Introduction to Mexican Elections and the Left

The Editors

THE MEXICAN ELECTION of July 6, 1988 opened a new stage in the crisis of the Mexican state. The long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was declared the winner of the presidential race. But the process was so fraud-riddled that the election is widely considered to have been stolen from the populist candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas. Mass demonstrations erupted against the rigged ballot, and the turmoil continued throughout the fall in state election campaigns and the run-up to the December 1 inauguration of Salinas de Gortari.

Against the Current 16 published the first parts of essays by Arturo Anguiano of the Movement To Socialism (MAS), socialist supporters of Cardenas, and Manuel Aguilar Mora of the Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT). The PRT ran its own presidential candidate Rosario Ibarra, but has participated fully in the post-election mobilizations against the fraud. ATC 16 also published an excerpted manifesto of the MAS, explaining its perspectives on the crisis and the election.

With this issue we continue the two articles. We feel that these viewpoints are important for a North American audience in view of the interconnectedness of social struggles throughout the continent. We have been forced to compress and abridge these essays to some degree, and the authors have not been able to check the editing. We want to thank Mary Weismantel for translating “Toward a Unified Left Perspective,” and Sara Murray for her translation of “For a Revolutionary Alternative” as well as Joanna Misnik for abridging and editing the latter article.

November-December 1988, ATC 17