Mexico

The Mexican Marxist Tendency Militante and Hands off Venezuela Mexico have written an open letter to President Chavez asking him to maintain his government's position of not recognising Calderon and asking him to recognise openly Lopez Obrador as the legitimate president of Mexico.

The solidarity campaign we launched against the electoral fraud in Mexico is getting a good response. The bourgeois press in Mexico covered the solidarity activities of our comrades in Pakistan(which you can see here (online) and here (pdf)). A comrade was interviewed by Co-op radio in Vancouver and we continue to receive messages of solidarity from around the world. We must continue the campaign! Keep the messages coming!

A massive National Democratic Convention (CND) met in the centre of Mexico City on Saturday, September 16 and decided to elect “a legitimate government” with Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as its president. It is clear that this is not simply a "normal" movement against electoral fraud but a movement that challenges bourgeois democracy itself and the institutions of capitalism.

The revolutionary mass movement that has been brought into being in Mexico by the electoral fraud perpetrated in the Presidential elections has reached a point where clearly the power is there for the taking. If there were a genuine revolutionary party at the head of the masses we would be on the eve of socialist revolution.

In spite of the revolutionary movement of the Mexican masses, the ruling class has decided to go ahead with its manoeuvres to impose its man on the Mexican workers and peasants. The masses cannot tolerate another period of right-wing government. They must prepare for power.

The struggle in Mexico against electoral fraud is developing into a revolutionary situation and its most advanced point is in the state of Oaxaca. The Marxist Tendency "Militante", part of the International Marxist Tendency, has been involved in these struggles from the very beginning and is now one of a number of organisations being targeted for repression by the state. Urgent international solidarity is needed.

Yesterday we highlighted the revolutionary developments in Oaxaca. There the mass movement has thrown up the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), an organ of workers’ power. The dilemma is now posed of how this much more advanced expression of revolutionary struggle should relate to the National Democratic Convention (CND) - participate and push the latter forward or stay out and remain isolated?

Weeks after the Mexican elections the mass movement against electoral fraud is giving no sign of receding. On the contrary, it is spreading and becoming stronger with each passing day. The situation in Oaxaca is of revolutionary proportions. The workers and peasants could actually take power. Revolution has reached the very borders of the most powerful capitalist country in the world, the USA.

The Mexican bourgeoisie is determined to get its man declared as President of the country. The masses are equally determined to stop this blatant electoral fraud. In some areas of Mexico an openly insurrectionary mood is developing and the struggle is going well beyond the question of the ballot recount. Revolution is brewing throughout the country.

On Friday July 21st, 40 comrades of Militante, the Mexican section of the International Marxist Tendency, gathered at the house of that great martyr of the working class, Leon Trotsky, to say goodbye to one of the great revolutionaries who, like the classical Marxists dedicated his life to the revolution: Ted Grant.

One and a half million people, according to the organisers, marched on Sunday, July 16th to protest against electoral fraud in the Mexican presidential elections of July 2nd. Even according to the Mexican DF police, which put the figure of those on the march at 1.1 million, this was one of the largest demonstrations in Mexican history.

Friday July 14th was the international day of action against electoral fraud in Mexico. Here we publish some reports from pickets organised around the globe, from Britain to Austria, Germany to Denmark and Spain to the United States, Canada, Pakistan and Argentina.

The mood in Mexico is becoming angrier as more evidence is presented of the electoral fraud against PRD candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The march that started all over the country yesterday is expected to meet today in five locations, Toluca, Querétaro, Puebla, Hidalgo and Cuernavaca, from which the demonstrators will make their way to the massive march on Sunday in Mexico City.