Mexico
New trade union bureaucracies or rank-and-file workers’ power?
Lessons of the Matamoros workers’ rebellion: Part five
By Andrea Lobo, 17 April 2019
This is the fifth and concluding part of a series of articles on the wave of strikes carried out by maquiladora workers in the Mexican border town of Matamoros. The lessons of this struggle are essential for not only Mexican workers, but for workers internationally.
Mexican musician, writer Armando Vega Gil commits suicide after #MeToo allegation
By David Walsh, 15 April 2019
Vega Gil, born in Mexico City, was a bassist and a co-founder of Botellita de Jerez, one of the more influential Mexican rock ’n’ roll bands. He was also the author of novels, short stories and volumes of poetry.
New trade union bureaucracies or rank-and-file workers’ power?
Lessons of the Matamoros workers’ rebellion: Part four
By Andrea Lobo, 11 April 2019
The US and European ruling classes are promoting self-proclaimed “independent” unions in Mexico partnered, financed and in some instances created by the American AFL-CIO labor federation.
Mexico’s López Obrador attacks teachers through right-wing education reform
By Alex González, 6 April 2019
AMLO and Morena have adopted the education legislation of his predecessor, while the CNTE union works to isolate teachers’ struggles.
The threat to close the US-Mexico border
By Bill Van Auken, 3 April 2019
The sealing of borders, the creation of concentration camps for refugees and the whipping up of xenophobic and fascist forces are all part of an international turn to reaction that echoes the darkest days of the 1930s.
New trade union bureaucracies or rank-and-file workers’ power?
Lessons of the Matamoros workers’ rebellion: Part three
By Andrea Lobo, 3 April 2019
As the wildcat strikes began to spread, the government, companies and unions scrambled to suppress each new struggle and prevent them from uniting and spreading internationally.
As Mexican president calls Mussolini a “great leader”
Companies and police violently attack remaining strikes in Matamoros
By Andrea Lobo, 2 April 2019
The Mexican ruling class and its imperialist patrons in the US and Europe are responding to the largest strike in North America in the last three decades by turning sharply toward authoritarian forms of rule and militarized counterrevolution.
New trade union bureaucracies or rank-and-file workers’ power?
Lessons of the Matamoros workers’ rebellion: Part two
By Andrea Lobo, 29 March 2019
When workers in Matamoros learned their raise and bonus was being stolen and formed rank-and-file committees to launch a wave of wildcat strikes, Susana Prieto worked to isolate the struggle and chain workers to the unions and to illusions in the ruling party.
Pentagon announces transfer of $1 billion for border wall construction
By Meenakshi Jagadeesan, 28 March 2019
The Pentagon announcement came as Congress failed to override Trump’s veto supporting his declaration of a national emergency on the US-Mexico border.
New trade union bureaucracies or rank-and-file workers’ power?
Lessons of the Matamoros workers’ rebellion: Part one
By Andrea Lobo, 25 March 2019
The ongoing strike wave on the US-Mexico border provides critical lessons for the incipient movement of the working class on an international scale.
Mexican government intervenes to end Coca-Cola strike in Matamoros
By Alex González, 23 March 2019
The AMLO administration’s action openly shows that the local, state, federal and court systems are jointly operating on behalf of the corporations and against the workers.
For joint action of US, Canadian and Mexican workers
Defend the Matamoros workers!
By WSWS Autoworker Newsletter, 12 March 2019
Terrified that wildcat strikes will spread throughout factories in Mexico and into the United States and Canada, the US and other foreign-based corporations and the local ruling elites are responding with mass firings, plant closings and other reprisals.
Amid national strike wave
Mexican ruling class responds to Matamoros: Militarization and alignment with Trump’s attacks on immigrants
By Alex González, 6 March 2019
The AMLO administration has prevented immigrants from reaching the border and is forcefully detaining them, creating the framework for escalating attacks on the entire working class.
“The union abandoned us and allowed for management to blacklist us”
US, Canadian and Mexican workers denounce mass firings of Matamoros strikers
By our reporters, 2 March 2019
Mexican auto parts and other “maquiladora” corporations are firing workers in retaliation for launching a wave of wildcat strikes that brought the Mexican border town of Matamoros to a standstill.
