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m e x i c o ' s r e v o l u t i o n

Viva la R e vo luc in! Part 2The New Bonapartism, 1910-1940WHILE THE MOST v io len t s tage o f the Mex ican Revo lu t ionwas ove r by 1920, the c ou nt ry faced a series of n ew crises inthe 1930s. The era ope ne d in 1928 with the assassination offo rm er Pres ident Alvaro Obre gn, k i lled by a Catho l ic m i l i tan topposed to the secu lar iz ing Revo lu t ion in the fo rmer ly off i-c ia l ly Catho l ic country .bre go n , w ho had se rve d aspres ident f ro m 1920-24, had thr ow nthe country in to po l i t ica l pan ic byannounc ing that he wou ld ru n a sec-ond t ime fo r the pres idency. Sincethe Revo lu t ion had been fought toend Prof i r i D iaz 's decades- longpractice of presidential self-succes-s ion , that move had ou traged many.While the Catholic assassin had beenapprehended, some believed that LuisN. Morones, head o f the RegionalC o n fe de ra t io n o f Me x ican Wo rk e rs(CROM) and one o f the reg ime 'smain backers, had been the inte l lec-tu a l mu rde re r i n o rde r to advan ceh is o w n amb i t i o n s . The O bre gnassass inat ion shook the new revo-lu t ionary reg ime to i ts foundat ions,threaten ing to throw the nat ion back in to c iv i l war.

Ou tgo ing Pre sident Plu tarco Elias Calles, Obregn 's p r in -c ipal co l laborato r in the ru l ing Sonoran Dynasty, as the ru l inggroup was know n, m oved dec is ive ly to preve nt the po l i t ica lcr is is fro m leading to a new per iod o f con f i ict. In 1929, Callessu mmo n e d the co u n t ry ' s po l i t i ca l e l i t e f ro m e ve ry s ta te tocreate a new revo lu t ionary par ty that wou ld have the soc ia lsuppor t and the po l i t ica l leg i t imacy to ru le the country .The Nat ional Revo lu t ionary Par ty (PNR) brought a l l o f thevar ious revo lu t ionary fac t ions in to one po l i t ica l o rgan izat ion ,subord inat ing t o a large degree the i r reg ional , soc ial o r per-sonal interests to the goals of national stabil i ty and capital istrec on stru c t ion .The PNR was, however, pr inc ipal ly a fus ion o ffac t ions and a par ty o f po l i t ica l func t ionar ies w i thout a broadbase o f suppor t .The Bonapartist State-Party

The re-organ izat ion o f the ru l ing par ty sparked the las tgreat rebe l l ions o f the per io d. In the no r the rn s ta te o fSonora, Gonzalo Escobar led a qu ick ly defeated rebe l l ion f romwith in the Sonora Dynasty . Cal les ' new government a lso soonentered in to conf l ic t w i th the Catho l ic Church and wi th i tsparishioners in the western states of Jalisco and Zacatecas.The Cristiada (o r C r i s te ro War ) as the re be l l i o n came to be

OUR CENTENNIAL DtSCUSSION of theMexican Revolution began in our previous issue.A g a i n s t th e C u r r e n t 47 (July-August 2010).The first part of Dan La Botz's historical essayappeared there, along with Olivia Gall's article onthe significance of the refuge given by the LzaroCardenas government to the exiled Russianrevolutionary Leon Trotsky. In this issue we aredelighted to publish contributions from AdolfoGilly and James Cockcrofi on the charaaer ofthe R evolution, as well as Scott Campbell andFred Rosen on dimensions of Mexico's currentcrisis which will be continued in our nextissue, particularly with regard to Oaxaca. Thanksagain to guest editors Micah Landau and ReneRojas. To follow Dan LaBotz's campaign for U.S.Senate in Ohio on the Socialist Party ticket, visitv^wv/.danlabotz.com.

c a l l e d , w h i c h s a w a r m i e s a s l ar g e as 5 0 , 0 00 m e n i n t h e f ie l da g a i n s t t h e r e v o l u t i o n a r y g o v e r n m e n t , l a s t e d f r o m 1 9 2 6 u n t i li ts f ina l gasp in the early 1930s.C a t h o l i c p e a s an t s , s o m e o f w h o s e v e r y m i x e d g o a lsi n c l u d e d b o t h t h e r e s t o r a t i o n o f t h e C a t h o l i c C h u r c h a n da Z a p a t i s t a - s t y l e l a n d r e f o r m , w e r ep u t d o w n b y C a l l e s a n d h i s l e a d i n gG e n e r a l , J o a q u n A m a r o , u s i n g t h em o s t b r u t a l m e t h o d s . ' O v e r o n em i l l i o n M e x i c a n s f l e d t h e v i o l e n c e , as

