France, Alternative Libertaire AL #246 - Urban Folder: 1922:
Mexico City rose against the owners (fr, it, pt) [machine
translation]
In spring 1922, Mexico, and particularly its capital, was shaken by a spectacular strike
demanding tenants lower rents. This mobilization has been made possible by the frenetic
activism of a handful of communist militants. But their control over the movement will
also be a cause of his defeat. ---- It is a little over 19 hours, in the Friday, March 17,
1922. As dusk slowly plunges Mexico in the dark, two police cars Netzahualc?yotl halt in
the street. A butts, dispersed the crowd that had gathered in front of the local bread
workers to attend a meeting on the issue of housing, to call the young Partido Comunista
Mexicano (PCM). A shot rang out, a bullet through the leg of a worker. Over twenty
predicts that there injured and several arrests.
Overcrowding and disrepair
Despite the violence, the message was: a union of inquilinos (tenants) was established by
the PCM and its existence made public. Main slogan: lower rents. Police repression will
ultimately help publicize the event and galvanize meager troops Juventud Comunista (BC).
From 20 to 28 March 1922, five other gatherings are held in the Mexican capital, and by
23, the union has the support of railway officials and organizations.
Hard not to see in this turmoil, a replica of the earthquake that shook Veracruz, capital
of the eponymous state. In this port city, the union of tenants, created at the beginning
of the year and coordinated by the anarchist-communist militants Heron Proal and Maria
Luisa Marin, fights the rent strike. Started on March 5, it mobilized thousands of people.
The crackdown also hits there, with the arrest at the end of the month, "leaders" of the
movement.
Back to the capital, where on March 29, a new meeting approves the statutes of the union
and a platform of demands:
- A decrease of 25% of rents;
- Upgrading of substandard housing at the expense of the owners;
- The establishment of hygiene committees controlled by the tenants.
For the union, these three goals should be a law applicable to the whole country, not of
special agreements with the owners.
It must be said that at that time the housing situation is ex - plosive. The majority of
patios vecindad[1], home to the proletariat of the capital, are in a state of overcrowding
and disrepair. With industrialization, rural exodus is massive and housing demand far
exceeds supply. Rents can reach up to a third of the average income of a worker[2].
A growing movement
For three weeks, the Mexico tenants union campaign leading drum beating, due to a rally a
day, with increasing success, its workforce from 3 000 to 8 000 members! Organized into
committees of buildings, blocks, neighborhoods and districts, the union soon opened his
own premises, 168, Netzahualc?yotl street. But the rent strike, which is spread feverishly
idea, when will it be launched? A date is: April 16, 1922.
On that day, go ahead was given the monumental H?micycle Juarez, a symbolic place of
rallies in the capital. Thousands of people crowded around three platforms on which the
Communists speakers follow one another. In the general enthusiasm, we learn that the
union, yet considered a pseudopod PCM, will benefit from a decisive support: CGTM, Central
dominant Mexican revolutionary syndicalist labor movement, has just announced its support
for the fight. It is a political success for the PCM, previously isolated, trapped between
between anarchists and reformists of the Mexican working Regional Confederation (CROM).
To take account of this valuable reinforcement, the beginning of the strike, scheduled for
April 16, is postponed to 1 May. Within fifteen days, the union knows indeed
exponentially. Some newspapers evoke thousands of daily memberships in the excitement of
the great battle ahead. The agitation redoubled and, from April 23, 5000 people
spontaneously demonstrate against the deportation of an old lady.
Comes the fateful day. May 1 launch day of the strike, also sees the election of the
central committee of the union of tenants who appears more than ever subservient to the
PCM. Nine nine positions are occupied by communists, including seven members of the JC and
the secretary general of the party itself, Diaz Manuel Ramirez.
That day, 15,000 people beat the pavement of the Mexican capital: an impressive figure,
while the workers parades CROM or CGT struggling in general to bring 5,000 demonstrators.
The procession, PCM head, stops in front of the headquarters of the Assembly of the
owners, located in the luxurious streets Madero. Speakers officially decreed to rent
strike. They also announced the preparation of a single lease, and call for creation of
the Red Guards to prevent evictions.
PCM, which is still in its infancy, is marked by an anarchist heritage found in some
direct action practices of the union of tenants, and even some symbolic. Thus, tens of
thousands of flags that are available to indicate the striking buildings are red and
black, as well as posters proclaiming "Union of Tenants of the capital: one is on strike,
we do not pay the rent. Workers of all countries, unite.?