Mexico: Metalworkers, universities join strike wave as 90,000 Walmart workers threaten to walk out
By Andrea Lobo, 28 February 2019
As the strike movement builds, the trade unions are scrambling to co-opt, isolate and shut down each rank-and-file struggle.
Ford production crippled by Mexican workers’ strike
By Jerry White, 27 February 2019
After concealing news about the strike in Mexico for six weeks, the Detroit Free Press acknowledged that it has forced Ford to halt production due to a lack of steering wheels.
Oppose the attacks by company thugs against Mexican worker Luis Daniel Prieto!
By our reporters, 27 February 2019
US and Canadian workers must defend their Mexican class allies from threats by thugs.
State and corporate attacks escalate against workers in Matamoros, Mexico
By Andrea Lobo, 22 February 2019
The World Socialist Web Site has received new reports of assaults against workers in Mexico who are voicing opposition to the right-wing offensive of the government and companies against social and democratic rights.
GM worker in Mexico speaks in support of fight against plant closures in the US and Canada
By our reporters, 19 February 2019
The WSWS Autoworker Newsletter interviewed a GM autoworker in Silao, Mexico, about conditions at the plant, the struggle by workers in Matamoros, rank-and-file committees and a joint struggle of autoworkers across North America and beyond.
Union thugs assault striking Matamoros workers
By Andrea Lobo, 16 February 2019
Threats by management, police and the unions are increasingly frequent across the city.
Mexican President López Obrador cracks down on Central American migrants
By Don Knowland, 14 February 2019
Central American immigrants detained in Piedras Negras, Coahuila on the Texas border are rebelling against detention at the hands of López Obrador.
Democrats capitulate to Trump, agree to wall funding
By Eric London, 12 February 2019
As Trump was delivering another fascistic rant in the border city of El Paso, Texas, Democrats were agreeing to advance his anti-immigrant crackdown.
Mexican union apparatus, government scramble to suppress growing strike across Mexico
By Andrea Lobo, 12 February 2019
Inspired by the wave of wildcat strikes by maquiladora workers in Matamoros, Mexico, militancy and opposition to the trade unions and the AMLO administration are growing.
Wave of walkouts in Matamoros, Mexico builds toward general strike
By Alex González, 7 February 2019
An additional 15,000 workers have gone on strike across multiple industries, threatening to bring the city to a standstill.
Mexican auto parts workers support February 9 demonstration in Detroit
By Andrea Lobo and Eric London, 6 February 2019
“I support the call for a general strike in Canada, the US and Mexico. We must be united. There are no borders. We stand firm here.”
Matamoros strike grows as Mexican ruling class warns of national strike wave
By Eric London and Andrea Lobo, 2 February 2019
The leading financial paper wrote: “As easy as one two three, the labor stability which we have maintained for decades, with hundreds of thousands of successful contract negotiations, is broken. And it won’t stop there.”
The economics of the North American auto industry
How global auto parts corporations profit by exploiting Mexican workers
By Shannon Jones, 2 February 2019
With 345 Tier 1 auto parts suppliers operating in Mexico, the country is an enormous source of enrichment for transnational corporations.
February 9 demonstration against auto plant closures in Detroit
The program and strategy to defend jobs
By Joseph Kishore, 1 February 2019
The demonstration, called by the WSWS and the Steering Committee of the Coalition of Rank-and-File Committees, is the first organized expression of rank-and-file opposition to GM’s jobs massacre.
Worker in Mexico fired, beaten, censored, and falsely charged for protesting corporate abuses
By Andrea Lobo and Alex González, 1 February 2019
Inspired by the courageous stand taken by Matamoros workers, Luis Daniel decided to share his story with the WSWS to encourage workers internationally.
Matamoros, Mexico maquiladora workers threatened with mass plant closures
By Alex González, 31 January 2019
The strike of auto parts and electrical workers in Matamoros, Mexico has powerfully demonstrated the international character of the class struggle.