m a n y a s h a d f l e d d u r i n g t h e v i o l e n ty e a r s o f t h e R e v o l u t i o n i t s e l f , m o s tt o t he f o r m e r M e x i c a n t e r r i t o r y t h a th a d b e c o m e t h e U . S . S o u t h w e s t .D u r i n g t h e p e r i o d f r o m 1 9 2 0 - 2 8 ,O b r e g n a n d C a l l e s h a d b e e n t h eB o n a p a r t i s t b i c e p h a l i c s t r o n g m a n o ft h e M e x i c a n R e v o l u t i o n , t h e caudillo-i n - d u p l i c a t e w h o h a d b e e n a b l e t or i s e a b o v e a n d b e c o m e r e l a t i v e l ya u t o n o m o u s f r o m a l l o f t h e c o u n -t r y ' s s o c i a l c l as s e s , as t h e y c r e a t e dt h e n e w s t a t e . W i t h t h e c r e a t i o n o ft h e P N R , t h e i n d i v i d u a l B o n a p a r t i s tl e a d e r g a v e w a y t o s o m e t h i n g n e w :a B o n a p a r t i s t p a r t y - s t a t e . C a ll e s m o d e l e d t h e n e w r e g i m e i np a r t a f t e r B e n i t o M u s s o l i n i ' s f a s c i s t g o v e r n m e n t i n I t a l y , t r y i n gt o f i t t h e M e x i c o R e v o l u t i o n i n t o I t a l y ' s c o u n t e r - r e v o l u t i o n a r yi n s t i t u t i o n s . W h i l e t h r e e m e n E m i l i o P o r t e s G i l , P as c u alO r t i z R u b i o a n d A b e l a r d o L. R o d r i g u e z w o u l d s e r v e asp r e s i d e n t s b e t w e e n 1 92 9 a n d 1 93 4, C a l l e s w as t h e p o w e rb e h i n d t h e t h r o n e d u r i n g t hi s p e r i o d , w h i c h c a m e t o b ek n o w n a s t h e Maximato.

Al t h o u g h t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s a n d m o s t f o r e i g n i n v e s t o r sd e c l i n e d t o i n v e s t i n M e x i c o , t h e e c o n o m y , i n i ti a ll yd e v a s t a t e d b y t h e R e v o l u t i o n , h a d b e g u n t o g r o w a g ai ni n 1 916 a n d c o n t i n u e d t h r o u g h 1 92 6. T h e n e w r e v o l u t i o n a r ys t a t e o f O b r e g n a n d C a l l e s w o r k e d i n t h e 1 9 2 0 s t o r e b u i l dt h e f o u n d a t i o n s o f a c a p i ta l is t e c o n o m y : t h e b a n k i n g s y s t e m ,s t a t e f in a n c e s a n d t a x a t i o n , c u s t o m s a n d d u t i e s , a s w e l l asa g r i c u l t u r a l p o l i c y a n d i n d u s t r i a l r e l a t i o n s .

T h e c o u n t r y ' s b o u r g e o i s i e , h o w e v e r , r e s i s t e d t h e s t a t e ' sa t t e m p t t o d o m i n a t e t h e e c o n o m y , j u s t as w o r k e r s r e s i s te dt h e c a p i t a l is t s a n d l a n d l o r d s . A l l o f t h i s m a d e t h e r e - e s t a b l i s h -m e n t o f t h e c a p i t a l i s t e c o n o m i c o r d e r e x t r e m e l y d i f f i c u l t .P r o g r e s s w a s s l o w a n d t h e w o r l d e c o n o m y ' s v i c i s s i t u d e s o n l ye x a c e r b a t e d t h e p r o b l e m s . ^T h e U . S. s t o c k m a r k e t c r a s h o f 1 92 9 d e t o n a t e d t h e G r e a t

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1921 CGT action opposing thePlutarco Elias Calles an d Luis N.

Depression that spread around theworld and also engulfed Mexico.Some sectors of the Mexicaneconomy had already gone intocrisis.The oil ind ustry had taken adownturn in 1921, partly a resultof conflicts between the state andthe foreign oil com panies, andpartly a result of the exhaustionof existin g we lls. In 1927, evenbefore the Crash, the Mexicaneconomy in general began to stag-nate; by 1929 it was in decline.

