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Title: Anarchism in Mexico Author: Chuck Morse Date: 2009 Language: en Topics: history, Mexico Source: Morse, Chuck. “Anarchism, Mexico.” In The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest: 1500 to the Present, edited by Immanuel Ness, 137–139. Vol. 1. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
Anarchist roots in Mexico date back to the 1860s, when a small group of
radical intellectuals embraced the doctrine. Greek immigrant Plotino
Rhodakanaty, often considered the father of Mexican anarchism, was
particularly important to the initial spread of the ideology, as was the
Gran CĂrculo de Obreros de MĂ©xico, a workers’ association founded in the
Federal District in 1870. Fanned by escalating labor unrest, and a
radicalization in the liberal opposition to the government, anarchists
helped to lay the organizational and intellectual foundations of
Mexico’s growing revolutionary movement.
Ricardo Flores MagĂłn was the most prominent anarchist during the first
decade of the twentieth century. He, together with his Liberal Party of
Mexico (Partido Liberal Mexicano, PLM), mounted the only serious
opposition to Porfirio DĂaz’s government at the time. Organized in a
network of Liberal Party “clubs” that were distributed throughout Mexico
and in parts of the United States, the Magonists contested the
legitimacy of the dominant regime, mobilized workers to challenge its
economic foundations, and tried desperately to ignite the revolution.
A dedicated journalist, playwright, and publisher, MagĂłn railed against
the government’s authoritarianism and hypocrisy in a prodigious stream
of texts. His newspapers, El Hijo del Ahuizote and RegeneratiĂłn, were
major instruments in his battle against the state and had genuine mass
appeal: for instance, the former had a circulation of 24,000 in 1904 and
the latter reached 30,000 readers in 1906, despite being officially
banned. These publications were one source of his repeated
incarcerations as well as his 1903 flight to the United States, where he
remained for the rest of his life.
On the economic terrain, the PLM organized strikes in vital parts of the
national economy, such as in the copper mines in Cananea and in the
textile industry in Puebla, Veracruz, Tlaxcala, Querétaro, Jalisco, and
the Federal District. These strikes cultivated working-class militancy
and made exploitation a matter of public debate. The Cananea strike was
remarkable for its anti-imperialist content: the mines were
American-owned and, as a result, the strike forced DĂaz to choose
between yielding to the workers’ demands or acting against them on
behalf of an American capitalist. He chose the latter, which inflamed
doubts about his fidelity to the fatherland.
The PLM also launched multiple insurrections against the regime. In
1906, when a leading Magonist, Práxedis Guerrero (1882–1910), had 46
guerilla units under his command, they participated in uprisings in
Coahuila, Tamaulipas, and Veracruz. In 1908, they staged armed revolts
in Viesca (Cohuila), Las Vacas (today Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila), and Casas
Grandes and Palomas (Chihuahua). In 1911, Magonists seized Tijuana,
which they declared a socialist republic before being routed.
An ambiguity about PLM goals compromised its chances of success. The
party’s 1906 “Program” was a liberal document that called for
constitutional reforms, such as limiting the president’s term to four
years; the institution of an eight-hour working day; improvements in
education; and other, non-revolutionary demands. However, the PLM also
had a radical wing, led by MagĂłn himself. MagĂłn, who had grown
increasingly – though privately – dedicated to anarchism, hoped to
galvanize and lead the resistance to the government and turn the Mexican
Revolution into an anarchist revolution. The contradictions between
these two positions created discord within the PLM and some public
confusion. Commenting on the matter, one scholar observed that the
“Magonists took their public discourse from liberalism, and their
strategy from anarchism” (Esperanza Valdez 2000: 182).
The PLM attempted to rectify this in 1911 by publishing its “Manifesto,”
an explicitly anarchist text that superseded the “Program” as the main
statement of the party’s goals. However, the Magonists had lost their
presence in national affairs by this time and thus their clarification
had little public impact. Indeed, although MagĂłn continued agitating
until his 1922 death in Leavenworth Penitentiary, the years of struggle,
and the many unforeseen events linked to the outbreak of the Revolution,
had exhausted his capacity to marshal a compelling alternative. Neither
he nor the PLM would again occupy a central place in Mexican political
life.
During the Mexican Revolution, anarchists would significantly affect the
urban labor movement in general and the Casa del Mundo Obrero (House of
the World Worker) in particular. The Casa, formed in Mexico City in 1912
by militants who had intended to start an anarchist school, quickly
became the anchor of the country’s radical workers’ movement. In
addition to providing a loose confederal structure for the many workers’
organizations then operating, it also sponsored myriad cultural
activities designed to foster revolutionary consciousness among the
country’s laborers. It published newspapers, sponsored educational
programs, and put on plays and poetry readings, among other initiatives.
It was strongly committed to the use of direct action and the general
strike in battles with employers and as a mechanism for realizing its
long-term, revolutionary aspirations. The Casa had deep roots in the
working class and launched major mobilizations, including multiple
general strikes.