Mexican government prepares “legal” pretext for end of Matamoros strike
By Alex González, 29 January 2019
Threats of a federal operation mean the government is preparing to both bully workers into protracted legal negotiations—which will inevitably end in a result beneficial to the companies—and carry out a violent police repression of the strike.
Matamoros strike at a crossroads as Mexican government orders crackdown
By Andrea Lobo, 28 January 2019
The López Obrador administration sent orders Saturday through Morena Senator Ricardo Monreal Àvila demanding the Tamaulipas state police attack workers and re-open the gates of the factories.
Strikes by Hungarian Audi workers, Mexican auto parts workers
The global struggle of autoworkers
By Jerry White, 28 January 2019
Autoworkers are striving to unite their struggles against the attack on jobs and living standards by GM, Ford, VW and other global corporations.
As strike expands in the maquiladoras
Mexican auto parts workers explain how they formed strike committees
By Andrea Lobo, 26 January 2019
”I think that, indeed, the independent committees are much more useful than the union because we asked ourselves ‘this is the proposal, what do we do?’—something that the union never did.”
Matamoros, Mexico strike becomes “legal” as ruling class fears contagion
By Alex González, 25 January 2019
Conditions are ripe for the Matamoros strike to spread throughout the US-Mexico border region.
Matamoros strike set to expand as ruling class boosts unions
By Eric London and Andrea Lobo, 24 January 2019
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has intervened on behalf of the corporations to call on the unions take “control” of the situation.
The Matamoros auto strike and internet censorship
By Andre Damon, 24 January 2019
The ongoing strike by over 70,000 workers in Matamoros, Mexico has been met with a media blackout by the major print and broadcast outlets.
Amid growing calls by workers for an international struggle
Companies, union appeal for federal intervention against strike in Matamoros
By our reporters, 23 January 2019
The ruling class is desperate to prevent millions of workers in the rest of Mexico and internationally from adopting the example of Matamoros.
Ninety three dead and dozens in critical condition from Mexico pipeline explosion
By Andrea Lobo, 23 January 2019
The tragedy is a direct result of the reactionary and militaristic policies of the López Obrador government to accelerate the privatization of the country’s oil.
Thousands of striking Matamoros, Mexico workers march to border to appeal to US workers
By Alex González, 22 January 2019
Workers gathered at the border crossing between Matamoros, Mexico and Brownsville, Texas to appeal for international support.
Matamoros strike threatens to shut down North American auto industry
By Eric London, 21 January 2019
The corporate media are blacking out coverage of the largest strike in North America in the last two decades.
Workers call for election of committees
Auto companies scared, parts run low across North America as strike grows in Matamoros, Mexico
By Andrea Lobo and Alex González, 19 January 2019
The struggle by Maquiladora workers has reached a crucial point in which workers must take the struggle away from the trade unions, and appeal to their class brothers and sisters across North America and beyond.
Amid media blackout, workers expand strike
Matamoros, Mexico strike of over 70,000 workers enters sixth day
By Alex González and Andrea Lobo, 18 January 2019
The strike at Matamoros is being blacked out by the corporate media because the ruling class is terrified of the prospect of workers uniting internationally in the fight for social equality.
“Those workers are setting an example, they are starting a movement”
Canadian and US autoworkers voice support for striking maquiladora workers in Mexico
By Shannon Jones, 18 January 2019
The striking workers in Mexico include many employed by US and global auto parts suppliers who rely on their labor to fuel their massive profits.
Mexican strikers show working class answer to capitalist reaction at US-Mexico border
By Eric London, 17 January 2019
At the US-Mexico border, the two chief social classes under capitalism—the capitalist class and the working class—are demonstrating the two alternatives for the future of mankind.
Mass strike enters fifth day in Matamoros, Mexico
Thousands gather at mass meeting as maquiladora strike grows
By our reporters, 17 January 2019
Despite threats of mass firings and plant closures by the employers, over 70,000 striking workers are advancing their fight against social inequality.