W ith the crash, the prices ofmetals among Mexico's mostimportant exports also fel lprecipitously. Mexico's GreatDepression lasted roughly from1927 to 1932. The fact that manyMexicans lived from subsistenceagriculture meant that the world-wide economic depression affect-ed the m less. By 1933, the e con -omy began to recuperate; thisrevival would form the basis for the social movements andpolitical changes ofthe 1930s.'Post-Revolutionary Social Movements

W h i l e th e most violent stage of the Mexican Revolut ion ha dended by 1920, the coming t o p o we r of the new revolut ion-ary government under th e leadership of the Sonoran Dynastyraised th e hopes an d aspirations o f mill ions. Consequent ly, th e1920s saw the growth of widespread movements o f peasants,workers and the urban poor, some attempting t o push th erevolut ionary state t o realize their dreams, others concludingthat it was noth ing more than a new capitalist state an d w o r k -ing t o over th row it .

The most powerful agrar ian reform movements developedin the western state o f Michoacan and in the Gulf State o fVeracruz. The labor movement wa s most mil i tant and radi-cal among industrial and service workers in Mexico City, th era i l road workers, and the pet ro leum workers on the GulfCoast an d docks of Veracruz and Tampico. The left also led animportant rent str ike by the urban poo r in Veracruz. Whi le thenew state promoted i ts own labor union federat ion theRegional Confederat ion o f Mexican Wo rkers ( CR OM ) andat tempted t o take cont ro l of the various peasant leagues,many of the most radical workers gravitated to the anarchistGeneral Confederat ion o f W o r k e r s (C G T ) and some to thenew Mexican Communist Par ty (PCM).

The struggles between th e state and its official unions an dthe radicals was brutal an d bloody, and by 1924 PresidentO b r e g n an d CROM leader Luis N . Morones ha d succeededin crushing th e rai lroad unions, th e anarchist street ca r w o r k -ers in Mexico City, an d marginalizing the CGT. Small groupsof radical workers, however, survived in all of the impor tan tindustr ies an d urban centers. W it h the economic recovery,they began t o organize an d take act ion.

Calles, th e jefe Mximo of the Revolut ion, cont inued t opull the strings of the three president ial puppets dur ing th e10 SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2010

CROM and its dose relationship with the government, with coffins labeledMorones. C T M Archives

difficult and tumultuo us 1928-33 pe riod. Stil l seeking stability,his rubber stamp legislature lengthened the presidential termto six years; he then sought a candidate wh o wo uld serve ashis front man for the 1934-40 period.Various rival revolution-ary generals jostled for the p osition , but in the end Calleschose Gene ral Lzaro Crdenas. Crdenas, originally fro mMichoacan, had come up throug h the Con stitution alist ranksand had served not only in the revolutionary, but also in thepost-r evolu tionary conflicts. Calles had absolute confidencethat Crdenas would be his loyal minion. He was wrong.Lzaro Crdenas' S truggle w ith Calles

Though Calles' backing and the PNR political machinewould ensure his election, in the pre-election period Crdenastraveled throughout Mexico meeting with peasant and Indiancommun it ies, talking with work ers, and visit ing towns and cit-ies. Following his elec tion, to Calles' surprise. Crdenas beganto e xe rt his presidential authority, con structin g his own rulinggroup, reorganizing the commanders of the military districtsinto w hich the co un try was divided, and developing relationswit h labor unions and peasant leagues. Crdenas to ok up thebanner of social refo rm and even began to talk abo ut a social-ist Mexico.

The new dynamism in the Mexican government and thechange of direction toward the left brought responses fromall sides. Nicols Rodrguez, a form er V ill ista and Escobarista,organized lo s Dorodos, the Go lden O nes, to fight against afeared Commun ist-Jewish takeover. The Com mu nist Party,having, by the early 1930s, established a small but s olid orga ni-zation in Mex ico, also denounced the Crdenas govern men t.Then in their radical "th ird period," the Com munists cal led forthe government's revolutionary o verthr ow. The Dorados andthe Communists engaged in fights in the streets of MexicoCity, but Crdenas ignored both.'

More importantly, however, Calles himself began to orga-nize to remove Crdenas from the presidency, as he had inthe past imposed and deposed othe rs. W he n the newspapers

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reported that Calles had accused Crdenas of promot-ing "individual differences" among the revolutionaries andencouraging social chaos, the President called Calles an enemyof the revolutionary government and of the Mexican people;he encouraged a great popular mob ilization in suppo rt of hisadministration.

