Mexico´s Destiny

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.