Mexican, US workers exchange statements of support as Matamoros strike grows
By our reporters, 16 January 2019
The massive citywide strike is expanding today in Matamoros, Mexico as the union and employers failed to meet the workers’ demands.
Rebellion in Matamoros, Mexico
70,000 workers strike at US-Mexico border sweatshops
By Alex González and Eric London, 15 January 2019
Workers are waging a struggle against the pro-company trade union and the brutal “maquiladora” sweatshops across the US-Mexico border.
López Obrador proposes austerity budget, creates free economic zone at the border
By Alex González, 3 January 2019
The funding package is characterized by a massive increase in military spending and negligible funds for social programs.
Nissan to lay off 1,000 Mexican autoworkers
By Alex González, 24 December 2018
The layoffs will have a devastating effect for tens of thousands of autoworkers and are part of a larger restructuring of the auto industry.
Central American asylum seekers forced to wait for months at US-Mexico border
By Norisa Diaz, 19 December 2018
WSWS reporters spoke with a number of Honduran immigrants in Tijuana who have fled poverty, extortion, and death threats from gangs in their home country.
Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma: Art and struggle
By Rafael Azul, 17 December 2018
Roma is a sensitive portrait of a family breaking apart in the broader context of a social crisis. It follows Cleo, a Mixtec Indian, as she performs her daily chores, which include caring for the family’s four children.
Mexico’s new president to grant amnesty to those who profited from corruption
By Don Knowland, 6 December 2018
López Obrador has backtracked on one of his principal campaign pledges.
López Obrador’s rise in Mexico sets stage for explosive class struggles
By Eric London, 4 December 2018
AMLO’s proposed policies, packaged in pseudo-populist verbiage, make clear that the aspirations of his voters will soon be shattered.
San Diego workers and youth speak out in defense of refugees at US-Mexico border
By our reporters, 4 December 2018
American and Mexican citizens alike defended the migrant caravan and condemned the tear gas fired by the Border Patrol.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador inaugurated as new president of Mexico
By Alex González and Don Knowland, 3 December 2018
Popular illusions in promises by the new president to end decades of poverty and oppression in Mexico will crash against his limited, bourgeois program.
Central American migrants facing horror on US border
By Bill Van Auken, 1 December 2018
The deliberate confinement of thousands of refugees—men, women and children—under desperate conditions is a crime against humanity.
Mexico’s Lopez Obrador embraces military on eve of presidential inauguration
By Don Knowland, 1 December 2018
The policies that have been articulated by the incoming president and his team reveal what will be a thoroughly right-wing bourgeois administration.
The military-police assault at San Ysidro
Defend immigrant workers from state violence!
By Eric London, 27 November 2018
The Socialist Equality Party (US) condemns the US government’s military operation at the US-Mexico border Sunday as a horrific crime against humanity.
US and Mexican officials stoke up nationalist backlash against immigrants
By Norisa Diaz, 22 November 2018
Following an anti-caravan demonstration on Sunday in Tijuana, Border Patrol closed down the San Ysidro Port of Entry Monday morning, leaving tens of thousands in panic, in an effort to stoke up anger and confusion.
As Mexican-president elect prepares to take office
López Obrador backtracks campaign promises, creates new National Guard
By Alex González, 22 November 2018
His administration will accelerate the militarization of the country and intensify the ties between the government and the financial elite.
Amidst talk of US auto industry consolidation UAW pushes economic nationalism ahead of 2019 contracts
By Shannon Jones, 19 November 2018
The United Auto Workers has responded to the threat to jobs by aligning itself ever more closely with the Trump administration's America First nationalism and protectionism.
Migrant caravan reaches US border as Latin American governments discuss austerity and repression
By Andrea Lobo, 17 November 2018
As the first caravan of mostly Honduran migrants begins to arrive at the US border, local elites met at the Ibero-American Summit, vowing deeper social austerity and militarized repression.
Asylum ban: Trump eliminates right to asylum for immigrants crossing without documentation
By Eric London, 9 November 2018
The decision is the most significant restriction on immigration in decades. It will cause hundreds of thousands of deportations, and send countless immigrants to their deaths.