The labor m ovement ral lied to his defense. One impo rtantsupportive f igure was Vicente Lombardo Toledano, forme rlythe house intel lectual for Morones and the corrupt CROMunions. He had broke n free, visited the Soviet Un ion andreturned to Mexico a staunch ally of Soviet leader JosephStalin. Strangely eno ugh, althoug h s erving as Stalin's agent inLatin America and Mexico, Lombardo Toledano declined tojoin the Communist Party.

The Communist Party, meanwhile, having left its "thirdper iod" and entered the Popular Front per iod, also rallied tosup port Crdenas. They played an imp orta nt role in severalof the industrial unions. Fidel Velazquez, one of th e principalleaders of the Mexico City unions, also broug ht those unionsinto the pro-Crdenas column.Throughout the country peas-ant leagues rushed to support Crdenas in his struggle withCalles. Most strategically. Crdenas was able to maintain thesupport of most of the generals of the Mexican Army.

During 1935 and 1936, the peasant leagues joined togetherin what would later become the National Confederationof Peasants (CNC) and the labor unions formed theConfederat ion of Mexican Wo rkers (CTM). W i th the Army,the CT M and the CN C supporting him. Crdenas orderedCalles arrested and deported to the United States in 1936,along with many of his sup porte rs. The Mexican people byand large enthusiastically supported this destruction of theold political machine that had dominated the government for16 years. They hoped Crdenas w ou ld fu lfi l l the Revolution'spromises.

Wth the reins of power now firmly gathered inhis hands. Crdenas began to set a new direc-t ion . Through a series of dramatic actions takenbetw een 1936 and 1940, Crdenas w ou ld fulfill many of thegoals of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, transforming Mexicointo an altogether different country than it had been in thedays of P orfirio Daz. A t the same time , he would broaden anddeepen the structures of the state-party, through the "politicsof masses," drawing wo rke rs, peasants, the self-employed andpublic employees into the party.Crdenas encouraged the organization of unions, butinsisted that indu strial work ers , peasants, and other wo rke rseach have their ow n separate organizations. Thus industrial

worke rs had the Mexican Confederation of W orke rs (C TM ),peasants' the N ational C onfe dera tion of Peasants (C NC ), andthe self-employed and the public employees' the NationalConfederation of Popular Organizations (^CNOP). Crdenasthen reorganized the ruling party, changing its name to theParty of the M exican Revolution (PRM), based on the fou rconst ituent groups; the C TM , CN C, CN OP and the Army andoth er armed services. The new pa rty had deeper roo ts and afar broader reach than Calles' PNR, providing the regime w ithgreater strength, stability and flexibility.

The organization of the party thus excluded the Mexicanbourgeoisie, except for some of the generals who had in thecourse of the revolution used their positions to acquire land.

create business partnerships, or in other ways enrich the m -selves. Still most of th e capitalist class rema ined outs ide.T husthe state-party continued to have a Bonapartist character,rising above all the classes.The state itself, however, necessar-ily established relations and negotiated with capitalists as itdeveloped the banking system, industry and agriculture .

While Crdenas proved to be a political genius, Mexicoremained a fractious society. Conservatives feared the trans-formation of jacobin national ism into what seemed to beevolving into a kind of Mexican socialism. Many generalsresented the incorp oration of the Arm y into the rul ing party.Various regional leaders resisted C rdenas, and some co n-templated revolt. Given the tenuous nature of his politicalsuperiority. Crdenas' political strategy required that he con-tinue to push forward in order to keep the right off balance.

From the left Crdenas had nothing to fear.The CommunistParty, with few exceptions, supported Crdenas' policies.Theywould have preferred that Crdenas create an actual politicalfront and parliamentary coalition in which they could par-ticipate as a party, but w hen that failed to happen, they w erehappy enough to simply endorse the president's policies.

Crdenas established a kind of political partnershipwi th Stalin's m an, Vicente Lom bardo Toledano and let theLombardistas and Comunistas play a leading role in the labormo vem entTh e Secretariat of Education became peopled withCommunist officials and PCM leaders held some few posts insome other government departments, al l completely depen-dent on Cardenas' good wil l .The Great Reforms

W i t h m u c h o f p o p u la r s o c ie ty n o w o rg a n iz e d in to l a b o run ions and peasan t leagues , b ro ugh t toge the r in the Par tyo f the Me x ican Rev o lu t ion w i t h i ts s logan "F or a Soc ia lis tM e x ic o , " C rd en a s n o w u n d e r to o k to d e al w i th t h e c e n t ra li ss ue o f t h e R e v o lu t i o n : l a nd re f o rm . Th e w o r ld w id e d e p re s -s ion and consequen t fa i lu re o f many haciendas m a d e th ee l im ina t ion o f tha t anc ien t economic ins t i tu t ion eas ie r than i tm ig h t o th e rw is e h a v e been . W i th in j u s t a f e w y e a rs C rd e n a sd is t r ibu ted 45 mi l l ion ac res o f land to peasan ts th roughou tMex ico , abo u t a ten th o f tha t land taken f r om U.S. o r o th e rfo re ig n o wn e rs .

