International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

The movement of the railway workers from 1957 to 1960 marked an important rupture in the corporative economic and political system of post-revolutionary Mexico. In the first two years of struggle the workers won significant wage increases and political autonomy within the Mexican railway workers' trade union (STFRM). Because of the rise of international anti-communist politics and its strong political influence on the rest of Mexican society, the movement faced increasing state repression that cut off the independent leadership and discarded its demands in 1959. During the presidency of Adolfo Ruiz Cortinez (1953–8), the Mexican peso suffered a significant devaluation in 1954 that caused widespread discontent, especially among farmers and industrial workers. In 1957 the railway workers started a protest with the objective of increasing their wages. In this process they articulated the need for an independent trade union leadership and soon began to fight against the management, which was strongly connected with the political leadership of the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) and the Revolutionary Central of Mexican Workers (CROM) trade union. The method of co-optation and control from the state of the trade union was called charrismo and meant the use of both corruption and open repression. Several dissident sections of the STRFM all over Mexico organized on May 2, 1958 ... log in or subscribe to read full text