Unrest and mistrust are growing in Mexico
Imperialist pressure on Mexico intensified with Trump’s blackmail and threats, such as the imposition of tariffs and blatant military interference in the treatment of migrants, the extraction of drug traffickers, and attacks on ships off the coast and even on Mexican beaches. Claudia Sheinbaum’s government—despite its rhetoric “in defense of sovereignty”—constantly yields to these pressures and reproduces them on the exploited sectors of Mexican society.
Mexican society has accumulated tremendous economic inequality and social injustice over many decades. Throughout our history, there have been enormous uprisings, revolutions, and constant resistance. The most recent upswell began in 2014: the people of Mexico once again began to confront this injustice. The trigger was undoubtedly the crime of the state against the Ayotzinapa 43. [This regards the 43 students from a rural teachers’ college who disappeared after their buses were stopped by police in the state of Guerrero. The students were on their way to Mexico City to commemorate the anniversary of the 1968 government massacre of student protesters at Tlatelolco.] The immense wave of indignation and mobilizations produced a radical change in the situation.
These actions were followed by the teachers’ strike against the neoliberal “education reform” in 2016 and, in that context, the massacre of Nochixtlan [in which at least eight people were killed after police opened fire on a group of striking teachers]. A high point in this process was the massive uprising against the “Gasolinazo” (gasoline price hike) in 2017, when hundreds of popular assemblies and local rebellions were organized and hundreds of thousands took to the streets throughout Mexico shouting “Peña out!”
The big oligarchs—whom López Obrador [the former president, known as “AMLO”] referred to as the “power mafia” or the “predatory minority”—were frightened and decided to “take off some rings so as not to lose their fingers.” And so they appealed to López Obrador himself to embody the “hope of Mexico.” They put aside the fact that in 2006 they had stigmatized AMLO as a “danger to Mexico.” And in case they had any doubts, AMLO explained to Mexico’s leading bankers, gathered at the palatial Hotel Prince in Acapulco, that if it wasn’t him, “Who will tie up the tiger?”
And so it was, the “tiger” was not only tamed but hypnotized! Today, with the six-year term over and in the “Second Phase” of the “Fourth Transformation,” the palliative assistance to the sectors most submerged in misery—which were received with relief and blessings at the beginning of the last six-year term—no longer compensate for the unrest of other large sectors of workers and the exploited, who generate enormous wealth with long weekly hours and cannot escape poverty.
Scholarships and other forms of assistance have not solved the lack of prospects for the majority of young people: with informal jobs, job instability, or “junk” contracts that violate the law and all labor rights, without social security or benefits, long working hours with no respect for end times or breaks, no access to their own housing, and difficulties in paying rent due to low wages. There is also the frustration of those who, with great sacrifices for their families, have completed their studies and cannot find work even close to their specialty, but only precarious odd jobs.
The expectations for improvement generated by AMLO’s government are beginning to turn into disappointment, uncertainty, and mistrust. The popular “hope” is turning into anguish and apathy and is beginning to give way to weariness. This disappointment has not yet led to mass action by the exploited, due to the brutal restraint of the government-run yellow unions, and also because the masses distrust the rancid right wing that is now a “rabid opposition.”
Why is this happening? It is because the changes were superficial and cosmetic, not profound. The president changed and the ruling party changed, but the regime did not change, which was and continues to be at the beck and call of the oligarchs. To make matters worse, many hated figures from the PRI [Partido Revolucionario Institucional, in governmental power from 1929 to 2000] and PAN [Partido Acción Nacional, the right-wing party that held power from 2000 to 2012] jumped ship like “grasshoppers” to join the ruling Morena party. Despite the slogan “For the good of all, first the poor,” it was the big tycoons who were the first to double their fortunes.
Nor did the country’s semi-colonial subordination change. The external debt grew to almost half (49.9%) of the Gross Domestic Product. The yoke of NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement], signed in 1992, which proved to be an instrument for plundering the country’s wealth and ruining the peasantry, was reinforced with the signing of the USMCA in 2018. On the other hand, the interference of the DEA and Trump himself continues to grow in relation to his supposed “fight against drug trafficking.” The sleazy imperialist magnate is no stranger to questions of collusion of organized crime, and always is ready with an excuse when the complicity of governors, mayors, deputies, and senators is exposed.
Nov. 15 march in Mexico City manipulated by right wingers
Some of the same oligarchs who increased their fortunes during AMLO’s six-year term are now using their powerful media outlets to manipulate the justified popular unrest and the expressions of anger of broad sectors of the middle classes in the countryside and the city.
