Two urgent tasks to confront the offensive of the neoliberals in the country (Part II)

This article is from the second part of a pamphlet of the same name, published electronically at the beginning of this year.

Because of the general fall in prices of raw materials as a result of the latest cyclical crisis of capitalism internationally and, in particular, the fall in oil prices, the economy in some countries and, in particular Mexico, has seen a stagnation of investment in exploration, extraction, refining and export of oil.

In the international financial system, the state of all stock exchanges in the second week of December 2014 is a prime example of the fragility of the world’s economies. In those days there were dramatic falls in Athens, China, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Among the consequences that have already taken place in Mexico is the devaluation of the Mexican peso, which since December exceeded 15 pesos per dollar and in March reached 15.90. On the other hand, the price of Mexican oil is at its lowest point in recent months, at $37 per barrel. This, together with the artificial decrease in crude oil production to make way for the entry of the transnational companies, will drastically decrease the income of the public treasury and therefore of the public budget.

In 2014, the GDP grew 2.1%, and it is expected to rise between 2.5% and 3.5% in 2015. Industrial production and manufacturing have decreased and will tend to continue to decrease in the following months, which has resulted in a sharp reduction of the budget for this year and for the next, as the neoliberals announced.

In short, the year is beginning with harsh data that reflect the economic stagnation in the country, with strong elements that indicate a new crisis.

September 2, 2014, was the last time that Enrique Pena Nieto (EPN) was able to show with a triumphant speech the supposed unity among all sectors of the financial oligarchy and the national bourgeoisie with its main political parties, the representatives of the three branches of the State and the majority of the governors from different political tendencies who were present, where he appeared victorious in imposing his structural reform.

But, on September 26, with the genocidal acts in the city of Iguala de la Independencia, Guerrero, 6 people were assassinated, including 3 students from the Ayotzinapa Teachers’ School and in the same attack, 43 more students from the same school were detained and disappeared. After the attack there was a huge popular response, which took the mask off of all the bourgeois political bodies of the country, highlighting their deep decay, their material inability to solve the great problems of the general crisis of capitalism.

There is a breakdown of the old bourgeois political apparatus, headed for over 70 years by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) with a pseudo-nationalist image; another 12 years by the far-right National Action Party (PAN); and, 2 further years with the return of the “new PRI,” of which the only thing that is “new” is that it is the exclusive and unilateral lackey of the international and national financial oligarchy. It has also brought hundreds of thousands of men and women into the streets.

This weakness and discrediting of the Mexican bourgeois system is, among other things, due to the participation of the State in the massacre in Iguala. The municipal police, in coordination with the drug cartel “Guerreros Unidos” (GU), who were only the executors of this attack, also had the collaboration of the state police, federal police and the Army.

The direct involvement of various political parties, above all the PRI, the PAN and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in the backing of the Mayor of Iguala, a member of the narco GU, in his defense and support as head of that town for about 2 years, also led to the total discredit of these and all the bourgeois parties, including the Movement of National Regeneration (MORENA) of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which many weeks later had Lazaro Mazon as its candidate for governor of Guerrero, the chief political supporter of Jose Luis Abarca.

Moreover, the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) to in fact prevent the referendum as an institutional escape for those dissatisfied with the structural reforms, also dragged the National Electoral Institute (INE) into the debacle with its maneuvers, given that the carrying out of the referendum could justify to some extent this new electoral scheme.

The bourgeois judicial apparatus, composed of the Judicial Power of the Federation (PJF) and the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR), as well as their counterparts in the states, also was completely exposed as devices that only serve to defend the private ownership of the means of production. They do not act against the narco-politicians but they do act quickly and expeditiously against the popular leaders.

As soon as the first narco graves were opened, one could see what a great part of the national territory these occupy, and that there are tens of thousands of missing people and hundreds of thousands assassinated who still await justice.

The list of public officials, political parties and governments that work with drug traffickers is very long.

Within the Mexican Army some discontent is being aroused among the troops; relatives of members of the Army have been organizing, some with a fascist perspective that vindicates the honor of the Army; however, the great majority of people who took to the streets after the imprisonment of some soldiers for the Tlatlaya case (the extrajudicial execution of 22 civilians) demanded an end to the injustices committed by the middle and high command of the military structure.

The mansions that Pena Nieto received (worth $7 million dollars) and that Luis Videgaray, Secretary of Finance, (worth $850,000 dollars) received as “gifts” from a real estate company show that there cannot be more pestilence and corruption in this rotten power.

The fraud that the FICREA [financial institution – translator’s note] committed against more than 6,400 investors with savings in its People’s Financial Service has left those who were defrauded totally defenselessness in this extortion; it also laundered drug money. Another case of money laundering is that of HSBC, in which not a single person has been punished, as with the impunity given to the narco trucks of Televisa (the main television monopoly in the country allied to Pena) in Nicaragua and the involvement of senior officers of that company.