Carry ing ou t th is g rea t ag ra r ian re fo rm met res is tancef r om loca l po l i t ica l leaders , land lo rds and the i r gun men inmany s ta tes . Th is requ i red federa l in te rv en t ion on num erou soccas ions . Crdenas encou raged the o rga n iza t ion o f ag ra r iande fense leagues , d is t r ib u t ing a rm s to th ose loca l m i l i t ias t ha twe r e s o m e t im e s in c o rp o ra te d in to th e A rm y . Th e a g ra ria nre fo rm th u s p ro v id e d th e o c c a s io n fo r C rd e n a s to re m o v ere s i s ti n g c o n s e rv a t i v e o p p o n e n ts .Th e C rd e n a s g o v e r n m e n t d i s t r i b u te d h u n d re d s o f t im e smore land in the mid - to la te -1930s than a l l o f the p rev iousre v o lu t i o n a ry g o v e rn m e n ts . L a n d wa s g iv e n to m a le m e m b e rso f peasan t o r ind igenous commun i t ies in the fo rm o f ejidos,s ta te - leased land to be he ld in pe rpe tu i ty by them and the i rdescenden ts , based on th e p r inc ip le o f u su f ruc t , Zapa ta 's o ldslogan; th e l an d to t h o s e wh o wo rk i t .

O n the coas ts land was d is t r ibu t ed t o v i llages o f f isher -men and the i r fami l ies . W h i le th oug h t o f as be ing "co l lec t ive lyo w n e d , " ejido land was he ld in the fo rm o f ind iv idua l pa rce lsbe long ing to the ma le heads o f fami l ies .When fami ly l ines d iedou t , le f t , o r fo r so me ser ious o f fense were re mo ved f ro m th e

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communities, the land was to be redistributed among remain-ing members.

The distribution of land to the peasantry who stil l madeup the vast majority of Mexican society made Crdenas ahero in his home state of Michoacan, in the La Laguna regionin the no rth , and, for that matter, virtually thro ugho ut thecountry.The agrarian reform cemented the foundations of thenew Party of the Mexican Revolution and of the state that itruled, and established Crdenas' reputation for generations tocome . He was re ferred to as "Tata " or father, and was seen asthe new father of his country, or better, the father of a newcountry.

Wth the labor unions and peasant leagues havingbeen recognized, and the land having been distr ib-uted t o the peasants. Crdenas was now able t otake on the greatest revolution ary challenge: the British- andU.S.-owned oil industry. Mexico's oil industry, located on theGulf C oast, was dom inated by Royal Dutch Shell and StandardOi l , the two largest and most powerful petroleum corpora-tions of the e ra. Both the United States and Great Britainwere world powers looming on Mexico's northern borderand nearby in Central America and the C aribbean, their pos-sessions protected by fleets of battleships and cruisers.

Mexico's concerns about foreign intervention were wellfounde d. It had, of course , lost about half of its ter rit or y tothe United States in a series of wars and concessionary trea-ties betw een 1836-54, and had been invaded and occupie dby France wit h B ritish complicity betwe en 1862-66. Dur ingthe late 19th and early 20th centuries the United States hadseized Cuba and Puerto Rico from Spain, taken Panama fromColombia, and been involved in long-term occupations inHa iti and N icaragua. Just as the Romans had on ce called th eMediterranean "mare nostrum," so too the Americans hadcome to consider the Caribbean to be "o ur lake."

The United States had invaded Mexico twice during theMexican Revolution, once by sea in Veracruz on the GulfCoa st In 1914, landing 3,000 occupying t ro op s, and a secondtime by land in Chihuahua in 1916 when General "B lac kja ck"Pershing led 4,000 M arines on a failed exp edition to captureFrancisco "P anch o" Villa.

After the adoption of the Mexican Constitution of 1917with i ts Art ic le 27 proclaiming that the people ow ned thecoun try's sub soil, foreign po wers became increasingly wo r-ried that the government would seize the foreign-owned oi lindustry. Thr oug hou t the 1920s U.S. fleets and tr oo ps hadbeen mobilized on Mexico's borders in order to intimidatei ts gove rnmentNationalization of the Oil Industry

Crdenas calculated, correct ly as it turned o u t , that wi thEurope about to be embroi led in W or ld W ar I I and the UnitedStates likely to be drawn into th e war, the great powers w ouldno t be prepared t o undertake a new war in Mexico.