This sums up the essence of the march organized under the banner of a supposed “Generation Z” [occasioned by the assassination of Carlos Manzo, the mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, who was known for authorizing the use of force against criminal gang members]. They tried to manipulate it and give it a direction as ultra-reactionary as their own capitalist interests. And in reality, they are working against the interests of the majority of the protesters themselves, even if the protesters haven’t realized it yet. It is a replica of what has happened before in other countries across Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador. Faced with the failure of governments that call themselves “progressive” or even “leftist,” here too, the old reactionary political sectors that ruled Mexico for more than 80 years feel that “the time for their revenge” has come.
It is not the purpose of this article to describe the composition of the march, although it does bear noting that the “Generation Z” itself was not visible. Nor will we focus on the reasons for the anger against the owner of Banco Azteca and the Electra commercial network, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, who refuses to pay taxes owedfor many years, amounting to almost $3 billion. Salinas Pliego was one of those who supported AMLO in the election campaign, which is why his bank received favors from those in power during the last six-year term. Now, instead of paying his debts to the state, he prefers to spend millions on manipulating the opposition media.
Nor will we dwell too much on the “evidence” presented by Luisa María Alcalde, president of Morena, regarding the contract that the PAN signed with a young man from “Generation Z,” the organizer of the march on Saturday, Nov. 15. Nor do we believe it is productive to delve into the rabbit holes of so many other stunts and provocations. Because they are part of the “dirty war” between the same parties of the rotten regime that serves the capitalist oligarchs and in no way serves “the poor.” We denounce this fight between exploiters in which they use the exploited as pawns. For us, the real struggle is not between the initials “4T or Z.” It is the struggle of the exploited and oppressed against all exploiters and oppressors!
The legitimate struggles of various social sectors
We support with all our modest strength the direct actions of sectors such as the strike and sit-in by CNTE teachers over the lack of response to their demands—supported by the majority of workers in different sectors—for the repeal of the neoliberal ISSTE Law of 2007, for a solidarity-based pension system, and for a larger budget for education, health, and social security.
The blockades by thousands of farmers in several states, harmed by the USMCA and fed up with the parasitism of the cartels that collect their own criminal “taxes” from them, have a major economic and social impact in Mexico. The organizations that make up the coalition called for a new road blockade and joint action with truck drivers. They are fighting against large intermediaries such as “Maseca” and other corporations, demanding a support price for corn, whose price is set on the Chicago Stock Exchange and is subsidized in the U.S.
Meanwhile, outrage is growing among the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the floods in Veracruz and other states due to the neglect of governments at all levels and the uncertainty of Pemex workers in Poza Rica in the face of the paralysis of the production plant as a result of the destruction caused by the floods. In this context of environmental collapse, the struggle of the water technicians of SITIMTA stands out. They are resisting in defense of the human right to water against plans to privatize water resources in the service of transnational corporations, such as soft drink and beer companies, or large landowners, and against the growing contamination of aquifers by Pemex and other extractive corporations.
In this context of growing tensions, the trigger that inflamed the masses of Michoacán was the point-blank murder of Carlos Manzo, the municipal president of Uruapan who was confronting the cartels and also the Michoacán governor from Morena, Alfredo Ramírez Bedoya. This mayor, who rose through the ranks of Morena, of which he was a federal deputy, broke away, ran as an independent candidate, won, and was preparing to run for governor. As if there were not enough reasons for outrage, scandals of collusion with drug traffickers involving some notorious Morena figures, such as Senator Adán Augusto—very close to AMLO—and other high-ranking Navy officers, relatives of the former SEMAR secretary involved in fiscal and hydrocarbon “huachicol” (fuel theft), have come to light.
The government has not resolved any of these demands, but it does comply with the demands of imperialism and the local oligarchs who impose plans to deepen the exploitation and plundering of the country. All these failures and grievances are changing the political situation within the country. We do not intend here to give a definitive opinion on an unfinished and still incipient process. But one thing is clear: the “second phase of the fourth transition” is showing cracks.
We need to achieve political independence for workers
The only way to achieve social justice and national independence and not fall back into false alternatives or be used as unwitting instruments in power struggles between the owners of big money is to build an independent political alternative for workers, one that leads the struggles of all the exploited and aims not only to demand from the bosses’ government a share of the wealth we produce, but also to establish a workers’, peasants’, and popular government.
This struggle cannot and must not be only that of the workers and people of Mexico, but instead must be an international struggle, building mutual solidarity among workers throughout the American continent to recover national sovereignty in the face of Trump’s threats and blackmail. We who are grouped together in the Corriente Socialista de los Trabajadores (Socialist Workers’ Current) in Mexico are committed to this task, and from our newspaper, FORJA Socialista, we call on you to join us in this work.
Photo: Teachers, members of the CNTE in Michoacán, march in Mexico City.