The bankruptcy of the Mexican bourgeois state and the financial oligarchy necessarily leads to the bankruptcy of the social-democratic and reformist conciliatory policy, which still influences an important part of the masses in the country. Besides the above-mentioned cases, there is the rightward and fascist movement of the government of the Federal District with the imposition of methods of crowd control, the reform to harshen the Penal Code, among others. This tendency will suffer the same fate as the whole Mexican political system, of which it is an integral part.

The massacre in Iguala created a great awakening among the majority of the Mexican people. In a quick and vertiginous way, the mass movement grew, increasing the forms of struggle, from marches to mega-marches, from state struggles (in Guerrero) to struggles and strikes throughout the country and from these to international struggles (Days of Global Action for Ayotzinapa), with actions and forms of struggle of all kinds that complemented each other and swelled into a large front of struggle against the regime of the oligarchy. With some wear, however, the protests are a constant on the 26th of each month, with different levels of participation of the masses.

Special mention must be made of the historic strike of November 20, from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, of 60 thousand proletarians of the Telephone Workers Union of the Mexican Republic (STRM) across the country, adding to the Global Day of Action for the presentation alive of the 43 teaching students of Ayotzinapa. In this context there is also the struggle of the miners, oil workers and electricians who took part in actions at the national level.

In that short period political slogans were also raised: Return of the 43 teaching students of Ayotzinapa alive and punishment of the guilty!, I am tired!, It was the State!, It was Pena Nieto!, Out with them all!, For a new Constituent Assembly and a new Constitution!, For a popular democratic system! These latter were also agreed to by the People’s National Assembly (ANP).

At the organizational level unity was created that brought cohesion to the mobilization and gave political leadership to the movement at the national level: the ANP, formed in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, by several of the most consolidated processes of national and state unity in the country and made up of many workers, farmers, student and popular organizations. This is a firm basis for a united front at the national level, like its immediate predecessors.

In Guerrero one must point out the rise in forms of organization expressed in the ANP, with precedents in the Guerrero Popular Movement (MPG); the Community and Self-Defense Police; the peasant and indigenous movement; the teacher’s college movement and the State Coordinator of the Education Workers of Guerrero (CETEG); and as a particular result, the Municipal Popular Assemblies and the establishment of the Municipal Popular Councils as real organs of proletarian, peasant, indigenous and popular power, that is, Soviet organs (organs for the overthrow of the bourgeois regime and organs of the new power), which project the programmatic perspective of the revolutionary tactics not only for Guerrero, but for the whole country.

Although the movement has not yet developed to the degree of establishing itself in power at the state level, the tactical lessons in municipalities such as Tecoanapa are preparing the masses towards that end, converting Guerrero into another state with experience of insurrection that, together with Oaxaca with its most recent experience in 2006, are forging the proletarian and popular masses towards the overthrow of the regime of the financial oligarchy and the establishment of their own power.

The strike of the Trade Union of Workers of the Institute of Middle and Higher School Education (SUTIEMS) that broke out in September, although it was of short duration, was also part of the rise of the mass struggle during this period; it achieved partial but important victories for workers in the union. It also struck a political blow to the right-wing government of Miguel Angel Mancera in the Federal District.

The strike by students of the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) broke out in September, before the massacre in Iguala, and managed to gain the backing and support of the whole student movement and a good part of the Mexican people. It lasted more than 70 days, struck a blow at the “educational reform” of Pena Nieto, carried out mass demonstrations of polytechnic students, formed the Polytechnic General Assembly (AGP), the assemblies in each of the schools of the IPN. The making of decisions by the student body, through direct consultations, was also a key element to ensure the victories won by the strike.

The question of self-defense is gaining momentum. In less than one year this scenario has changed; those people co-opted by the regime and involved with the drug-trafficking are acting against those who work independently. They arrested its main leaders and favored criminal activity. The lack of a link of the self-defenses with the mass movement at the national level remains a limitation to better develop mass armed struggle in the country.

The decline in the credibility and legitimacy of the political system is increasing, as is the rise of mass struggle in the country and some victories, and there is a growing tendency towards a political crisis of the regime. The symptoms are: isolation of EPN and his cabinet; chaos and a certain distrust within the government itself; distrust of the government by certain sectors of the financial oligarchy and the national bourgeoisie, deepening the inter-bourgeois contradictions, which shows the fragility of the regime at the present juncture.

The fall of the governor of Guerrero; the dismissal of the Secretariat of Public Security of the Federal District, the signing by EPN of a statement with the parents of the 43 missing teaching students; the fall of the Director of the IPN and the signing of a statement by the Secretary of Public Education and the Interior Ministry, in which important victories were made by the student community of the IPN, are, among other things, elements of the weakening of the Mexican State.

If things keep developing as they have been until now, it will become a pre-revolutionary stage and a possible revolutionary crisis in the country; this will depend largely on how the mass struggle develops that so far has kept rising.

