merely and the other oppressed classes, also giving a social character to democratic ant. On the important to get
The PRT also, of course, posed the question of democracy political context, at a given time.
point of view of democratic rights in general, democratic rights in either.
that is in the factories, end of the in agricultural work as well as in the where people live and in the
It should not be to the PRI coercion instituted by the government
An electoral campaign is not people who just a series of slogans, it is also a inside and around the party?
We adopted a campaign strategy that
This plan covered all the main issues:
the content of the electoral programme, the make-up of the tell are not
We the rhythm of activity, etc. The fundamental question was how to solution to this the maximum number of to peasant problem.
our people who were not yet in the party. In order to do this we up women's committees or committees in the shantytowns with the job of supporting women or inhabitants of the size of the party, in statistical shantytowns who were on terms, and of the sort of things you our lists without necessarily being achieved in the election campaign?
members of the party.
sympathisers. We have people in al the 32 states in Mexico. Of cour there is an uneven developmen of the party. In certain states we are very strong, like in Sonora, Baja California, Morelos, Colima and Mexico City. In others, like or Quintana Roo, we are weak. As far as public meetings go we had more than 100,000 people participating. At our final rally for central Mexico on June 15, 1985, we counted 25,000 people in the Zocalo, the main square in Mexico City, of which about 1,500 came from the state of Puebla, a six or seven-hour bus journey away. At the final rally for the northern region, in the state of Chihuahua, there were 6,000 and at the one in there were 4,000. We made a big effort with postering. In
City, for example, where we stood 40 candidates, we printed 3,000 copies of a personalised poster for each candidate, that is 120,000 altogether. We should also add all the general posters. That would be, of Mexico City alone, 500,000 posters!
Q. What strikes you when you go round Mexico City is the huge number of wall murals that the party has done. That must have been a lot of work?
A. Yes. You must realise that only the PRT, the United Socialist Party of Mexico (PSUM - the Mexican communist party) and the Mexican Workers Party (PMT - a radical nationalist party), put up their own mural slogans. All the other parties pay people to do this work. In Mexico City people talked about the 'war of the walls' because there was a permanent battle to get patio
A of repr the City pub lead of t cam that offi mor part ener ship the inde in five atta of kille It i tow kill clai PR Mer fror of inc the not rea cou pol beginning
On the other hand, we tried to election campaign get the maximum number of contacts members and nearly 3,000 organised
Election poster with Emiliano Zapata (DR) representatives at the polling booths and at the count. In Mexico City, we were represented by nearly 4,000 people in the polling stations! This is important because it is a way of getting contacts to identify with the party. It is a huge step forward when you realise the extent of the control aspect of life. It was also good for the party because it limited the possibility for fraud. Furthermore we managed to organisations, particular amongst supported us, to really put a lot into the election campaign.
The party put in a great deal of effort to achieve this. We sent full-timers out into certain areas to launch the campaign. New branches of the party were set up at that time. This was most notably the case in the north of the country where, in one area we recruited one hundred 24 access to the walls and to protect the slogans you put there. It takes two or
PRT an an in for the left our it this exa has the alm 299 tov the On vot 10 thi the by bo the