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| Mexic
today

By JAMES BREMNER

Sometimes it is amazing how
two people can look at the same
Scene and yet see completely
different things. I was in Mexico
City at the same time as syndi-
cated columnist John Chamber-
lain. In his “Washington Scene”
he has been doing a series on
Mexico, combining a vacation
with some neat political pieces
in support of the Establishment.
That’s one way to have a holi-
day with pay!

Chamberlain is positively en-
tranced by the prosperity of the
middle class of Mexico. I, on the
other hand, was appalled by the
Poverty of workers and peas-
ants. It’s a question of your
Point of view.

_ Mexico City, with its popula-
tion of nearly five million, is a
City of contrasts. Its architec-
ture is inspired, particularly the
new university, museum of an-
thropology and the old churches.
Numerous, well-treed parks and.
boulevards occur here and there.
Massive sculpture and murals
testify to the artistic bent of its
people. Handicrafts in silver and
leather show remarkable talent.
The National Ballet is a beauti-
ful tribute to the historic, native
tradition of the dance.

The main traffic arteries in
Mexico City are wide and roar-
ing with an endless stream of
Cars and taxis. Reforma Boule-
vard is a typical example: It is
the U.S. main street in a Latin
Setting, broad and clean, with
elegant buildings and expensive
Shops. But it is a facade.

One does not have to go far

from the main thoroughfare to
discover the real Mexico City.
Narrow, crowded housing, and
hole-in-the-wall shops predomi-
nate. Of course there ‘are the
well-to-do sections of the city,
but their high-walled enclosures
are mute testimony to their ex-
clusiveness and_ self-conscious
desire for seclusion.

Chamberlain is so pleased
with the progréss of Mexico’s
middle class that he scarcely
talks about anything else. How-
ever, he cannot resist. making
comparisons with Cuba. He
notes rather wryly, “The Mexi-
can revolution has created a big
middle class; the Castroite revo-
lution has destroyed a previous:
ly existing bourgeois society...
the future leaders of a true na-
tionalist Cuba are all in Miami,
Florida. They are starting the
businesses there — sports cloth-
ing, manufacture, entertainment,
Bacardi rum, and so on.”

I-don’t know how far into the
ranks Chamberlain’s middle
slass_ goes, but I have never
seen such mass business activity
as in Mexico City. On. a week-
and the streets throng with ven-
jors selling everything from
fruit to nuts, to picture post-
sards. There are hundreds of
shoe-shine men with their
quaint, portable stalls. An army
of children sells Chiclets and
newspapers. Certainly, for indi-
vidual effort and initiative in
turning a small profit, the na-
tives of Mexico City haven't
missed a bet.

All this is absent in Havana,
it is true. And along with it the

sad scenes of native mothers
and their children squatting on
bare, cold sidewalks trying -to
solicit a few coppers from the
sale of nuts.

The pattern of Mexican inter-
nal trading activity is’ similar to
the rest of Latin America, out-
side of Cuba. The main indus-
trial and trading effort is owned
and controlled by the U.S., but
native businessmen are encour-
aged as junior partners. It gives
the same sort of false front to
the nation’s business activity as
Refoma Boulevard does to the
overcrowded slums.

Ironically, all political talk in
Mexico is in terms of ‘‘the revo-
lution.” It is a revolution betray-
ed. The vast majority of the
country’s 37 million is very poor,
indeed. Well over ‘half of the
people are engaged in agricul-
ture, but it is: insufficiently de-
veloped to feed the population
Food must be imported.

A brave beginning was made
in 1938 by the government to
control Mexico’s natural re-
sources. In that year oil was na-
ationalized. Ten years of inter-
national litigation _ followed.
Mexico finally agreed to indem-
nify U.S., British and Dutch for-
mer owners to the tune of over
$100 million.

Mining is the principal indus-

try of Mexico. Its mineral re-
sources are among the richest
in the world. The most striking

feature in Mexican mining: is
foreign ownership. Of about 31,-
000 mining properties, only three
dercent are under the ownership
of Mexican nationals.

The Mexican péople are pre-
dominately native Indian, de-
scendants of the once mighty
civilization led by the Aztecs.
They. are a. proud, stoic, hard-
working and sensitive people.
They have a great sense of his-
tory and recall. their past with

- mixed nostalgia and bitterness.