A pre-revolutionary or revolutionary situation means nothing if there is no solid alternative that can be created by the working class and the popular masses, as well as the call for a New Constituent Assembly to draw up a New Constitution. But to achieve these expectations, first EPN and his entire government must fall, in its place a Revolutionary Provisional Government must be named that must convene the Proletarian Democratic and Popular New Constituent Assembly.

The fascist outcome is linked to the degree of decomposition and putrefaction of the political system and the bourgeois State. This has resulted in the decomposition of all the bourgeois parties, the questioning of the Army and Navy.

Recent events, among others, that continue to promote the fascist outcome are the following: the massacre at Iguala and disappearance of the 43, with its precedent at Tlatlaya; selective repression (targeted arrests by the federal government, the state governments and the Federal District) and mass repression (in demonstrations); the concentration of the repressive forces in a “single command” that is coordinated with organized crime, as at Iguala; provocations; the statements of the heads of the Navy and the Army; the open support of the US government for EPN, to implement the structural reforms and develop Plan Merida. Furthermore, the concentration of federal forces in Guerrero (Federal Police, Gendarmerie, Army and Navy) to repress the movement, using the repressive tactics employed in Oaxaca from October to December of 2006; and the adoption of the law against marches that make the penalties on protesters harsher.

The second outcome, the bourgeois democratic or conciliatory one, is a reformist, social democratic or populist type, which can insert itself even with the possible fall of Pena Nieto, but whose main objective would be to cut short the rise of the mass struggle.

Among the main forms that this outcome could take is the rise of a sector of civil-pacifist social-democracy, trying to revive the internal market and implement social programs to control the discontent of the masses, to give a new look to the process of capitalist accumulation, together with a new legitimacy to bourgeois democracy, including some modifications of the structural reforms. These are the ones that put at the center the election campaign in 2015, mainly the parliamentary cretinism of a section of the small and middle bourgeoisie, even of a part of the non-oligarchic bourgeoisie, trying to disguise their bourgeois interest with calls to “national salvation,” etc.

The proletarian revolutionary outcome expresses the interests of the proletariat and the democratic and revolutionary popular masses; in essence it proposes the overthrow of the oligarchic regime, imposing a government of workers and poor peasants, which carries out urgent economic, political and social measures in the interest of the majority.

The trend towards strengthening this revolutionary tactic is the raising of the forms of struggle, forms of organization and slogans: this is the tactic used by the Guerrero Popular Movement (MPG); the tactic applied by the National Coordinator of Education Workers and the student movement; and it is the one applied by the movement for Ayotzinapa.

Regarding slogans: The fall of the regime is an attainable objective and is being sought through specific plans. The governor of Guerrero fell and there is a proposal in the Senate for the Removal of the Authorities in Guerrero.

Regarding the forms of struggle: One very important thing has been the use of organized and mass violence in the movement in Guerrero. This has become a daily question, placing the issue of violence in the national debate, which has been a real challenge that requires a broader study and more precise orientation.

FIRST: 2014 ended with economic stagnation in the country and the trend towards a new economic and political crisis, which can lead to a revolutionary crisis; this trend has been reinforced in the first months of 2015.

SECOND. The arrest and disappearance of the 43 student teachers of Ayotzinapa marked a rise and intensification of the class struggle, elevated forms of struggle and organization, with Guerrero at the head with the ANP, CNP [Popular National Convention], the new Constituent Assembly and new Constitution.

THIRD. The former raises the possibility of bringing nearer a pre-revolutionary period of the class struggle and, therefore, the outbreak of the General Political Strike (HPG) and the formation of the National Assembly of the Proletariat and the Peoples of Mexico and its Single Command, as organs of insurrection and the new power of the popular masses.

FOURTH. In these times the popular masses cannot trust in parliamentary electoral democracy, but in their own forces for the weakening and overthrow of the system of the financial oligarchy, projecting as a general tactic the boycott of the elections in the specific situation of 2015.

FIFTH. Spontaneous violence, outside of the general process of organization and struggle, should not divert us from the General Political Strike and the United Front towards the proletarian revolution. Every violent and forceful action, stripped of adventurism and spontaneity, which is planned and organized, and embraced by the broad poplar masses, in the framework of the HPG, would be welcomed.

Finally, we must note that in this effort that the Party organizations are making, there was and is the revolutionary role played by Comrade Gustavo Alejandro Salgado Delgado, who was arrested and disappeared on March 3 and was found on March 4 with his body cowardly and brutally dismembered.

Our comrade was the leader of the Central Committee of the CP of M (M-L) and of the Executive Commission of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Popular Front; he carried out revolutionary tasks in the state of Morelos, in the municipality of Ayala.

We pay a simple and deserved homage to our comrade Gustavo, to our other comrades of our Party and the fraternal Parties of ICMLPO who fell in combat, as revolutionaries and social fighters of the world who continue to contribute with their lives to the liberation from modern slavery.

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