The PRT in parliament relations between the PRI and the trade union bureaucracy. The very powerful trade union movement in
Mexico is dominated by a bureau-
Interview with Sergio cracy which is directly linked to the
PRI. But this bureaucracy did not come to power simply by crushing
Rodriguez the left in the union. It came to power because at one time economic conditions in Mexico allowed the
Mexican government to make social
ON JULY 7, 1985, legislative elections were held in Mexico (see and economic concessions to the
International Viewpoint, July 29, 1985). In those elections, the workers. In exchange the trade union
Mexican section of the Fourth International, the Partido Revolucionario bureaucracy kept social peace and made propaganda for the PRI. Once de los Trabajadores (PRT), made some important breakthroughs.
the PRI began to adopt a policy of
Despite widespread electoral fraud by the government, the PRT austerity, the trade union leadership obtained, officially, more than 300,000 votes (1.7% of the votes had to take its distance in order to expressed), which entitled it to six representatives in parliament.
survive, although it only did so in a very half-hearted manner. Since
Three years before in the presidential and legislative elections, the then, the dissatisfaction of the workers
PRT had failed to reach the quorum of 1.5% and its success in these the trade union leadership with elections is testimony to the party's involvement in all the different has increased.
Finally, for several decades now struggles across the country. It also demonstrates the economic and the PRI has relied on the mobilisapolitical crisis inside the country, a crisis which is rapidly undermining tion of the masses to support it.
its 'stability'
This doesn't happen any more.
Now you hear people everywhere-
Below, Sergio Rodriguez, a leading member of the PRT outlines in the marketplaces and on buses - the conduct of the election campaign in an interview given just after complaining about the government.
cipat the 2,00 unde inclu wom cand esper and most inde
W draw open we v lies 1 gave orgal is lir the whic shan peas the 198. the in 1.
A wer little a lo tion an pres Ibar Ibar agai righ cant and cam cent starl we stat
T ence cam we agai men forw tune mas resp to t mas: char the satic resp the elections and before the results
Question. The ruling party -the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI - in power since 1929) presents itself as coming from the people, as the guardian of the spirit of the revolution but at the same time it implements severe austerity measures against the population. Despite this and the fact that it is well-known that the election results will be fiddled as they have been before, this party is still in power and has been for the last 56 years! They are now saying that they have received 70 per cent of the votes cast. These facts taken together are rather difficult to fathom.
Answer. The PRI did not get 70% of the votes. They might have picked up 55 to 56 per cent of votes cast hut the turnout for the elections cast but the turnout for the elections was only about 45%. This means, therefore that the PRI continues to hang on to power with the support of only one quarter of the electorate.
But that is not the main issue. I believe we are witnessing the most severe crisis ever undergone by the PRI and this is expressed in four ways.
Firstly, the PRI built itself a definite anti-imperialist image which, at the time, rested on its very real opposition to US interests. 22 were fully known.
A large section of the population still vote for the PRI, but it can no longer rely on popular mobilisation.
tion
So there is a crisis of the system of rule of the PRI without any real
The PRI were saying to the masses;
left alternative to the crisis develop-
If the US takes retaliatory measures ing. Popular discontent is widespread against us we are counting on you but it is not as yet expressed in an
"gringo to support us against organised way, except in certain imperialism": But in the last few sectors. This has been achieved, for years the Mexican government, under example, with the independent the leadership of the PRI, has aligned peasant organisations in which the itself more and more with the econ-
PRT plays an important role such omic and international policies of as the Coordinacion Nacional Plan
US imperialism.
de Ayala (CNPA) which organises
Also there is the issue of the
500,000 peasants. (1) The problem is relationship between the PRI and the that within the industrial working
Mexican bourgeoisie. In the frameclass no such organised class struggle work of the 'Pri-ite' state machine current exists. The bureaucracy still and under its protection, the bourcontrols the trade union movement.
geoisie has grown in strength and
So the proletariat is not yet in the is more and more tied up with US leadership in the country, it has not capitalism, since the Mexican econyet proved itself to be the caudillo omy is very dependent on the USA.
(commander) linking up with the
This bourgeoisie wants to see an peasantry to present a workers' even stronger alignment of the alternative.
Mexican state with the USA. On the other hand it wants further ration-
Q. Did you present parliamentary alisation of Mexican capitalism. For lists in every area of the country and example, it wants to put an end to how were they made up?
some of the benefits that the peasants
A. We presented lists in every have received as a result of the area, yes. They were made up of
Mexican revolution. Agrarian reform
850 candidates for parliamentary in Mexico has meant that the vast representation. If you add our partimass of the peasantry have access to the land. On these issues an import-
1985,
1, On April 10, 1985, the Coordinacion
Ayala ant section of the Mexican bour-
Nacional Plan de Ayala organised a 50,000strong march of peasants to the capital geoisie would prefer the Mexican
This was one of several regional demonstrogovernment to switch its policies tions involving a total of one million people.
