Status Updates From Radicals in the Barrio: Mag...

Pt 2 of this book was just about the PLM, really. How they grew, where their base was, who their base was, and who their non-state peers were. My only complaint is that like. This is not told chronologically, which can be a bit confusing. But honestly it’s so well-researched that idec really. This book is anti-pop-history. Fuck a narrative Chacon has shit to say

Some members of the PLM joined with Madero after this failed uprising. However, after he came to power and Magón rejected his offer of the vice presidency, the US effectively broke the PLM apart by arresting the PLM leadership. Magón said to undercover agents that the PLM aimed to continue to resist Madero, which the US gov claimed broke the neutrality clause.

Ch 14 and end of pt 2- the IWW forms as an offshoot of the reformist socialist party. They team up with PLM, becoming more focused on internationalism. The groups found some success, as they weren’t discriminatory which expanded who they could organize. PLM and some Wobblies led a failed uprising in Baja California in 1911. US with a tiny amount of help from Diaz crushed it, arresting the surviving leaders.

Fuck the AFL, racism pushed people further right leading to less support for the radical PLM. Same shit with the socialist party

Ch 12- fuck the Texas rangers. About the PLM and socialist party in Texas. Talks about the plan of San Diego, originally created but abandoned by the PLM. A second plan of San Diego was formed by Mexican ranchers who were being attacked. They proceeded to attack local police and white landowners, i.e. those who played a role in and benefitted from their displacement. The US gov responded with a wave of repression.

There was a lot of crossover between the PLM and the socialist party, with one helping get the other’s leaders out of prison often.

The PLM got more notice from the capitalist class than before, as by this point they were known to have organized several large strikes in Cananea, Veracruz, Yucatán, and elsewhere. In LA, socialists worked closely with the PLM. Most Mexicans who could vote often voted for the socialist party, with a large chunk of the socialist party’s local leadership being Mexican.

With the leadership of the PLM being exiled, they re-settled in LA. Unsurprisingly, they quickly became popular. Women played a major role in the organization’s growth, with the PLM publishing explicitly feminist papers. Women also played a huge role in communication, as the male figureheads of the PLM were often arrested by the US. Cross-border collusion still was in action.

In a moment which left me gobsmacked, Otis cut his printers’ wages by 20 percent in 1890 in order to cause a strike which he could then break. Other capitalists in the area engaged in similar behavior, moving from stopping new unions to stomping out existing ones. However, they still worked to crush new unions, with the UFM strike in 1903 being a prime example of what the cartel could do.

The US capitalists wanted to make LA an industrial and economic powerhouse, and they aimed to do this by forming a cartel and crushing unions. They essentially wanted to make it so LA was a prime location for those hoping to exploit workers with as little resistance as possible. Open white supremacists including the publisher of the LA times worked together as cartels, building up right-wing militias to crush strikes

Ch 11 is about the PLM and socialists in LA. The next chapter is about these two groups in Texas. LA is described as a place which was almost entirely populated by Mexicans in small communities until the early 1900s, when US capitalists started building railroads in the area. The influx of foreign capital and the actions of the Diaz regime caused mass migration to LA.

an army of labor which is easily exploitable. The IWW and other unions in the southwest became more radical as a result, with the IWW and PLM starting to work together. Fuck the AFL

So enter the Wobblies. This chapter also talks about how the anti-immigration movement of the early 20th century was joined by the AFL and elements within the socialist party. However, since Mexican labor was essential to production in the southwest, a change was made to the 1917 immigration act which allowed Mexican workers to enter. Chacon talks about how anti-immigration laws help capital, as it provides it with

It’s always fuck the AFL Friday. Ch 10 talks about the socialist party which existed around the time of the PLM. The party fractured due to the issue of race, with some being antiracist and others being explicitly racist. As the AFL became more closely tied to white supremacy and capital, the socialist party lurched rightward. As a result, many radical figures left or were purged, with some of them founding the IWW

The PLM moved more towards anarchism. Following the start of the revolution in Mexico, the PLM further split into those who worked with Madero, arguing that Mexico was not industrialized enough to advance into socialism, and those who continued against him. This split combined with failed uprisings and the arrest of leaders (along with other organizational missteps) led to the decline of the PLM

Ch 9 the PLM develops a more internationalist view. Works across the border to coordinate. Local focused actions. Mexican migration to the barrios increased due to radicalization, and the need within capitalism for a “reserve army of labor.” The binational nature of the PLM changed its strategies and its critiques. The US and Diaz regime collaborated across the border to suppress the PLM

While a PLM uprising in Veracruz failed, it inspired others to do the same. It’s also worth noting the similarity between the Zapatista movement and the Magonistas, both of whom focused on indigenous land rights. The movements were so interconnected that several Magonistas were part of Zapata’s general staff, and he adopted the PLM slogan ¡Tierra y Libertad!