The occasion fo r the nat ionalizat ion of the o i l industry waspresented by a conf l ic t between pet ro leum workers and theforeign companies. Mexican o il workers ha d been organizingsince th e 1910s, initially facing repre ssion fr om the o i l com -panies and the dictatorship o f Porf ir io Daz, an d later dealingwi th th e vacil lat ing support of the revolut ionary federal andstate governments. Radical labor activists from the Industrial12 SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2010

W o r k e r s of the W o r l d , th e anarchist General Confederat ionof Mexican W ork ers , and later th e Mexican Communist Partyhad always been at the center o f these ef forts both in the o i lf ields and on the docks.

Once Crdenas came t o power , the o i l workers receivedmore constant suppor t f rom th e government in their organiz-ing efforts and by 1935 succeeded in bringing all of the regionsworkers together in to th e Mexican Pet ro leum W orke rs Union(STPRM). Du ring th e mi d- 1930s, o il worker str ikes against th eforeign-owned companies grew, leading t o conf l icts overseenby th e Federal Labor Board (JFCA) and the Secretary of Labor.In 1936 th e STPRM, n ow backed by the new Confederat ion o fMexican Workers (CTM), s t ruck, its total economic demandamount ing to 14 million pesos.

The foreign-owned companies responded by saying thatthey could n o t afford to pay such a sum. Th e conf l ict thenbecame a mat ter fo r the Labor Board and the Federal gov-ernment , and the company was forced t o open its books.The government found that the company could easily paysuch a sum but the companies decided t o take th e mat ter t othe cour ts . O n March I, 1938 the Mexican Supreme Cour truled that th e companies could an d must meet the workers 'demands.

O n March 18, 1938, wit h the companies still refusing to pay.President Lrazo Crdenas went on the radio an d nat ional-ized them. H e agreed to pay the companies what they ha dest imated to be the value o f their property. Since this esti-mate was for tax-paying purposes, it was an amount fa r belowtheir real value. To pay the compensat ion. Crdenas calledupon all Mexicans to go to their local government of f ices an dcon tr ibu te. Tens o f thousands o f Mexicans came, f rom lit t lechildren with their pennies to wealthy women with their go ldnecklaces an d earrings, each giving what they could in o r d e rto cont ro l the ir own oi l and the ir o w n country.^

Crdenas ha d foreseen cor rect ly : W ith Europe about t ogo to wa r and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt involved inassisting th e All ies, the o i l companies were lef t in the lurch."Social ist" Education

Crdenas also dealt with the other major issue of theMexican Revolution: education. Before the Revolution, theCathol ic Church provided education for Mexico's people. Butthe Catholic school system was largely confined to majorcities, reached only a small percentage of the population,and its curriculum was intellectually wanting. In 1920 AlvaroO breg n named left-wing ph ilosopher Jos Vasconcelos thefirst rector of the Auton om ous University and then Secretaryof Education, and the coun try's educational tra nsfo rm ationbegan.'

Vasconcelos held the view that the Mexican governmentshould educate and uplift Mexico's masses through literacycampaigns to teach the Spanish language (at the time a largepercentage of the Mexican population in rural areas stil l spokeonly their indigenous languages) and should base the curricu-lum on European, especially Spanish, litera ture . Vasconcelosand his literacy brigades would throw cheap governmentedit ions of Cervantes, Dante and Hom er into the trunks oftheir cars and head out to rural vil lages to teach Indian com-munities Spanish.

School teachers in Mexico in the post-revolutionary periodplayed a key role in Mexican urban and rural society During

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In 1938 President Lzaro Crdenas annour)ced over he radio the expropriation of th e oil companies, agreeing topay them what they had estimated to be their value fo r tax-paying purposes. It wa s an historic turning point in thehistory of Mexico an d Latin America.the Revolution the school teacher was often the secretaryand intellectual advisor of the railroad v/ork er o r peasantturned leader of a revolutionary band. Sometimes the teacherwas the leader.After the Revolution teachers often served asshop stewards o r lobbyists, so to speak, of the il l iterate ormonolingual indigenous-language speakers in the countryside.

W he n peasants had a grievance, they often to ok it tothe teacher t o w rit e up. Sometimes they asked the teacherto serve as their spokesperson. An d when the landlord orgovernor sent his pistoleros to respond to the grievance, theteacher was often hanged alongside the leader of the village.In the cities, the school teach ers' unions and oth er organiza-tions stood on the left wing of the labor movement, althoughgenerally under Communist tutelage.

