Mexico's labor movement in transition

Monthly Review

Volumn 57, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 62-72

  La Botz, Dan ^a  

^a MIAMI UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 22544488381     PISSN: 00270520     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.14452/MR-057-02-2005-06_7     Document Type: Review

References (20)

1. Thanks to Robin Alexander, International Affairs Director of the United Electrical Workers Union (UE), for her help over ten years in thinking about the Mexican labor movement, and for her advice on this piece. I am also grateful to Roman Mungía Huato of the Jalisco Inter-Union Coalition for his helpful comments. I am solely responsible for the views expressed here.
2. A somewhat different version of this article with more economic data can be found on Mexican Labor News and Analysis, http://www.ueinternational.org/ Mexico_info/mlna.php in the January 2005 issue under the title "Mexican Labor Year in Review."
3. Dan La Botz, Crisis of Mexican Labor (Praeger: New York, 1988), discusses the Mexican labor movement from its founding through the beginning of the neoliberal era.
4. Raul Trejo Delarbre, Crónica del sindicalismo en Mexico (1976-1988) (Mexico: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1990);
5. Dan La Botz, Mask of Democracy: Labor Suppression in Mexico Today (Boston: South End Press, 1992);
6. Francisco Zapata, El Sindicalismo mexicano frente a la restructuración (Mexico: Colegio de Mexico, 1995).
7. World Bank, Poverty in Mexico: An Assessment of Conditions, Trends and Government Strategies (Washington, D.C.; World Bank, 2004), http://www .bancomundial.org.mx/pdf/estudiosporsector/povertyinmexico/2.pdf. This study contains much valuable information, but its usefulness is vitiated by the conservative ideology and framework on which it is founded.
8. David Fairris and Edward Levine, "Declining Union Density in Mexico," Monthly Labor Review (September 2004), http://www.bls.gov/opub/ mlr/2004/09/art2abs.htm.
9. Maria Xelhuantizi-López, Democracy on Hold: The Freedom of Union Association and Protection Contracts in Mexico (n.p, n.d.), 71.
10. For a succinct account of the developments in somewhat greater detail see: "Panorama General de las Alianzas Sindicales en México 2004," http://www.fatmexico .org/index.html.
11. Find UNT documents on the Web site of STRM, http://www.strm.org.mx /indexa.htm.
12. The SME has probably remained a member of the CT hoping that might offer it some sort of political protection. The SME's 40,000 members all work for the Light and Power Company of Mexico City, which has for years been threatened with privatization. There have also been constant threats to merge Light and Power into the Federal Electrical Commission, and thus force the SME into the Sole Union of Electrical Workers (SUTERM), a larger official union headed by Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, who also heads the CTM and the CT.
13. "Primera Asamblea Nacional del Frente Sindical Mexicano," Trabajadores, November-December 2002, no. 33, http://www.uom.edu.mx/ trabajadores/33indice .htm.
14. See also the Frente Sindical Mexicano Web site, located on the Web site of the government of Mexico City, http://www.stps.df.gob.mx/Reciente/ FrenteSindMex .htm.
15. The manifesto calling for the FSCISP can be found at http://www.unt.org. mx/dialogos /manifte2503.htm.
16. Also see Francisco Hernández Juárez's speech: http://www.unt .org.mx/dialogos/intervfhj2703.htm. The organization's name and initials have changed, I am using the latest name and acronym throughout this article.
17. The Mexican Communist Party (PCM) evolved to become the United Socialist Party of Mexico (PSUM) and later the Mexican Socialist Party (PMS) with Eurocommunist politics. It was the PMS which entered the PRD.
18. Documents of the National Dialogue can be found at a Web site apparently maintained by the Alianza Socialista, http://www.dialogonacionall.org/pon41. html.
19. Arturo Cano & Daniela Pastrana "Avances y tropezonesdel diálogo nacional," http:// www.jornada.unam.mx/2004/dic04/041205/ mas-cano.html.
20. Dan La Botz, Democracy in Mexico: Peasant Rebellion and Political Reform (Boston; South End Press, 1995), discusses these three forces and their interaction.