Mexico's Hope. James Cockroft. MR Press.1999.435 pgs.
This is the best general introduction to Mexican history and political economy available in English. Cockroft's book is a sweeping history of Mexico from the pre-colonial era to the present. Clearly written, the book does not suffer from the immense time span that it covers as Cockroft displays masterful knowledge of all aspects and periods of Mexican history, weaving them together in a highly coherent narrative. He proves adept at showing the continuity of Mexican history as well as the processes involved in the making and growth of Mexican capitalism and the Mexican state. The central thesis is that the history of Mexico has been one of class struggle and subsequent co-optation of the working class and peasantry by the party/state or PRI , repression of working class and peasants struggles and organizations and in some cases ,outright intervention of U.S. imperialism. The power of imperialism is discussed for the seminal role it plays in all aspects of Mexico. The book will be useful to activists and others working in and around Mexico as Cockroft details the many front organizations of the PRI and the tactics used in co-optation.
The author places special emphasis on political economy, chapter 5 titled the State, Foreign Capital and Monopoly Capitalism being the heart of the book, explaining the structures of Mexican political economy as they have evolved over the last century. Further, the author displays an excellent working knowledge of Marxian historiography and political economy though sometimes he uses Marxist concepts like "relative surplus population" and "constant and variable capital" which may baffle newcomer to the genre. Cockroft supplies statistics and data where necessary.
Most of the book (the latter 2/3) is devoted to contemporary post-1982 (debt crisis) political and economic developments in Mexico emphasizing the ups and downs of the labor movement as well as the re-emergence of militant indigenous movements. He goes through the myriad of Communist, anarchist and Trotskyist groups, detailing the sometimes periodic influence they have had on various strikes, organizations and demonstrations. Newer gay and feminist groups as well as NGO's, environmental groups and anti-nuclear groups are also discussed. Cockroft argues that through the struggles of the labor movement, the women's and student movements and armed guerrilla movements have created openings in Mexican society as well as the Mexican state. Openings through which people can act collectively to change their lives for the better and better effect the international forces, especially from the U.S., which play an enormous role in the direction of Mexican politics, economy and society. These various struggles have caused a breakdown in the hegemony of the PRI machine as it is no longer able to control all aspects of Mexican society like it used to through fraud, repression and co-optation.
Accompanying this opening of Mexican society has been the catastrophic decline of the economy which has seen purchasing power sink to the level of 1960 leading to an estimated 50% living below the official poverty line and a real unemployment rate of 25%. Mexico in August 1982 announced it could longer make the interest payments on its foreign debt. This signaled the end of import substitution in Mexico and brought in the new era of neo-liberalism and privatization. Mexico joined GATT(now the WTO) in 1986 and amended its foreign investment laws making legal for foreign interests to own more than 50% of Mexican companies. In exchange for financial bailout, Mexico was forced to adopt the monetarist austerity package forced on it by the World Bank, IMF and U.S. Government. Cockroft goes into the details surrounding the 1982 crisis as well as the later and equally catastrophic 1994 crisis where the government was forced into a massive devaluation of the currency and accepted a huge 45$ billion bailout package arranged by Bill Clinton (who bypassed the U.S. Congress to pass it) cutting purchasing power once again for the masses. The post-1982 Mexican economy has been marked by a drive for foreign investment. While some foreign investment has taken place in the low wage environmentally destructive maquila sector, a good deal of the investment has been portfolio investment. The pulling out of this investment by foreign owners caused the 1995 crisis and arguably the 1982 one as well.
Cockroft details some of the massive and disgusting corruption that the Mexican ruling class has engaged in since 1982. Shunning the grand conspiracism, favored among many Mexicans, he shows - in class terms- how corruption has grown into the political economy. Some of the more serious corruption has come through privatization, President Salinas giving companies to friends and to win influence. Further, many of the elite Mexican government officials as well as sectors of the economy like finance, construction and oil have been in league in international drug trafficking, giving the drug traffickers considerable influence in Mexico.
Along with the popular struggles, the state/PRI have resorted to violent repression and intimidation. Much of this history has been repressed by the Western media and the Mexican media (except for maybe half a dozen non-PRI publications like La Jornada and Semana Hoy) except in cases like the Acteal massacre which was impossible for the media to ignore. Cockroft documents the thousands of murders, disappearances, the torture of political activists as well as the growing involvement of the Mexican military in domestic politics. Somewhat like in post 1973 Chile, the Mexican state has had to rely on brute military force to keep the population in line so the government can implement its harsh neo liberal austerity program. Cockroft argues that 3/4 of Mexico is under de facto military occupation.
Other important developments in Mexico have been the rise of drug trafficking, the passage of NAFTA, privatization (most importantly of Pemex, the state oil and chemical company which produces 5 million barrels a day- third in the world) and the growing dependance of the state on maquiladoras (foreign factories that assemble and mass produce goods for export like TV's, cars and other electronic stuff.) Cockroft demonstrates that all these phenomena are intimately related, every sector of the Mexican ruling class involved at one level or another with the drug traffic. Deregulation of foreign and domestic investment and free trade have helped money laundering. Mexico now produces and moves an estimated 60% of the world's illicit drug supply, making the most important sector of the economy whose foreign exchange earnings outstrip that of the oil industry. Privatization has cut jobs forcing people into maquiladoras and drugs. NAFTA has resulted in cheap imports from the United States which has destroyed much of Mexico's food, clothing and furniture production for the domestic market resulting in more job loss.
American corporations have taken over the pride of the Mexican nationalist's -PEMEX- as the government agreed to deposit the foreign exchange earnings of PEMEX into American banks in return for financial bailout. The Mexican state has bailed out the whole financial system which collapsed in 1995 amounting a socialization of up to 50$ billion in private debt, once again showing how the working class and the peasants bear the costs of financial speculation and dealings. Another persistent problem is capital flight from Mexico. Because of the instability of the banking system most wealthy citizens keep their holdings abroad. Some estimate this flight to be around 40 billion dollars U.S.
Cockroft goes into detail showing how all these factors and problems tie together to produce the Mexico of today. While the economy has collapsed twice and wages and standard of living for the majority continue to fall, Mexicans remain for the most part conservative and wedded to the status quo though most of them by now know its faults. This conservatism I think, is linked to a commitment to the patriarchical family. During crisis, Mexicans pursue a family based strategy for survival rather than engaging in risky and costly collective struggle to change things. Cockroft covers nearly all the bases in his book though I would have liked a discussion of the rise of "solidarismo" a kind of business unionism which originated in Costa Rica. Everyone interested in Mexico should read this book.