After new Mexico City airport is canceled, López Obrador rushes to reassure finance capital
By Alex González, 8 November 2018
The incoming AMLO administration made clear that all investments would be secured, while doing nothing to address the capital’s water crisis.
Mexican police shoot and kill 26-year-old immigrant as repression intensifies along Mexico-Guatemala border
By Andrea Lobo, 30 October 2018
Despite the US threats and the militarized operations by the Guatemalan and Mexican governments, thousands of Central American migrants continue to leave.
“Migrants are not criminals, we are international workers!”
The migrant caravan and the fight to unite the international working class
By Eric London, 23 October 2018
The caravan is proving that the division of the world into nation states under capitalism is incompatible with the aspirations and material needs of billions of workers.
Central American caravan reaches Mexico chanting “We are international workers!”
By Andrea Lobo, 22 October 2018
The caravan is becoming a symbol of working class internationalism and is being denounced by every government in North and Central America.
Mexico: Fifty years since the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre
By Don Knowland, 6 October 2018
For five decades the Mexican state has engaged in violence in order to crush political and social opposition, regardless of the political party in power.
Trump touts tariffs and trade war following NAFTA renegotiation
By Roger Jordan, 2 October 2018
The revised trade pact forges a US-led North American protectionist trade bloc in preparation for economic and military conflict with Washington’s global rivals, above all China.
López Obrador promises Truth Commission in disappearance of Ayotzinapa students
By Don Knowland, 1 October 2018
Any new investigation will inevitably face limits, including the role of the army in the events and its coverup.
Massive student protests hit Mexico City universities
By Don Knowland, 11 September 2018
Students denounced attacks by violent right-wing student shock groups directed by politicians and authorities.
Trade tensions increase as US-Canada talks miss deadline
By Nick Beams, 1 September 2018
Trump warned that if Canada did not agree to US terms “the easiest thing we can do is tariff their cars coming in,” a threat which he repeated in remarks yesterday.
The assault on immigrants becomes the assault on citizens
US citizens along southern border denied passports, accused of fraudulent birth certificates
By Renae Cassimeda, 1 September 2018
American citizens born in the Southwestern border regions are being accused of having fraudulent birth certificates and denied passports.
US-Mexico trade pact takes aim at Washington’s rivals and the working class
By Keith Jones, 29 August 2018
Trump’s push to refashion the Canada-US economic and military partnership to better serve Washington and Wall Street has thrown the Canadian ruling elite into a historic crisis.
On eve of strike deadline for 9,000 VW workers
Mexican farmers blame Volkswagen for drought near assembly plant
By Alex González, 18 August 2018
To guarantee their demands for high wages and fully funded social services, autoworkers and farmers are each other’s most natural allies.
Mexican president-elect promises one-time electricity debt forgiveness
By Alex González, 7 August 2018
Andrés Manuel López Obrador promised limited relief to a single state while seeking to hide the appointment of a figure who helped carry out fraud in the 1988 presidential elections.
Mexico: Goodyear fires workers for forming independent union
By Alex González, 21 July 2018
About 50 workers were fired in retaliation for a strike action that took place in April against the company’s “protection union” contract.
Mexican president-elect assembles right-wing cabinet
By Alex González, 14 July 2018
Andrés Manuel López Obrador has selected establishment figures to reassure the ruling elite that their interests will be defended.
Mexican president-elect López Obrador embraced by Mexico’s business titans
By Don Knowland, 6 July 2018
Now that AMLO has won the election, he and Mexico’s most powerful business heads are going out of their way to promise they will work together for the “greater good.”
US ruling class takes measure of AMLO’s victory in Mexico
By Bill Van Auken, 4 July 2018
All three major US newspapers “of record” responded with the same fear, not of López Obrador, but rather of the tens of millions of Mexicans who voted for him.
Mexico’s election deals devastating blow to old ruling parties
By Don Knowland, 3 July 2018
The sweep by López Obrador and his MORENA-led coalition is a debacle for the PRI, which governed the country from 1929 to 2000, and again for the last six years.
