MEXICO CITY, September 4 — About 17,000 workers in the Mexican Union of Electricians (SME) continue fighting to win back their jobs. Ten months ago President Calderón ordered the police and army onto their worksites to advance the move towards privatization which would leave over 44,000 workers in the street and 22,000 retired workers in poverty.
“When I was born I was already part of the union; my father was an electrician and I took his place,” declared a worker at a Party meeting. “We can’t allow them to defeat us.”
This exemplifies the spirit that encourages thousands to keep fighting. Another worker responded, “His resistance is admirable, but won’t end the exploitation and attacks on workers. For this we need a revolutionary party and a communist revolution.” He invited the electrician to get to know the Party and our paper. He said he would.
A young transportation worker thought some struggles like at SME can succeed. In the Atenco region, the farmers were able to prevent the rulers from taking their lands to build an airport. We all refused the ridiculous paltry amount they offered for their lands. A young teacher commented, “The Party must be part of these struggles, to unify the workers’ struggle for their jobs, which is part of the fight towards communism.”
Young students and workers from those areas also attended the meeting. We all saw the importance of studying CHALLENGE collectively and individually to better our understanding of what happens in the world, of the workers’ struggles and the task the Party carries out to win them to our ranks.
This important discussion reflected our debates to help resolve the contradiction between reform and revolution. The Party will lead towards the destruction of capitalism and the creation of a communist society. The unions almost always side with the bosses, while saying they’re fighting so that workers can live a little better under capitalism. However, this spreads the illusions that this system can be reformed. But in these organizations there are thousands of workers who can be won to destroy capitalism. Communists must fight alongside them to win them towards revolution, not reform. This is a long process but is the essence of our struggle.
Until now we’ve made modest advances in building a base for communism. The areas of this work change daily. Workers’ conditions here worsen rapidly. Unemployment is increasing. The few jobs that do exist mostly have no benefits or are jobs as street vendors.
Under the guise of the “war against drug-trafficking,” the army, police and paramilitary groups saturate entire cities. A small number of billionaires openly control the political parties and government, helping to reveal their fight amongst themselves. Inequality, racism, repression, sexism and exploitation intensify. Conditions are changing rapidly towards fascism.
To make the struggle for communism a priority for workers, we must advance from a modest struggle to a major dedication to liberate the working class from the capitalists’ yoke. Our key tasks are massive circulation and hand-to-hand distribution of CHALLENGE and our active presence in the class struggle to build a base for communism.