Monday, December 14, 2009

 

Mexican History in a Single Phrase: 'Los de Abajo'

 

By George Baker

 

·   Only with this background in view can the public sympathy for the dispossessed "workers" of the government-closed power distribution company Central Light and Power be appreciated

 

The most famous and enduring novel to come out of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-20 was Los de abajo (1915), by Mariano Azuela, the title of which was translated into English as The Underdogs. The history of Mexico, in the short form, is the history of the struggle of subjugated peoples who struggle against oppressors: Spaniards for three centuries (1521-1810); the Church and the great landowners (1810-1910); and, since 1982, the neoliberal dogma that emanates from the World Bank, IMF, and the Mexican political class.

In Article 123 of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, the plight and rights of the working class were given extraordinary attention: the worker was entitled to dignified employment, education, housing, and health services. In the system of government that emerged at the end of the 1920s, the labor union was the mechanism that — like a car transmission — connected the working classes to the ruling class. Workers would be controlled, by industry activity, with union bosses who were politically loyal to the elites.

In this way, across decades, the leitmotif of Mexican politics is a romanticized fascination with the theme of class struggle: the poor and disenfranchised against the rich and powerful. It is no coincidence that a variant of "revolución" appears in the names of two of the three principal political parties in Mexico: it is a Mexican code word for class struggle.

Part of the immense appeal of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, as a PRI break-away political candidate in 1988, was his pre-Hispanic name and his indigenous physiognomy.   The Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas that erupted January 1, 1994, on the first day of NAFTA, sought to dramatize the desperate situation of the indigenous peoples of the rural, impoverished region of southern Mexico in relation to their "Mexican" overlords.

In the presidential elections of 2006, Cardenas' successor in the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD), Andrés Manuel López Obrador, made his almost-successful bid for the presidency with a campaign slogan "Primero los Pobres" (First priority: the Poor).

From this narrative of exploitation, Mexico's xenophobic and global-phobic discourses arise. The oil expropriation of 1938 is described as a restoration of rights that originally — and inalienably — belong to the Nation. In this description the observer is to infer that those rights had been wrongfully seized by the foreign oil companies who, as a result of the expropriation, would be expelled from the country.

From this same narrative arises the anti-privatization mantra — ¡no! a la privatización, invoked as a curse against government policies that would seek to introduce market elements in any sector of the economy where the state dominates.

It is as if, inside Mexican culture, the true, not-for-export name of the country should be the People's Republic of Mexico.

Only with this background in view can the public sympathy for the dispossessed "workers" of the government-closed power distribution company Central Light and Power (LyFC) be appreciated.* As of December 3, 2009, in the area once served by LyFC, respondents to a public opinion survey responded with a 51% disapproval of the government's actions, and only a 38% approval.

 

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* MexiData note: Some union leaders and members of the Mexican Electricians Union (SME) continue to fight the closure of the state-owned Central Light and Power company, and reportedly some sorts of negotiations with the Interior Ministry are taking place.  However, in ruling that the government action was legal, a judge has just rejected the union's challenge of the government's liquidation order.  As well, the union's application for an amparo (writ of protective injunction) was denied.  In turn, union bosses say that the amparo decision will be appealed, and that additional legal action is being analyzed.  As to the previously announced national strike, an SME spokesman now says that it will be after the holidays, with a date to be set in January.

 

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George Baker is the director of Energia.com, a publishing and consulting firm based in Houston.  He can be reached via e-mail at g.baker@energia.com.