Massive victory for Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexican elections
By Rafael Azul, 2 July 2018
The large support for AMLO and his Morena party is the product of widespread hostility to poverty, inequality, corruption and the militarization of society.
An interview with Mexican documentarian Juan Francisco Urrusti, director of In Exile: A Family Film
“The world should not be closing itself in—my father’s struggle was against all walls.”
By Kevin Mitchell, 2 July 2018
The WSWS spoke recently with the director of In Exile: A Family Film, a film about the Spanish Civil War and its consequences.
The elections in Mexico and the political tasks of the working class
By Bill Van Auken, 30 June 2018
The coming to power of López Obrador will yield not a way out of the current crisis, but rather its sharp intensification.
Lopez Obrador maintains large lead in Mexican presidential election polls
By Don Knowland, 27 June 2018
Morena and its coalition could sweep Congress, and threaten the continued viability of other parties.
Mexican teachers union ends “indefinite strike” of 80,000 teachers on the eve of national elections
By Alex González, 27 June 2018
The teachers struck as part of a continuing struggle for the repeal of the 2013 national education legislation.
Parents of 43 disappeared Mexican students demand reopening of investigation
By Rafael Azul, 12 June 2018
A panel of judges found that the original investigation of the Ayotzinapa case was incomplete and fraudulent.
Mexico responds to Trump’s trade war measures with tariffs on US goods
By Rafael Azul, 9 June 2018
Retaliating against US steel and aluminum import tariffs, the government of Mexico imposed tariffs on 71 products exported by the United States.
Mexican presidential candidate López Obrador reaches understanding with business magnates
By Don Knowland, 8 June 2018
After months of charges and countercharges, the overwhelming favorite to win the Mexican presidential election and the representatives of big business declared a truce.
So far from God, so close to the United States…
The second Mexican presidential debate and the crisis of bourgeois rule
By Rafael Azul, 24 May 2018
This second debate indicates, more clearly than the first, that there is nothing here for Mexican workers.
Over 100,000 teachers march in Mexico, warn of “indefinite strike”
By Alex González, 21 May 2018
Spanning from the Yucatan peninsula to northern Mexico, the protests represent another expression of the international struggle by teachers in 2018.
Strike breaks out at Goodyear factory in central Mexico
By Alex González, 9 May 2018
About 600 workers went on strike to demand the right to form their own union.
Mexican ruling class working out response to López Obrador’s lead in election polls
By Don Knowland, 7 May 2018
Heated charges and political maneuvers dominated Mexico’s electoral campaign last week as the “left” bourgeois candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador kept a 20 point lead in the polls.
First presidential debate
Mexican presidential candidates call for increased police and military activity
By Rafael Azul and Don Knowland, 3 May 2018
The debate took place in the wake of the grisly killing of three film students by gang members in Jalisco.
US election meddling in the age of the Internet
How Google, Facebook and Twitter are manipulating the Mexican presidential elections—Part 2
By Alex González and Andrea Lobo, 1 May 2018
The US military-intelligence apparatus is integrating the largest technology and Internet companies to tighten the US stranglehold over Latin America.
US election meddling in the age of the Internet
How Google, Facebook and Twitter are manipulating the Mexican presidential elections—Part 1
By Alex González and Andrea Lobo, 28 April 2018
The United States is now engaged in advanced efforts to exploit data on every voter in the country, as well as user data from Google and the social media companies, to influence the elections of its southern neighbor.
Mexican government to deploy federal troops against immigrants on its southern border
By Michael Anders, 18 April 2018
The anti-democratic decision proves that the Mexican government is a pawn of the Trump administration.
Ahead of Mexican elections, social media companies, corporate press launch censorship operation
By Alex González, 5 April 2018
The #Verificado2018 campaign was launched to allegedly protect voters from Russian meddling in the upcoming July 1 general elections.
Mexico’s leading presidential candidates genuflect before bankers
By Don Knowland, 13 March 2018
Supposedly left populist candidate López Obrador assured bankers he will not undermine their interests if elected.
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