Land. PLM called the indigenous campesinos and rural workers as “promote communists,” (icky its own right) and daughter to work alongside indigenous folks. Flores Magón expressed his admiration for them in Regeneración. Indigenous resistance played a huge role in slowing the invasion of foreign capital, especially in areas where there were a lot of indigenous folks

Díaz sent the ruralistos in and called for help from the Arizona rangers, inviting a foreign military force into Mexican soil to protect American interests. The strike was broken, with many being imprisoned, injured, or killed. Strikes spread rapidly after that though, since strikes beget more strikes. There was also indigenous resistance folded in, with one of the PLM’s big demands being the returning of stolen

With local issues as well. The 1906 strike called for equal pay, max 8 hour work days, that 75 percent of the jobs be reserved for Mexicans, and that “honest men” be selected from the group as foremen and shift leaders. Anglo foremen tried to disperse the strike with hoses, and company guards shot at the strikers, killing three. Things then escalated, as workers fought back.

Regeneración essentially served to amplify actions that had already been taken. The Cananea strike in 1906 was a big deal. All the problems of mining were present, with the distance to the border allowing for the worst of American capitalist practices to pour in. PLM activists joined mining groups around the region, including across the border in Arizona. They focused on overthrowing Díaz, while getting involved in

Flores Mahon on 133: “In the past I believed in the political system. I had believed that the law contained the necessary force to bring about justice and liberty. But then I saw that what is happening in Mexico is occurring across the world; that the people of Mexico are not the only unfortunate ones. When I look fore’s the cause of suffering of all the poor people across these lands, I found it: Capital”

Ch 8: THE PLM TURNS TO THE WORKING CLASSES:

Covers the second phase of development of the PLM, which began to focus more on critiques of capitalism and imperialism. Magonistas were inspired by the Russian revolution of 1905 (although their version of the vanguard differed from Lenin’s) and working class movements within the US.

PLM was originally a middle class student movement. Feminists also worked as leaders, helping to cause the split from reformists. Following open calls for armed revolt, the Diaz regime cracked down on the PLM. Some Magonistas fled north, where an encounter with a collaborator finished the break. US gov chased them across the west coast, since they openly called for something which would hurt capitalist interests

However, it was initially a big tent party, with liberals who just wanted to embrace liberal capitalism minus the dictator, and those who wanted revolution. Strikes at Canea in 1906 and Rio Blanco in 1907, a hardening of opposition towards imperialism and the invasion of foreign capital, and crossing the US border, experiencing racism and radical ideas within the US left led to the party breaking away from reform

Ch 7 is about Ricardo Flores Magón and the rise of the PLM. Follows Flores Magón’s background, as he was born into a landowning family which slowly lost its land due to the dictatorship. He then became proletarianized partially due to his inability to finish his schooling and entering the workforce. PLM initially formed after a congress (1)

Love how Chacon constantly makes it clear that these ideas came from people, but that many of these orgs existed without the exact ideology. People were organizing before socialism, but socialism is what lead to material change

Also discussed el primer congreso mexicanista, which was a congress of Mexicanos around the US following the outbreak of the revolution. There were two main camps: socialists and liberal nationalists. Class was obviously a factor in who was in which camp. Congreso would not meet again, but the memory of the FLU11953, the 1906-1907 Laredo strikes, and the Congress helped set the stage for what’s to come

Radical direction. Chacon talks about Federal labor union 11953, which was technically part of the AFL but also not because FLU11953 focused on non-craft workers. Therefore, they had much more room to move around, not held back by the national hierarchy. Union developed with mutualistas and similar orgs, leading to a successful strike. However, the bosses ended up moving the jobs outside of the area shortly after.

The dispossession of Mexican-Americans, as their land was systemically seized by the state and the Anglo corporations they backed. Mutualistas began to form as migration increased, since capitalist agriculture offered opportunities for pay even if Mexicans were openly paid far less than their white counterparts. Members of the PLM were part of this group of migrants, and they helped push the workers in a more(2)