What is at stake in the current electoral campaign is the
possibility of a return to being a viable nation with purpose, with a future.
This campaign will define Mexico’s destiny. Elections are being held for the
Presidency of the Republic, the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives, as
well as governorships and local councils. The whole country is shaken by this
political circumstance, which will last until 1 June and will then unfold
according to the electoral results. It is true that the so-called political
class is obliged to address national rather than personal interests, but they
must also recognise the interests of citizens and different social forces.
Everyone senses that a real change is needed, not a
regressive change as Mexico suffered in 2000 to 2006 under the disastrous
leadership of the National Action Party, but moving forward instead, under
other party colours that can be none other than those opposing the current
conservative government and which have a chance of winning.
Unfortunately, during this electoral contest overviews and
generalisations of projects have been presented, but it is clear that most of
them are not supported by a clear plan with objectives and strategies that will
enable those goals to be achieved. The media, with only a few exceptions,
merely reproduce isolated phrases, images and messages that do not deal with
the root of the problems that the country faces in striking out in a new
direction as a viable and truly democratic nation. They often give the
impression that they bank on disorder, on confusion and on deception so that
things stay as they are and thus they can reap greater benefits.
People have understood during these weeks of electoral
campaigning that if things go on as they are, the regime of privileges for the
most economically powerful and disrespect for the legitimate interests of large
swathes of the working class population will continue. Or indeed we will
continue to experience the bloodshed that has gone on since 2006, under Felipe
Calderón. The same with limitless unemployment, the high cost of living, or the
inflation which constantly eats away at the miserable annual wage increases
which are promoted by the government to benefit the wealthiest in society, or
even the neglect of the needs of the largest sectors of Mexican society,
including the neglect of education, culture and science, and the lack of
meaningful campaigns to fight poverty and hunger, work which cannot be substituted with welfare programmes or
opportunistic economic stimulus plans.
The most serious problem of all is that Mexico needs a
radical change of social and economic model to one in which new production and
work relationships are based on very clear concepts of social responsibility
shared between all sectors of the country. This would require the nation to
move towards a new Social Pact which balances inequalities, or as José María
Morelos has said, which moderates indigence and opulence. This is the path of
salvation for Mexico. There is no other.
Mexico needs to change its traditional neoliberal strategy,
which is based on the intensive exploitation of the working class and natural
resources as well as the concentration of wealth in the hands of monopolies. It
needs to adopt a new philosophy of labour that posits business owners and
workers as equals, based on respect for workers’ interests, so that both groups participate more actively in
productive decision making and in strategies for action, always according to a
balanced way of thinking that truly values productive commitments. In other
words, we must write a new National Plan, because at the moment there is no
agreement to command and guide efforts to guarantee economic growth and social
development, rather the country is steered by the interests of a small group of
business owners and bankers, who are arrogantly called free market forces.
It is absolutely necessary to build a new politics which
constitutes the base and the core of economic growth, job creation, productivity
and wellbeing of the huge majority of the population. Other countries such as
China, India, Brazil, South Korea, and before them, Japan, have brought about
changes in their economic and social structures, worker participation in
productive processes has grown, with higher wages and a resulting increase in
demand, and a fairer distribution of wealth. Mexico abandoned this drive and
now has the lowest economic growth rate in Latin America, lower even than
countries like Haiti, which is surviving despite disastrous circumstances.
The results are patently clear. In Mexico the system of
brutal exploitation of the workforce has become more acute, while in those
countries, as in many others, the rules of the game have changed and they have
progressed. True democracy cannot and must not remain anchored in
political-electoral processes, instead it must advance towards total social
reform. For business owners and for workers, a fairer model of shared social
responsibility has great benefits.
The principal change that must take place is in Mexico’s
obsolete and inhuman economic system that concentrates wealth. And this issue
must feature in what is left of the electoral campaigns of the various
presidential candidates, if this political competition is to be a true,
constructive reflection of real points of view held by the Mexican electorate,
in which the desire to serve, and a passion for and dedication to the struggle
for dignity and justice predominate.
