The founding of a new trade union federation, a step towards the political independence of the Mexican working class

At the same time that we are holding the meeting of the International Committee of the Fourth International we have been informed of the celebration of the, founding congress of a new labor federation in Mexico, independent of the official labor federations. In the midst of the reactionary neoliberal capitalist offensive that takes away trade union rights, makes employment more precarious and seeks to destroy all autonomous organization of the working class, the decision of Mexican workers to create this new labor federation is a reason for pride and an example and stimulus for working class resistance all over the world.

This is why we salute this important step taken by sectors of the Mexican working class that stand up to and resist the neoliberal offensive and that is why we celebrate it and offer our solidarity.

The decision is particularly significant in the context of the heroic struggle of the Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME) that since 2009 has resisted the destruction of its labor site, the Compania de Luz y Fuerza and of the mass resistance of the education workers, particularly during 2013, against the so called educational reform, similar to that which teachers in other countries face, which seeks to destroy their labor rights. Mexican workers face new challenges as a result of the enactment by the national Congress of the so called structural reforms which seek the privatization of the oil and energy industry in the interest, not only of private, but also of imperialist interests.

In that context, the creation of the new labor federation is a very important step of the most conscious and combative sectors of the Mexican working class in the road toward unity and also toward its political organization independent of the government and the bourgeois parties, a step complemented with the other call formulated by the SME for the creation of a political instrument, of a party of the working class, which takes the form of the construction of the Organizacion Politica del Pueblo y los Trabajadores (OPT).

Amsterdam, 25 February 2014

Long live the Mexican working class!
Long live the new labor federation!!

Long live the Organizacion Politica del Pueblo y losTrabajadores!

INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL