Trotsky on freedom of the press and the working class
In the summer of 1938 Lombardo began a campaign against the reactionary press in Mexico, intent on placing it under “democratic censorship” or banning it altogether.
Trotsky was unequivocal in opposing this drive. He wrote: “Both theory and...
Trotsky’s attitude towards the oil expropriations
Trotsky publicly supported Cárdenas’ expropriation of the oil industry. On 23 April 1938 he wrote to the Daily Herald in Britain, pointing to the hypocrisy of the Chamberlain government and defending the move of the grounds of national economic...
Trotsky’s analysis of Mexico
Trotsky arrived in Mexico on 9 January 1937. A longstanding Mexican Trotskyist Manuel Rodríguez originally suggested the asylum to his boss, General Francisco Mujica, a member of the Cárdenas cabinet (and his predecessor as governor of Michoacán). However it became a...
Cárdenas veers left
Cárdenas enhanced his reputation as a leftist with an aggressive agrarian policy. During his presidency around 50 million acres (18 millions hectares) of land were distributed to peasants, mainly in the form of collective ejidos – double the entire amount of land redistributed...
The first years of Cárdenas
Lázaro Cárdenas was chosen by Calles as his candidate for the presidency in 1934. Cárdenas had been an acclaimed officer during the revolution and was made a general in 1920 at the age of 25. Between 1928 and 1932 he was governor of his home state of Michoacán and loyal...
The origins of Mexican Bonapartism
The Mexican revolution (1910-1920) resulted in the defeat of the old landowners and their allies but also the exhaustion of other contending classes, particularly the bourgeoisie and the working class. Between one and two million people (out of population of 15...
Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has made a series of radical announcements following his re-election in December, which require the attention of socialists everywhere. He announced plans to nationalise companies in telecom and electricity privatised by previous administrations. Chávez says he wants...
In December twenty human rights lawyers, journalists, authors, students and activists from the United States and Canada went to Oaxaca to investigate violations of civil and human rights since 14 June 2006. Here are extracts from their report (prepared by Robin Alexander). An activist from the Oaxaca struggle will be touring England from 12 February. The full report can be found at www.nosweat.org.uk Oaxaca is one of the largest states in Southern Mexico, with eight cultural and geographic regions, eighty micro-regions, and a population of approximately 3.5 million. It is home to sixteen...
In 2006 the southern Mexican of Oaxaca saw a great popular uprising, beginning with a teachers' strike. This article tells the story. See also this interview with a Mexican revolutionary socialist involved in the struggle. My participation in an Emergency Human Rights Delegation in Oaxaca in the third week in December served as the catalyst for this essay Oaxaca is a land of revolutionary upsurge, repression and resistance. At the present moment, (the end of December [2006]), repression with a mano duro (hard hand) is the order of the day as Oaxaquenos, who have been active in the upsurge, are...
By Gerry Bates In the aftermath of the titantic struggle in Oaxaca last year, the repression of militants continues. Narconews website reported at the end of December that three prominent leaders from the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) were kidnapped at gunpoint, taken to a private home, beaten and tortured and then dumped behind a shopping mall area after two hours. Florentino López, a spokesperson for the APPO and one of those abducted, said: “They wanted to know what the agreements were of the assembly, they demanded the names of our family members, they demanded the names...
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