The Mexican labor movement

In its effort to modernize the country, the Diaz regime--the government in power before the Revolution--embarked on a radically new agrarian policy. Joining ranks with local hacendados, it launched a campaign of large-scale expropriation of village lands and political subordination.

The regions most affected by this new policy were central and southern Mexico, first, because increased market production and new railroads had caused land values there to increase, and second, because most free villages were concentrated there. Initially, the campaign proved successful to the government, for it left the villages in possession of only a minimal amount of land and a smidgen of political control. Some land was left them as a token of their former status as well as for a sound economic reason: to keep a large enough labor force in the vicinity of the plantations and to tide them over the seasons in which the planters had no need of them.

Ultimately, the campaign bred considerable discontent. At first, it had generated only sporadic unrest in various parts of central and southern Mexico. When the expropriations extended into Morelos and Guerrero, the foundation was laid for the largest peasant revolt in the history of ind

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ght to organize, strike, bargain collectively, to receive adequate compensation, and sick benefits. The Constitution of 1917 was a blueprint of a managed industrial and agrarian republic. However, for three years the Constitution hardly emerged from this blueprint stage. Carranza, who had gained control of the government was not interested in agrarian and labor reform. Carranza, however, was killed by one of his officers in 1920, and the new leader of the government, Alvaro Obregon was more sympathetic to the labor movement. The labor movement was essentially urban and had as its leader Luis Morones. He organized gangs of thugs known as his palanca, with which he blackmailed unwilling employers, induced rival unions to join the Confederacion Regional Obrera Mexicana (CROM), his union. He even murdered people who got in his way. As the strength of CROM grew under the protection of Obregon, its bosses discovered that employers were willing to pay money to avoid strikes. Cash and corruption made the union bosses as insufferable as their military brethren, and it was only a matter of time when they would be defeated. Still, despite its leaders, the Mexican labor made some real advances toward a more decent standard of li
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Approximate Word count = 2277
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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