Labor and the Theory of the Mexican Revolution Under Lázaro Cárdenas

I Introduction and Purpose

SINCE Mexico now seems to be the key nation in Latin America in the implementation of President Kennedy's Alliance for Progress, it becomes even more pressing that we in the United States understand the nature of the Mexican social order. As a point of departure for this effort, one might well begin by considering the basis for contemporary industrial and political development of Mexico as formulated in the years 1934-1940 under Mexico's New Deal of Lázaro Cárdenas. Sanford Mosk noted, "… what went on during the time of Cárdenas has had an indirect effect on the subsequent industrial development."¹ Or, as the United States Tariff Commission claimed, the reorientation of Mexico's economic and social policy has been an important part of her political life since 1910.² The new program was given impetus by the Constitution of 1917, which contained important provisions for agrarian reform and for the protection of labor. Yet, aggressive implementation of the new policy began under president Lázaro Cárdenas with the inauguration of the Six-Year Plan in 1934.

While the topic of Mexican agrarian reform during this vital formative period has been the subject of considerable study, there is a notable paucity of information in English concerning the development of labor theory and policy. The purpose of this paper is to make a beginning inquiry into the role of labor in national statecraft as viewed by Cárdenas and his associates. If it is true that "With the inauguration of Lázaro Cárdenas as president of the country began an epoch never before equaled in importance in the public life of Mexico—in all aspects, economic and social,"³ then perhaps an inquiry into the general socioeconomic philosophy of the revolutionary government of Cárdenas, with special reference to labor theory, will prove worthwhile.

Such an approach to the understanding of what has been generally termed "the Mexican Revolution" would seem particularly valid in view of the fact that Cárdenas himself, in the early part of his term, upon reminding the public that he had once been a laborer in a small shop, remarked, "Being loyal to my class, the class that elevated me to the presidency, my program of government seeks by legal means the emancipation of the masses of day laborers and peasants."⁴ This statement contained a key to two aspects of the labor theory of the administration—the recognition of the existence of a proletarian class, and the use of government action as a legitimate technique for aiding the working class.

The question becomes: by what method, and for what end, did Cárdenas and his more articulate followers propose to give the workers an opportunity to become full members of our civilization? What was the labor philosophy of this epoch as expressed in what Cárdenas considered the basic documents of the Revolution—the Constitution of 1917, the first Six-Year Plan, the Federal Labor Law of 1931, the declarations of the Partido Revolucionario Nacional (P. N. R.) and the Partido de la Revolución Mexicana (P. R. M.), the Confederación Trabajadores de México (C. T. M.) and the Confederación Trabajadores de América Latina (C. T. A. L.), the speeches and writings of Cárdenas and his economic advisors, Lombardo Toledano, and the Department of Labor? Is there any unity in the thought? What similarities and what differences, if any, did the Mexican labor theory of this era have with labor theories of other countries? In short, what was the nature of the thinking of the Mexican Government towards the organization of the working class of Mexico during the period 1934 through 1940?

II General Socio-Economic Theory of the Revolution

While an analysis of labor theory is the final object, the approach in this paper shall be to examine the general philosophy of the Revolution as interpreted by Cárdenas with regard to the new era in its political, social, and economic aspects, with...