For over half a century, Mexico's labor movement Shas been a model of open subordination to the government and the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Every member of the country's dominant labor federation, the Mexican Workers Confederation (CTM) has been an auto- matic dues-paying member of the PRI. The CTM, together with 31 other unions and labor federa- tions, belongs to a larger umbrella organization called the Congress of Labor (CT). Within the CT, the CTM is the undisputed "first among equals," and the CTM president, nonagenarian Fidel Velazquez has, until recently, ruled both groups with an iron hand. In negotiations with the state and with employers, as well as within the official party, it is the CTM which always "represents" the entire "organized workers' movement." Despite corrupt, nepotistic leaders who run the unions like fiefdoms, the official labor movement thrived during the years of economic growth when it won real social victories. Its support base, how- ever, has now been eroded by the economic crisis and by the imposition of labor discipline by its own party, the PRI. The CTM has bowed to the neolib- eral project by signing a series of "pacts" with busi- ness and the government over the past ten years which have cut wages and made labor contracts more "flexible." The federation has been so deeply incorporated into the structure of the ruling party that its first instinct has been to defend the PRI rather than its own members. This has cost it rank- and-file support. Though the unionization rate of Mexican work- ers continues to hold at around 25%, the official union apparatus is coming apart at the seams. Small but significant groups of Mexican workers in manufacturing, services and education are organiz- ing in trade unions independent of the CT and the PRI. Perhaps even more significant are the struggles for democratization of the unions within the CT. Ten CT-affiliated unions and federations have formed a dissident group called the Forum of Unionism Facing the Nation. Among the most prominent leaders of the group, known as the foristas, are Francisco Herntndez Juurez, the charis- matic leader of the telephone workers, Pedro Castillo of the combative electrical workers, and Elba Esther Gordillo, expresident of the powerful teachers union. A number of independent unions have joined forces with the ten founding Forum members, bringing forista membership to 25 unions and federations. Hector De la Cueva is a researcher with the Center for Labor Research and Union Advising (CILAS) in Mexico City NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 16REPORT ON MEXICO by Hdctor De la Cueva The Forum, initiated essentially as a forum for air- ing heterodox views, has since become a permanent organization. Some of the group's members have suggested abandoning the CT and forming a new umbrella group, while others have argued for the less drastic step of calling a national workers assem- bly open to all, including independents. The CTM has responded aggressively, threatening to expel the heretics from the CT. The gov- ernment, meanwhile, which now sees trade unionism as an impediment to neoliberal reform, has momentarily frozen its union-busting plans and arrived at an understand- ing with the CTM. This has somewhat strengthened the official federation within the PRI. For now, the CTM has not expelled the foristas, but a de facto split already exists. The events surrounding the past two May Day celebrations reflect this split. While the government and the CT decided to cancel labor's offi- cial May Day parade in 1995 because they feared being overwhelmed by the discon- tent from below, hundreds of thousands of people in Mexico City and other large cities fillojd tha ctrtcn--ndr th D May Day 1995 in Tijuana political vacuum. In the heat the streets, denouncing n of these mobilizations, opposi- tion groups formed the May 1 Interunion Coordinating Council. May Day, 1996 was even more significant. Over 100,000 foristas-disobeying official orders not to march-marched the traditional May Day route from Mexico City's Monument to the Revolution, through the city's Historic Center, ending at the cen- tral plaza, the Z6calo. Another 100,000 protesters, organized under the banner of the May 1 Interunion Coordinating Council, followed the first group to the Z6calo where they held a two-hour rally after most of the foristas had left. Opposition leader Cuauhtdmoc Cdrdenas addressed the demon- strators, and Subcomandante Marcos sent a "mes- sage of solidarity." Because of prior May Day clashes between "offi- cial" and "independent" unionists, the leaders of the two groups prudently signed a "nonaggression pact" before the march, in which they agreed not to be in the same place at the same time. In another sign of caution, foristas agreed among themselves to have no official speeches in order to avoid any public disagreements. Members of forista unions, carrying placards denouncing neoliberalism and the Zedillo government, simply marched past the a i A IA F o o / A PAS!! . Demonstrators, including members of dissident unions, jam eoliberalism, the PRI government and corrupt union leaders. reviewing platform on which the dissident union leadership was standing. This May Day split may signal a realignment of the labor movement beyond a simple changing of the guard. Following the forista march, HernBndez Jurez of the telephone workers told reporters that labor's old leadership was not the issue. "We want a change in attitudes, not personalities, and this mobilization is a clear sign that things are chang- ing." Gordillo, of the teachers' union-a forista despite her long years of PRI militancy-held out a hand of friendship to the "independents" of the second march. "Let's hope," she said, "that next year we can march together in one big demonstration that can show the face of the unionism of the future." Such a realignment would spell an end to the cur- rent model of labor-government cooperation.