W he n Crdenas came to pow er, he to o wished to continuethe program of up l if t in the rural comm unit ies and to supportthose teachers who fought for agrarian reform alongside thepeasants. Calling for "socialist education," Crdenas and theCommunists whom he had put in charge of the Secretariatof Education shared the notion that Mexico's teachersshould challenge religion what they called "obscurantismand fanaticism" as well as teach the Spanish language andMexico's mestizo cultural values, increase the prod uctivityof rura l areas, and turn peasants and wo rker s into stalwa rtdefenders of the revolutionary government.

The attempt to implant socialist education in rural Mexicofailed for many reasons.The conservative right wing increasedits attacks on teachers as atheists. Com mun ists and libertines,killing many.Yaqui and Nahua indigenous groups rejected the

education program out ofhand in order to to pro-tect their own languageand culture. W hile somemestizo c ommun i t i e sembraced the program topromote democracy andequality in their regions,by and large the "socialist"education project fai led,although the power of theSecretary of Educationbureaucracy and controlover teachers and manycommunities increased.The Revolution isDead: Long Livethe Revolution!

T h e M e x i c a nRevolution that began in1910 had by 1940 bee ncompleted and in manyways fulfi l led. The greatissues of the Revolution distribution of land tothe peasants, recognitionof labor unions, national-ization of the oil industry,and creation of a nationalsystem of free, public, layedu cation had all been realized, finally, und er th e LzaroCrdenas government. Crdenas also rebuilt the Mexicanstate on a much broader basis.The Mexican state would proveto be both durable and resistant to the military dictatorshipsthat swept over much of Latin Am erica in the period from

1964 to 1984.Crdenas created a paternalistic, benefactor state which hebelieved could and would provide land, jobs, and justice to theMexican people.The state would stand as the arbiter betweenthe new modernizing capitalist class that had come to power,and the workers and peasants who sought living wages and

education. W ork ers and peasants now had unions (althoughthose unions became increasingly dependent upon the partyand the state) and peasants had land (but the land too wasdependent on the Agrarian Bank and government officials).When workers got jobs in the state-owned oi l company or

railroad, they joined the unions affil iated w ith the state-party,and automatically became members of that party. Similarly,peasants on the ejido became members of the CNC and thusof the party, and so came to be citizens of a so rt of statewithin the state.

Adolfo Gilly has suggested that Crdenas and the cardeni-stas believed that the revolutionary state served as a bridgebetween indigenous and peasant commu nalism and the social-ist future toward which the world was evolving.' In reality,however, the reforms of the Crdenas era laid the basis foran expansion of industrial capitalism, of the wo rkin g class, andof the service sec tor and middle classes, that is to s a y , for theful l flowering of a modern capitalist society, with all of its classA G A I N S T T H E C U R R E N T 1 3

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I".'

contradictions.During subsequent decades,

even as the paternalistic aspect ofMexican government continuedto expand through the national-ization of other industries and theestablishment of social programssuch as the Mexican Instituteof Social Security (IMSS), thenational health plan, the capitalistclass came to play a larger rolewithin government, the econo-my, and society. Still the MexicanBonapartist state continued toexist, evolving into what Peruviannovelist Mario Vargas Llosa called"the perfect dictatorship," a gov-ernment which, without militarydictatorship, could exert controlover every aspect of Mexicansociety.

By 1968, when the Mexican military killed hundreds of stu-dents marching for democracy atTlateloIco, it had become clear

T/ote/o/co massacre, October 2, 968: After months ofa nationalstudent strike, amy and police opened fire on the demonstra-tio. Hundreds lay dead orwounded.The government claimedextremists initiated the violence; eyewitnesses sa w President DiazOrdaz's "security forces" open fire.

that the old Mexican Revolutionwas over, and that another MexicanRevolution loomed on the horizon.The Revolution Is Dead! Long Livethe Revolution! Notes1. Jean Meyer, La Cristiada. (Mexico; Siglo VeintiunoEditores. 1973). Meyer argues that the RomanCatho l ic Churc h h ierarchy did not lead the Oisitadawhich was apopular rebe l l ion , par t of which movedto the left.2. Enrique Krauze. Jean Meyer and Cayetano Reyes,La Reconstruccin econmica (Mexico ; Co leg io deMexico, 1977), passim; Mara del Carmen Col ladoHe r re ra , Empresarios y polticos, entre iaRestaurany h Revolucin 1920-1924 (Me x i co ; I n s t i t u toNaciona l de Estud ios Histr icos de la RevolucinMexicana. 1996). possim.3. Sergio de la Pea and Teresa Aguirre, De laRevolucin a la Industrializacin ( M e x i c o ; U N A M .

