Anarchism in Mexico
Encyclopedia
Historical
Pre-conquest, some of the indigenous peoples of what is today Mexico had decisionmaking structures based on participation, discussion, and consensus, hallmarks of modern anarchism. Today, indigenous community assemblies and collective decision making inform some Mexican social movements of the left 'and below,' such as the Zapatista Army of National LiberationZapatista Army of National Liberation
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is a revolutionary leftist group based in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico....
, and these practices have a large influence both on Mexican anarchism and anarchists in the United States and internationally.
In 1824, the utopian socialist
Utopian socialism
Utopian socialism is a term used to define the first currents of modern socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, and Robert Owen which inspired Karl Marx and other early socialists and were looked on favorably...
Robert Owen
Robert Owen
Robert Owen was a Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement.Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars:...
unsuccessfully tried to acquire a district of fifty leagues
League (unit)
A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...
to develop a colony in the Mexican provinces of Coahuila
Coahuila
Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico...
and Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
along the same principles set forth in New Harmony
New Harmony, Indiana
New Harmony is a historic town on the Wabash River in Harmony Township, Posey County, Indiana, United States. It lies north of Mount Vernon, the county seat. The population was 916 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Evansville metropolitan area. Many of the old Harmonist buildings still stand...
. His request was eventually denied by the Mexican government.
In 1861 the Greek Plotino Rhodakanaty
Plotino Rhodakanaty
Plotino Constantino Rhodakanaty was a Greek tailor and socialist who was an early activist in Mexico's mid-nineteenth century campesino movement, foreshadowing the Mexican Revolution in 1910....
tried to implement the ideas of Fourier
Charles Fourier
François Marie Charles Fourier was a French philosopher. An influential thinker, some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in his lifetime, have become main currents in modern society...
and Proudhon during the administration of President Comonfort
Comonfort
Comonfort is a Mexican city located in the state of Guanajuato. The municipality has an area of 485.90 square kilometres and is bordered to the north and northeast by San Miguel de Allende, to the east by the state of Querétaro, to the south and southwest by Empalme Escobedo, Apaseo el Grande,...
. He published Cartilla Socialista a manual explaining the ideas of Fourier. Some of his adepts like Francisco Zalacosta, Santiago Villanueva, and Hermenegildo Villavicencio, became the first worker's rights activists in Mexico. Other students of Rhodakanaty founded a school called "La Social, Sección Internacionalista" following Bakunin. These activists organized one of the first mutualist societies in Mexico. Mutualism is the preferred term for anarchism by the Mexican authorities.
Around 1882 another anarchist group was founded by the brothers Enrique
Enrique Flores Magón
Enrique Flores Magón was a Mexican journalist and politician, associated with the Mexican Liberal Party and anarchism...
and Ricardo Flores Magón
Ricardo Flores Magón
Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magón was a noted Mexican anarchist and social reform activist. His brothers Enrique and Jesús were also active in politics. Followers of the Magón brothers were known as Magonistas....
. They published the newspaper Regeneración
Regeneración
Regeneración was a Mexican anarchist newspaper that functioned as the official organ of the Mexican Liberal Party. Founded by the Flores Magón brothers in 1900, it was forced to move to the United States in 1905. Jesús Flores Magón published the paper , while his brothers Ricardo and Enrique...
in 1901. Their movement is oft-cited as a precedent for the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
of 1910. Other famous leaders of the Magonista movement were Camilo Arriaga, Juan Sarabia, Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama and Librado Rivera.
Mexican anarchist literature
In 1869, student Chávez López wrote one of the earliest anarchist manifestos. The motto of the manifesto: "soy socialista porque soy enemigo de todos los gobiernos y comunista porque mis hermanos quieren trabajar las tierras en común translates as "I am a socialist because I am an enemy of all governments and I am a communist because I want to work our common lands with my brothers". Dispossessed peasants in central Mexico supported these ideas.The Mexican Anarchist Federation
The Mexican Anarchist FederationMexican Anarchist Federation
The Mexican Anarchist Federation was a Mexican anarchist organization that existed from December 28, 1945 until the 1970s...
(sp
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
: Federación Anarquista Mexicana) was a Mexican anarchist organization that existed from December 28, 1945 until the 1970s. It appeared as the Anarchist Federation of the Center joined with the Anarchist Federation of the Federal District. It published the periodical Regeneración. It received the help of recent Spanish anarchist who sought refuge in Mexico who escaped from Francisco Franco´s dictatorship.
Shortly after its establishment it gained the attention of the Mexican police forces and the Mexican government after some Spanish exiled anarchists along with members of the Mexican Anarchist Federation were arrested after trying to rob a truck that carried large amounts of money from a beer industry. Also linked to the Mexican Anarchist Federation was the Libertarian Youth (sp:Juventudes Libertarias) and the publication Tierra y Libertad
Tierra y Libertad
Tierra y Libertad may refer to:*¡Tierra y Libertad!, slogan from the Mexican Revolution.*Frente Popular Tierra y Libertad, Mexican organization....
.
Present day
These attempts at revolution started the anarchist movement in Mexico, which eventually fused with the Mexican communist party, which was outlawed during the height of the Cold War. Remnants of these organizations survive as part of Antorcha Campesina and the Frente Popular Francisco Villa which are prevalent in rural and urban areas respectively. Formed in 1997, the Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca "Ricardo Flores Magón" (CIPO-RFM) is a grassroots organization based on the philosophy of Ricardo Magón.See also
- Emiliano ZapataEmiliano ZapataEmiliano Zapata Salazar was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, which broke out in 1910, and which was initially directed against the president Porfirio Díaz. He formed and commanded an important revolutionary force, the Liberation Army of the South, during the Mexican Revolution...
- Ricardo Flores MagónRicardo Flores MagónCipriano Ricardo Flores Magón was a noted Mexican anarchist and social reform activist. His brothers Enrique and Jesús were also active in politics. Followers of the Magón brothers were known as Magonistas....
Insert new note 2 John M. Hart, Anarchism and the Mexican Working Class, 1860-1931 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1978), 33.
Change original note 2 to 3.