sare te (R) with Jose Luis Cancho- ommunist Party leader in of Tijuana. - he PRI candidate, Portilla, a certainty. se circumstances the Par- ista Mexicano (PCM), which @round, decided to run a witjidate for president. ‘, bold decision considering involved. jiliteracy rate in Mexico is “order that a write-in ballot het, voter has to write in the full nat candidate, without spelling -written-in name must be ompletely within the small sion the ballot. Je voter is givena rather thick | si.xsich to mark the ballot! chose as its candidate Val- , (Salazer), the venerable leate railroad workers. Campa, whiten jailed by every Mexican 2 the thirties toured the magnificent campaign and al pposition against the PRI. votes were ‘‘counted”’ ved over a million write-in 2 PRI got 11 million votes. ssive showing resulted in es on the PRI and certain to the working class. The ‘gnomic and political crisis so deep that the PRI can no ssly suppress the people’s Ne Union Movement period of the progressive gt regime of Cardenas in the trade union movement grew, the growth experienced iin | the United States with the f the CIO. Bthe Cardenas presidency the under strong government mination. rade union membership is » and dues are checked-off by e jaw also renders collective : charade, as wage guidelines ly imposed. sees to it that its “people” trade union leaders, and re- \ have received considerable elf regard from the CIA. We were in Mexico, Campa re- ea conference of workers called {, that no less than 46 leaders ‘an unions had recently from a secret CIA school held tHhyico! r, under the harsh economic Ittoday, it is impossible to keep our vibrant hemispheric neighbor the lid on the struggles of the working class. At the same conference Campa also detailed the many, strong, indepen- dent class actions that are occurring, par- ticularly in the oil, electrical and mining industries. Today, there are big strikes taking place in the mining industry under prog- ressive trade union leadership. The oil workers are exceptionally active. The PCM is devoting considerable attention to these developments and many new recruits and trade union leaders are emerging. We had one small personal experience involving the militant railroad workers. On atrain trip from Mexico City to Oax- aca, we saw the slogan ‘‘Death to the Charros’’, at every small station stop. The word charros is the Mexican equiva- lent of ‘““cowboy’’. Later we learned that charros was the contemptuous name the railroad workers gave the ‘‘scabs’’ which were used to break the nation-wide 1958 railroad strike, since the scabs dressed in cowboy fashion. Some Recent Contradictions in Mexican Life Many progressives in Canada know about the infamous massacre that occur- red in Mexico City 10 years ago prior to the Olympic Games. At that time stu- dents and others tried. to bring about some minor reforms and they were am- bushed by government forces. Over 500 were slaughtered and to this very day © their precise fate has never been re- vealed. The man who ordered that mas- sacre was Luis Echeverria, who two years later in 1970 became president. Despite this ruthless beginning, Echeverria made many verbal attacks on U.S. imperialism, and gradually Mexico, as acountry, became associated with the bloc of 79 developing countries in the world which seek a new economic order — an anti-imperialist grouping. When Echeverria left office in 1976 he made use of the 1917 Constitution which holds the land as ‘‘communal’’ property. In some sections of the country he or- dered the land distributed to the peas- ants, and in other parts, given this exam- ple, the peasants simply occupied it without the benefit of a presidential ‘‘de- cree’. . — At about the same time a form ofurban guerrilla warfare developed in the cities, with many intellectuals and profession- _als undertaking anti-PRI actions, most of which were of assistance to the struggl- ing working class. Alarmed at these developments, the PRI two years ago, once again sent out the dragnet, and hundreds upon hun- dreds of young people were swooped up in the middle of the night. And again to this very day their whereabouts are un- known. The first day we were in Mexico City we witnessed a very large, peaceful hunger strike, protesting the above ac- tions. It was held in the courtyard ofa big Catholic church in the heart of downtown, adjacent to Alameda Park. There were countless banners and slo- gans everywhere, but we did not see a single policeman or member of the milit- The demonstration was organized by - “*B} Comite National Pro Defensa De @ “ONFERENCA NACIONAL SINDICAL ES Helen O’Shaughnessy and Jose Luis Canchola at a trade union vacation resort. The 40-foot banner ‘announces a Communist Party conference of workers. Presos, Perseguidos, Desaparecidos Y Exiliados Politicos’, which has wide popular support. We spoke with one of the women, Arg. Jose Saveg Nevarez, whose architect. son was picked up on his way to school two years ago. She knows nothing of his present whereabouts and the govern- ment refuses to say anything. All the while she was talking to us she could not hold back the tears, yet at the same time she eloquently and militantly expressed the demand that the government reveal what has happened to her son and the others who disappeared at the same time. < The 1979 National Elections and the Communist Party Starting in April of this year Mexicans go to the polls to elect 400 deputies to their national assembly. This time the PCM has full legal status, and its name and the name of its candidates will of- ficially appear on the ballot. The difficult conditions of the write-in are gone. Under these circumstances the Mexi- can Communists expect to elect a large number of deputies, perhaps as many as 80. It is interesting to note that a good number of those expected to be elected under the PCM banner, will not be mem- bers of the PCM. In the main these are leaders of the \ Maru Uhthoff, Communist Party leader in the field of edication with Marcos Leone! Posadas, in charge of interna- tional affairs for the PCM. growing working-class organizations, particularly the oil workers, whose views are very close to those of the PCM. They want to give political expression not only to their economic struggles as such, but also to protect Mexico’s newly discovered oil and natural gas reserves for independent Mexican development. It was a wonderful experience to meet several Communist Party leaders, some of whom have only-recently emerged from the ‘‘underground”’. — But let us hasten to add that there is nothing underground about the Party’s operations today. Throughout Mexico, and we travelled extensively in the coun- tryside, there are many displays of Party posters and literature. In a large public . vacation resort run by the trade union in the Ministry of Social Security, we were thrilled to see a 40’ banner at the entrance announcing a PCM conference of work- ers. This year, for the third time in a row, the PCM paper, “‘Oposicion’’ will hold a four-day cultural and handicraft festival in the National Auditorium in world famous Chapultepec Park. A highlight of the visit was a two-hour interview by B.Y. with the former editor of ‘‘Oposicion’’, Marcos Leonel Posadas (now in charge of international affairs), and Maru Uhthoff, a party leader in the field of education and daughter of the Mexican head of Monsanto Chemicals. At the end of the interview Leonel was asked if the painting on the wall behind their desks was a self-portrait of Siqueiros. “*‘No”’, he said, ‘‘I’ll tell you about that ‘“‘That portrait was given to the PCM as a gift, by none other than former Mex- ican President Luis Echeverria, at a time when the Party was illegal and Siqueiros was still alive and its chairman’’. What an amazing tribute to one of the titans of 20th century art, to a Com- munist, and to his party. We returned to Canada with a strong feeling that it will not be too long before the Mexican people follow the lead of our other hemispheric neighbor Cuba, and take the socialist path. What a great day that will be for Mexico, and for Canada too! PACIFIC TRIBUNE— MARCH 2, 1979—Page 7