2006), 63-69.4. Raquel Sosa Elizaga, Los Cdigos ocultos delCardenismo (Mex ico; Plaza y Valds, 1996), 60-61.5. Lorenzo Meyer, Mxico y los Estados Unidos en elconflict petrolero (1917-1942) (Me xico ; Coleg io deMexico, 1968). 301-346.

6. Vasconcelos was in the 1910s a supporter of the Convention that included FranciscoVilla and Emiiano Zapata and by the 1920s a se lf-proclaimed social ist, though by the 1930sand 40s he became very rightwing and sympathetic to fascism.7. Adolfo Gil ly, / cardenismo, una utopia n^exicana (Mexico ; Ca l y Arena, 1994), 405..

Appeal to ReadersWE ARE WR ITIN G this le tte r to inviteyo u to support the effort to preserve andrenovate the Leon Trotsky Museum (IDA-MCLTAC) in Mexico City as we mark the70th anniversary of the assassination ofLeon Trotsky, the 35th anniversary of theopening of the Trotsky Museum, and the20th anniversary of the founding of theInstitute on the Right of Asylum.

The Renovation Project consists in grad-ually transform ing the museum into an insti-tution that takes the figure of Leon Trotskyas its central axis, but also approaches thevarious ideological and political currents ofsocialist thought, actions and debates, ther ight of asylum and the history of revo-lutionary and post-revolutionary Mexico,where Trotsky was admitted as a politicalrefugee.

The goal is an institution that will estab-lish agreements with academics, museumsand documentary, visual and bibliographicalarchives from all over the wo r ld , in order tooffer the public:

I.A Modern MuseumA well-preserved house-museum that

will give its visitors an idea of the realenvironment in which Trotsky, his friends,guards, secretaries and guests lived betweenMay 1939 and Augu st 1940: a tense andanguished e nvironme nt, not always butsometimes joyful, not very prosperous, butof hard work and comradeship.

Permanent as well as temporary exhib-its built on visual, audiovisual, documentaryand interactive materials.14 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010

2 . A Research, Educat ional andIn form at ion Center , in terested in theanalysis of historical facts and in theexchange of ideas through

Consultation of printe d, graphic, audio-visual and interactive materials, on site orvia the web.

The development of educational andcultural programs, which will consist inconferences, symposia, book presentations,courses and workshops. A small bookstore in which our visitorswill find books in three languages, if pos-sible related to the institution's subjects.

3 . A C i n e m a C l u bIn it, old and newsho rt films, movies

and documentaries, organized according todifferent subjects of historical, political, intel-lectual and cultural interest will be shownand discussed.

4 . A Space for A r t , A r t C r a f t s ,Cu l ture , Env i ronm ent , Cu is ine andSocia l G ather ing .A space that will try to consti tu te an

original, simple, elegant and international cul-tura l opt ion that wi l l harbor:

Diverse cultural expressions of ourcontemp orary wo rld: sculptors, painters,mimes, actors, storytellers , dancers, poets,musicians, etc.

The house's garden, such as it was keptby Natalia Sedova and bySieva Volkov's fam-ily between 1939 and the early 1970s.

A cafeteria that will serve very goodcoffee, tea, pastries and appetizers, and thatwill offer in Coyoacn a touch of originalitygiven by four combined elements: (a) a sim-ple international menu made by a few Baltic,Jewish, Balkan,Turkish, French, N orweg ianand M exican dishes, typical of the countrieswhere Trotsky lived or was exiled, (b) theaccess to reading, on site, some internationalnewspapers and magazines, (c) a decorat ionthat wi l l portray the style of Mexican res-taurants In the thirties, and (d) some musicor poetry evenings.

We invite you to donate to our Museumpreservation/renovation fund and to joinour International Friends of the LeonTrotsky group and campaign. Please sendyou r checks, payable to Global Exchange(write "Trotsky Museum" on Memo line ofyour check), to International Friends of theLeon Trotsky Museum, RO. Box 400 09, SanFrancisco, CA 94140.

Sincerely,Esteban Volkov Bron stein, Grandson

of Leon Trotsky, President of the IDA-MCLTACBoard and O l iv ia Gal l , Full Professor, CEIICHUNAM . Direaor of the IDA-MCLTAC, gall.museotrotsky@gmail.cow.

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