‘It may be, as Chamberlain
says, the Mexican. Seople believe
in the present free enterprise
system. with its ‘snail-like re-
forms. But never have I seen a
people so dependent on their
wits to survive. Arid with that,
never have I seen such anxiety
over petty thievery as in Mexico
City. Perhaps this accounts for
the large police force, which
seems to be everywhere. The
police are, by all odds, the best
dressed people in Mexico City,
and certainly the most natty law
officers in the world!

I was in Mexico’s capital for
the Juarez Memorial Day cele-
brations, as was Chamberlain.
He was enamored by the respec-
table, trade union participation

in the official proceedings. How-
ever, to me, the: more note-
worthy were the police squads,
with riot guns, mounting guard
at the outside of the iron-fenced
American embassy. Athough I
didn’t see any sign of a demon-
stration, I assumed this to be a
precautionary measure against
a possible gathering of people
opposed to U.S. policy in Viet-
nam. :

.No doubt Mexican doctors,
lawyers and businessmen have
a high standard of living. As the
working ‘elite of the Establish
ment, they enjoy creature com
forts far above the ordinary
people. But all the middle class
of Mexico is not sold on the
present fast-buck system. A
great many professional people,
particularly artists and- writers,
have a social conscience. They
think personal money-grubbing
is scarcely a- moral. goal, and
their work shows a loftier aim—
to serve the people.

I suspect Socialist Cuba will
continue to invite comparisons
with the rest of Latin America:
In my view, the dignity of the
common man in Cuba is more
than a match for the free enter-
prise tempo in Mexico. In time,
the people of Mexico will agree.
And whereby lies the dilemma of
Washington and its Chamber.
lains. :

Britain's new daily voice of the Left

Britain’s. new daily voice of
the Left, the Morning Star (in-
Corporating the Daily Worker)
peeeared on newsstands - April

{In a front pag. editorial edi-
tor George Matthews outlined
the stand the paper will take.

ete is the text of his editorial

This is a unique daily news-
Paper. It is the only one in Bri-
tain independent of the handful
Of Press lords who control the
rest of the Press.

lt is the only one owned by

(ts readers through a Coopera-

tive Society. So it is the only.

ne which cannot be taken over.

: It is also the only daily voice
2 que Left. Other newspapers,
‘cluding all the Sunday news-
ges except the Sunday Citi-
noe Put the views of Big Busi-
: S because they are run for
Profit and to defend the profit

We are a committed news-
paper — committed to the cause
of sanity, of peace and of pro-
gress.

We are on the side of the
unions. Our predecessor, the
Daily Worker, in whose 36-year-
old tradition we are proud to fol-
low, was the only.

to counter the hysteria whipped-
up by.the “noose trial” recently.
We shall continue to resist at-
temps to make the unions the
scapegoats for the blunders
either of governments or profit-
seeking employers.
We are on the side of the

daily paper people of Vietnam, North and

South, and of the growing move-
ments in America which oppose
the Vietnam war.

We are on the side of those
who, behind the false glitter of
this so-called affluent society,
still live in appalling conditions
of poverty and ill-health. —

We shall fight for justice for
the old people, the disabled, the
badly-housed, the tenants, and
the low-paid.

We are also on the side of
youth, so many of whom are in
revolt against the get-rich-quick

' rat-race of our capitalist society,

and whose future is darkened by
the ever-present shadow of the
hydrogen bomb.

We are for a new society, a
Socialist society, replacing the
out-of-date, obsolete, creaking
system under which we live with
a modern, scientific, 20th-century
system in which the working

people will own, and controi.
their country.

Editorialiy, we express Com-
munist views. At the same time
we offer a platform to all genu-
ine Left opinion.

Our columns are open for dis-
cussion and controversy, to help
unite the diverse Left and pro
gressive trends in Britain for

‘their common aims.

The Morning Star is an all-
round newspaper. It will give a
first-class general news service,
including news of the Labor
movement and from the fac-
tories which make it indispen-
sable to trade unions and Social-
ists.

It has features of interest to
all the family — to wives as
well as husbands, to teenagers
and children, to highbrows and
lowbrows, to those who like the
Beatles and those who like Bact
and those who like both.

May 13, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5

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