International Viewpoint 16 September 1985
cipation in certain regional elections, the total number of candidates is 2,000.
One third of the candidates were under thirty years old. Our lists included the largest number of women. We had lots of working class candidates, trade union activists especially in electricity, rail, textiles, and in the finishing industries. But mostly we had mass leaders of the independent peasant organisations.
We took a great deal of care in drawing up the lists and as we had opened them up to mass organisations we were able to call electoral assemblies locally to finalise the lists. We also gave an important role to the mass organisation in the urban areas which is linked to our organisation, that is the Bloque Popular Revolucionario, which organises the fightback in the shantytowns and the popular quarters.
Q. You say that certain mass peasants' organisations participated in the PRT campaign. Yet wasn't the 1985 campaign more centralised under the party banner than was the case in 1982?
A. Yes, of course. In 1982, we were still a small party with very little electoral experience. We had a lot of nerve, but no real organisational roots. In 1982, we organised an electoral campaign around the presidential candidature of Rosario. Ibarra, the main figure in the fight against the government for democratic rights. In 1985, Rosario was again a candidate in the legislative elections candidate in the legislative elections and she did a series of meetings in the campaign, but this time it was less centred on her candidature. At the start of the 1982 election campaign, we had members in 15 of the 32 states and we stood 171 candidates.
There is also a political difference between the 1982 and 1985 campaigns. In 1985, in the elections, we decided to conduct a campaign against all the policies of the government and of imperialism. We put forward a programme which was in tune with the preoccupations of the masses and which provoked a popular response because it corresponded to the level of consciousness of the masses. Also, this campaign was characterised by its firmer roots in the society and by its superior organisational capacity and more developed response from the membership.
Q. What were your main slogans?
A. We had two main slogans; "Arriba los de abajo!" ('up with those who are down!') and Democracy, wages and land'
•
Before we would have simply taken up the slogan for a workers and peasants government but this was not the best way of expressing
International Viewpoint 16 September
ARRIBA LOS
DE ABAJO
5.2
Mel
PAT
SOT CAn
'Down with those at the top' 'Up with those at the bottom' (DR)
what we want. The Mexican people are very critical of the government, they are against corruption, but they do not understand all the links between corruption on the part of the PRI and the exploitation in the capitalist system as a whole.
The PRI mounted its campaign around the theme of 56 years of stability and social peace. We said; fifty-six years of exploitation and corruption! Those who head the country should be brought down!' This slogan was very popular. For example in different regions of the country the peasants composed three songs around the theme of the campaign, 'Arriba los de abajo!' And these songs are becoming more and more popular.
But there were other slogans which have more of a relation with social and economic issues. We put forward the demand for the nonrecognition of the foreign debt. This was a cross between the demand for a moratorium and the non- recognition of the debt. We explained that the foreign debt had already been paid by the profits made in Mexico by international capitalism and through flights of capital abroad. And we said: If someone 1985 has to pay this it should be the bourgeoisie and the Mexican government who used and organised external borrowing and the flight of capital? We also demanded: Who has been consulted about this debt? Who was consulted about renegotiating it? And if we repay it, what effects will this have on the standard of living of the masses?'
We also put forward anti-imperialist slogans like 'Defend the country against US imperialism'. But we understood that this defence could not be achieved through an alliance with the Mexican bourgeoisie or sections of it or even with the government. Because these people are in a position of total subordination to the interests of US imperialism, especially on the economic level. The struggle for the defence of the country means that the proletariat must act as the 'caudillo' and must place itself at the head of the oppressed and exploited in this country and must direct their fire against imperialism and its national allies, the government and the Mexican bourgeoisie.
We also put forward a whole series of demands around the issue of democracy. The first thing we said was that there is no such thing as democ-
23
racy in the abstract. The most important democratic right is the right to eat, to earn a decent living wage, the right to work and the right to adequate housing. Thus we posed the question of democracy in the context of class, in the context of the interests of the working class and the other oppressed classes, also giving a social character to democratic demands.
The PRT also, of course, posed the question of democracy in its strictly political context, from the point of view of democratic rights in general, democratic rights in the workplace, that is in the factories, in agricultural work as well as in the places where people live and in the popular quarters. It should not be obligatory to affiliate to the PRI and the whole system of social coercion instituted by the government should be abolished.