A group of 900 workers rehabilitate 21 buildings
The union also applies a strategy of direct action mass, the central challenge is to
prevent evictions of tenants strikers: in May 18, 58 evictions have been prevented, to the
daily clashes with the police price. In parallel, a group of 900 workers rehabilitate 21
buildings with the money unpaid rents. The money, incidentally, does not miss: the zenith
of the movement, more than 37,000 tenants in nearly 2500 buildings are union members!
The strike then spread in the major urban centers of the country: the unions tenants of
Mexico City and Veracruz are added those of Guadalajara, San Luis Potosi, Jalapa, Orizaba
and Ciudad Juarez.
However, the tremendous scope of the strike movement in Mexico rather than the union of
tenants. It is handicapped by a pyramid too dependent operation of a tiny ruling
apparatus. The Communists, who hold the reins, deploying a frantic activism: 283 street
meetings were held between March 17 and May 26, operated by a handful of speakers. By
itself, Luis Vargas Rea deliver 211 speeches, three per day on average.
A cul-de-sac occupation
This avant-garde at all costs will facilitate both the division, recovery and repression
of the movement.
Furthermore, CGTM yields to a sectarian reflex by launching its own union tenants, even to
exclude militants opposed to this pure inclination (the union will never have any reality).
In this poisonous atmosphere, the balance of power is reversed and private agreements
between individual tenants and landlords are increasing - obviously in favor of the latter.
June 12, 1922, the tenants' union launches into the occupation of Los Angeles convent and
folds back on this basis while the movement is waning. The union then experiencing a slow
death, focusing on the defense of this place. Become an empty shell, abandoned by the
Communists, he will break his relationship with the PCM in 1923.
There will never act to protect tenants of the Federal District of Mexico City facing the
greed of the trusts of property owners.
The union of tenants has certainly helped launch the strike, but its centralism and its
subservience to the PCM, far removed from the federalist ideas of revolutionary
syndicalism, the quickly weakened.
Currently, with over three million poorly housed in France and levels of exorbitant rents
feeding capitalist rent, this example of rent strike (with limitations) can be a source of
inspiration. Libertarian activists to infuse self-management and democratic spirit to
fight for unity and against recovery attempts.
Julien (AL Alsace)
A COMMUNIST PARTY IN RED AND BLACK
After a bloody decade of civil war - more than one million deaths - the Mexican Communist
Party was founded in November 1919, following a unification of the socialist left
conference. His debut groupusculaires however, with twenty members.
Although cornaqu? by the emissary of the Communist International Michael Borodin, the PCM
is not slavishly subject to Moscow and suffered in its early days, the anarchist
influence. To the point that in August 1920, an alliance of revolutionary syndicalists,
anarchists and communists led to the creation of the Federaci?n Comunista Mexicano del
proletariado, which gave birth a few months later at the CGTM.
This gathering, heterogeneous in appearance, shows the considerable weight of anarchism
among Mexican workers, legacy of Ricardo Flores Mag?n propaganda during the civil war
(read the special report of Alternative libertarian December 2010 No. 201). The PCM
starts, very unparliamentary, defends electoral abstention and do not seek to vassalize
unions.
It was not until December 1921 that, as a result of standardization to work in Moscow, the
PCM break with what Lenin now taxed of "leftism". However, Magonista influence fades
slowly and at the time of the strike of rents spring 1922, the practices of Communist
activists still bear the trace.
Julien (AL Alsace)
"I DO NOT PAY!: A BRIEF HISTORY OF RENT STRIKES "
And transgressive collective action suppressed accordingly, rent strikes mark the history
of the social movement since the nineteenth century, under the combined effects of
urbanization, industrialization and migration, both internal and external.
1839: The strike of hundreds of peasants crowded and operated on the lands of
Rensselaerwyck mansion in New York, takes the form of an armed revolt. Drowned in blood,
this revolt resurface in other properties in the 1840s.
Late nineteenth and early twentieth: In France, the League of antipropri?taires, led by
anarchists, including Joseph Tortelier, organizes "moves to the wooden bell", allowing
tenants to leave their homes without paying the arrears and without being enter their
furniture.
From 1910 to 1925 In France, the Union of tenants, led by libertarian George Pig,
transforms "moving the wooden bell" in public demonstrations and marching band. To
pressure the government, symbolic places are occupied by the poorly housed.
1915: Up to 20,000 tenants are rent strike in Glasgow, leading to a law on rent control.
1963-1965: The black movement leads rent strikes in the inner city.
1970: Autonomous tenant committees impose rents autor?ductions Italy.
1975-1980: Residen
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Dossier-urbain-1922-La-ville-de
