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Title: A Grave Error Author: Anarchist Federation Date: 2010 Language: en Topics: Mexican revolution, Mexico, Zapatistas, syndicalism Source: Retrieved on 3rd September 2020 from https://libcom.org/history/grave-error-mexican-syndicalists Notes: Originally appeared in issue No 77 of Organise! magazine of the Anarchist Federation
The birth of the workers’ movement in Mexico was profoundly influenced
by anarchism. This movement proclaimed independence from the political
parties and the State. Yet in 1915 a pact was signed with the
Constitutionalists led by Carranza. Organise! Looks at why this might
have happened.
The workers’ movement in Mexico was relatively young and inexperienced.
At the time the population counted 11 million who lived in the
countryside as opposed to 4 million who lived in urban centres a
comparison with Russia during the 1917 Revolution could be made).
The first two decades of the 20^(th) century were marked by a
radicalisation of the Mexican workers’ movement, with an influx of
Spanish immigrants, bringing with them new forms of organising. The
traditional forms of organising began to give way to new and radical
unions based on the ideas of anarcho-syndicalism.
When Madero came to power in 1911 the legislation workers’ organisation
that had existed under the regime of Porfirio Diaz did not disappear.
However the fall of Diaz had encouraged this movement and strikes of
transport workers, bakers and clothes makersand the dockers of the port
town of Tampico broke out during that year.
A Colombian anarchist, Juan Francisco Moncaleano, arrived in Mexico in
1912 and with 7 others set up the Luz ( Light) Group formed mostly of
manual workers. They founded a paper of the same name and proposed the
setting up of a free school modelled on the principles of the Spanish
anarchist Ferrer. The paper was suppressed and Moncaleano was expelled
by the Madero regime. However those remaining set up the Casa del Obrero
Mundial (House of the International Worker), the name being also used
for a local federation of unions. New papers supported by the Casa began
to appear in 1913.
The Casa carried out intense activity, advancing the ideas of direct
action and rejected the intervention of the Ministry of Labour created
by the new leader of Mexico, Huerta, in conflicts between the workers
and the employers.
However, a section of the movement began to ally itself with another
contender for power, General Carranza. The Casa building was closed down
by the authorities with the planned demonstrations of May 1^(st) 1914
being used as a pretext. With the fall of Huerta, Carranza now
intervened and allowed the Casa to establish itself at a commandeered
convent.
The Carranza regime inaugurated a period of normalisation into the
Mexican revolution. Intrigues multiplied, a whole host of careerists and
profiteers inserted themselves into the administration, and norms were
established controlling negotiation with the employers, demonstrations
on the streets, political meetings etc. The State now became the legal
arbiter in workplace disputes.
In this climate the Casa established a pact with Carranza on 17^(th)
February 1915 and workers organised by the Casa in Red Battalions and
Anarchist Sanitary Battalions reinforced Carranza’s troops . They were
used to counter the detachments of the peasant revolutionaries of Zapata
and Villa!! Seven thousand Mexico City workers went to the
Constitutionalist military training centre and their participation was
significant in victories over Villa and Zapata. The Casa justified this
on the grounds of the religiosity and the primarily “agrarian” outlook
of the Zapatistas and Villistas, accusing them of being backed by the
Church and bankers!! In exchange Carranza gave the Casa some offices and
allowed the publication of their papers. Eulogies to heroic
Constitutionalist leaders started appearing in these papers with such
comments as: “the triumph of constitutionalism is the triumph of
liberty”! All of this did not stop Carranza shutting down the Casa H.Q.
one year later when the Casa attempted to start organising again in the
workplaces.
This appalling mistake was argued against by the Magonistas and by the
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in the USA , and was rejected by
the railworkers, the oil workers and the textile workers of Puebla and
Veracruz. An attempt was made to set up a revolutionary central of
anarcho-syndicalist unions in July 1915, and a little later a worker’
conference took place in Veracruz and the CNT (Mexican region) was
created. However this organisation was stillborn and after an attempt at
a general strike in August 1916 it was savagely repressed by the Obregon
regime. This now set up an official union central the Regional Workers’
Confederation of Mexico (CROM). This new organisation was completely
corporatist, tightly aligned with the State, with a well-paid and large
bureaucracy, acting as a direct control by the politicians over the
workers. Even a large number of old activists active within Mexican
anarcho-syndicaism entered its ranks.