However, navigating revolutionary Mexico’s shifting political landscape,
with its multiple contenders for state power, proved difficult. Though
Casa anarchists rejected the state in principle, they also realized that
alliances with one political force or another could yield tangible
benefits. Thus, bowing to the demands of expediency, they formed an
alliance with the Constitutionalists, which led to the creation of the
Casa’s “Red Battalions,” armed units sent into battle against Pancho
Villa and Zapata’s forces. This alliance lasted until 1916, when the
Constitutionalists – troubled by the presence of armed workers – felt
powerful enough to dissolve the Casa.
The suppression of the Casa was part of a broader – and successful –
government crackdown on worker militancy that took place in the latter
part of the century’s second decade. Although this campaign, and the
passage of the 1917 Constitution, handed a decisive defeat to the
Mexican Revolution’s most radical tendencies, anarchists continued to
resist the consolidation of the post-revolutionary order.
Regrouping after the repression, they challenged the legitimacy of the
state in their voluminous writings and through diverse cultural events
crafted to reaffirm popular revolutionary aspirations. The Grupo Luz,
for instance, circulated its newspapers widely and sponsored frequent
public gatherings. Numerous anarchists groups were organized in Mexico
City and throughout the country.
Anarchists were instrumental to the 1921 foundation of the General
Confederation of Workers (ConfederaciĂłn General de Trabajadores, CGT), a
labor federation formed in opposition to the pro-government, Mexican
Workers’ Regional Confederation (Confederación Regional Obrera
Mexicana). The CGT embraced anarchist principles such as direct action,
class struggle, and libertarian communism. It also fought vigorously
against government-sanctioned unionism and, increasingly, members of the
Communist Party.
Anarchists were central to a 1922 rent strike that shook Veracruz, a hub
for militant workers and anarchists. An anarchist tailor by the name of
HerĂłn Proal led this dramatic and bloody confrontation.
It was in the 1930s that anarchists finally lost their mass influence,
as the post-revolutionary state assumed a more mature institutional form
and established more efficient mechanisms for regulating and repressing
dissent. The 1931 passage of the Ley del Trabajo, a labor code
augmenting the government’s role in the mediation of class conflicts,
was pivotal.
Nonetheless, anarchist contributions from this period live on in
Mexico’s political culture. Magón is revered as a revolutionary hero and
parts of the 1917 Constitution have roots in the PLM’s 1906 “Program.”
Likewise, echoes of the Casa’s worker mobilizations are perceptible, at
least indirectly, in the Mexican government’s strong corporatist
commitments.
Many Spanish anarchists fled to Mexico after Franco’s 1939 victory in
Spain. The most famous was former CNT-FAI leader Juan GarcĂa Oliver
(1901–80). Another émigré, Ricardo Mestre (1906–97), helped found the
Biblioteca Social Reconstruir (Library for Social Reconstruction), an
anarchist library and meeting place in Mexico City that exists to this
day.
The Mexican Anarchist Federation, founded in 1941, was the only group
with even remote links to the movement’s heyday to survive into the
post-World War II period, although it never became more than a small
publishing circle. Anarchists had no organized impact on Mexico’s new
left, despite the presence of strong anti-authoritarian sensibilities.
There was a renewal of interest in anarchism in the 1980s, thanks
primarily to the impact of punk rock and cultural ties to countries such
as Spain and the United States, in which anarchism also experienced a
revival. Anarchists politicized at this time have built a vibrant
counterculture linked together by social centers, newspapers,
conferences, gatherings, websites, and email lists. The 1994 Zapatista
uprising gave a boost to anarchists, who were quick to participate in
Zapatista support groups. Anarchists are presently well represented
among ideologically defined, left-wing youth, although they have been
unable to articulate a compelling program for social change, which has
undermined their efforts to rebuild anarchism’s mass base.
SEE ALSO: Anarchism and Culture, 1840–1939 ; Anarchism in the United
States to 1945 ; Anarchism in the United States, 1946–Present ;
Anarchosyndicalism ; Mágon, Ricardo Flores (1874–1922) and the
Magonistas ; Mexican Revolution of 1910–1921 ; Mexico, Worker Struggles
and Labor Unions, 1950s–1970s ; Spanish Revolution ; Zapata, Emiliano
(1879–1919) and the Comuna Morelense ; Zapatistas, EZLN, and the Chiapas
Uprising
Albro, W. (1992) Always a Rebel: Ricardo Flores Magon and the Mexican
Revolution. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press.
Albro, W. (1996) To Die on Your Feet: The Life, Times, and Writings of
Praxedis G. Guerrero. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press.
Esperanza Valdez, R. C. (2000) El fenĂłmeno magonista en MĂ©xico y en
Estados Unidos, 1905–1908. Zacatecas: Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas.
Gandy, R. & Hodges, D. (2002) Mexico under Siege: Popular Resistance to
Presidential Despotism. London: Zed Books.
Hart, J. M. (1987) Anarchism and the Mexican Working Class. Austin:
University of Texas Press.
Hodges, D. C. (1995) Mexican Anarchism After the Revolution. Austin:
University of Texas Press.
Lear, J. (2001) Workers, Neighbors, and Citizens: The Revolution in
Mexico City. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Wood, A. (2001) Revolution in the Street: Women, Workers, and Urban
Protest in Veracruz, 1870–1927. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources.