Could 2014 Be the Year of Unity for Mexico's Social Activists? Miguel Concha - La Jornada
go to original January 7, 2014

Causes - The History of Activism (visually)

A recounting of recent years could not be more adverse for social action organizations and leftist parties. The social content of the Mexican Constitution remained the same from the amendments to Article 27 in the early 90's, until the recent unwise changes to Articles 25, 27 and 28, while there were also the changes suffered to fundamental laws such as the Federal Labor Law.

Seen in the long run, the social activist sectors have had multiple losses and almost no successes. Why? It is clear. Leftist social activist groups (organizations, unions, movements, parties), as they have been in recent years, have not had sufficient capacity to deal with the political, communications and economic machinery of conservative forces. This is a fact that has to be acknowledged. It is also true that the international context has favored trends that respond to business interests over social ones. But this does not negate that several Latin American countries such as in Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia, among others, have put in place alternatives pointing in different directions.

This requires posing another question. Why hasn't Mexico been able to alter the trends favoring private interests over social ones? One can't help but think that there are two interrelated dynamics. First, if we have not been able to modify the neoconservative trends in the country, it is because we have not had political and social activist structures capable of building nationwide an alternative vision and reality. And second, because even to have the courage to think about them and act on them, one would have to start from this reality and take steps, some of which would surely be the following...

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