Q. An electoral campaign is not just a series of slogans, it is also a whole mobilisation of the forces inside and around the party?
A. We adopted a campaign strategy six months before the elections. This plan covered all the main issues: the content of the electoral programme, the make-up of the list, the rhythm of activity, ete. The fundamental question was how to involve the maximum number of people who were not yet in the party. In order to do this we set up women's committees or committees in the shantytowns with the job of supporting women or inhabitants of the shantytowns who were on our lists without necessarily being members of the party.
- On the other hand, we tried to get the maximum number of contacts and cumnats to apree to he our and sympathisers to agree to be our representatives at the polling booths and at the count. In Mexico City, we were represented by nearly 4,000 people in the polling stations! This is important because it is a way of getting contacts to identify with the party. It is a huge step forward when you realise the extent of the control that the PRI exercises over every aspect of life. It was also good for the party because it limited the possibility for fraud. Furthermore we managed to get the mass organisations, in particular amongst peasants, who supported us, to really put a lot into the election campaign.
The party put in a great deal of effort to achieve this. We sent full-timers out into certain areas to launch the campaign. New branches of the party were set up at that time. This was most notably the case in the north of the country where, in one area we recruited one hundred 24 new members, many of whom were peasants. In order to mobilise the party and its contacts and the people who we met in the course of the campaign, we had to break with a very current tradition on the left, which consists of saying that elections are merely an occasion for doing party propaganda and that the number of votes received is not really important. On the contrary, we had to stress that it was important to get votes and that this was evidence of the credibility that we might have at a given time.
But this was not the main objective, either. The main objective was that between now and the end of the year we should recruit several thousands of new members. Our main problem is the political education of this growing membership of the party. There are certain regions of the country, like Sonora and Puebla where whole village communities want to join the party or where there are people who already consider themselves members. This happens in the shantytowns as well. Up until now we have been telling them that there were certain conditions for becoming a member of the party and that there is a difference between being a sympathiser and being a member. We tell them that they are not members of the party. But we have to find a better solution to this problem. Anyway, our peasant fraction has fixed a target of recruiting 500 peasants to the party.
Q. Could you give us some idea of the size of the party, in statistical terms, and of the sort of things you achieved in the election campaign? A. At the beginning of the election campaign we had 2,000 members and nearly 3,000 organised sympathisers. We have people in all the 32 states in Mexico. Of course there is an uneven development of the party. In certain states we are very strong, like in Sonora, Baja California, Morelos, Colima and Mexico City. In others, like Oaxaca or Quintana Roo, we are weak. As far as public meetings go we had more than 100,000 people participating. At our final rally for central Mexico on June 15, 1985, we counted 25,000 people in the Zocalo, the main square in Mexico City, of which about 1,500 came from the state of Puebla, a six or seven-hour bus journey away. At the final rally for the northern region, in the state of Chihuahua, there were 6,000 and at the one in Sonora there were 4,000. We also made a big effort with postering. In Mexico City, for example, where we stood 40 candidates, we printed 3,000 copies of a personalised poster for each candidate, that is 120,000 altogether. We should also add all the general posters. That would be, altogether, for the town of Mexico City alone, 500,000 posters!
Q. What strikes you when you go round Mexico City is the huge number of wall murals that the party has done. That must have been a lot of work?
A. Yes. You must realise that only the PRT, the United Socialist Party of Mexico (PSUM - the Mexican communist party) and the Mexican Workers Party (PMT - a radical nationalist party), put up their own mural slogans. All the other parties pay people to do this work. In Mexico City people talked about the 'war of the walls' because there was a permanent battle to get access to the walls and to protect the slogans you put there. It takes two or patio
A repr the
City pub lead of t cam that offi mor part ener ship the inde five atta kille tow kill clai
Mer fror inc the not rea cou pol in
( for the left our it this exa has the alm
299 tow the
On vot
100 this the by bor the me par
Election poster with Emiliano Zapata (DR)
PRT
International Viewpoint 16 September 1985
WOMEN three hours to put up a really big slogan.
Q. Did the PRT candidates suffer any attacks because of their participation in the election campaign?
A. Yes. A few days after the list of candidates became public, the repression started. Our candidate from the number one district of Mexico City is secretary of a section of the public employees' union. The national leadership demanded the resignation of the comrade. After a huge defence campaign, we managed to get it agreed that he could complete his term of office. Since then there have been more trade union elections in this particular sector and we have strengthened our position in the union leadership.
The most serious incident occured the day before the vote when an independent candidate on the PRT list in Mexico City was assassinated by five or six 'unknown' assailants who attacked him in a popular quarter of the town. We are certain he was killed because he was a candidate. It is not unusual for activists in the