Mexico City, 1930s: Anti-Fascist Youth “Red Shirts”
May 26— VOX in Spain, and El Yunque in Mexico have become important voices for fascism. VOX aims to be a worldwide leader in the growing fascist movement. It has ties with other fascist leaders. Vox’s support for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and for Israel makes it a champion of fascism.
Christianity at first posed a danger to the Roman empire because it opposed slavery. Christians were fiercely persecuted. But in 380 CE, Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire. Christian leaders then embraced slavery. The Catholic church became a pillar of the Roman empire and, later, of European Feudalism and Capitalism.
Fascist movements are tools of the capitalists, especially during crisis and war. Fascism involves mysticism and religion. El Yunque in Mexico is a clear example. Created in 1952, it is ultra-secret, paramilitary, anti-communist, anti-Semitic, anti-liberal, and very right-wing. With fascist characteristics, its defense of Catholicism is summed up in its slogan: “God, country, and family.”
The ultra-right in Mexico involving the Catholic Church dates to the early 20th century. It fought against the liberal ideals of the Mexican Revolution, which decreed the separation of church and state.
In the 1920s, the Mexican government set up secular schools that taught some socialist ideas. The Catholic Church and right-wing religious militias began the first “Cristero War” against the government. They demanded the revocation of the decree. Many farmworkers fought against the Cristeros. Two hundred sixty thousand people died in the conflict.
Thousands more died (some say 200,000) in the second “Cristero War” from 1934 to 1940. The anti-fascist “Red Shirts” fought against the Cristeros and for secular education. They were founded in the state of Tabasco and formed cells in the State of Mexico. They were pro-communist.
The so-called “leftist” government of Lazaro Cardenas disbanded the Red Shirts. In 1940, when Avila Camacho, Cardenas’ successor, took office, the State decreed “freedom of religion,” the ending of “socialist education,” and opening worship in the streets and public squares. The President himself attend masses and promoted open worship.
During these wars, clergy and civilian extremists were smuggled out of Mexico and sent to Spain, where they were sheltered by fascist clergy. They joined and built Franco’s Falangist legions.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Los Tecos, another fascist organization created at the University of Guadalajara, joined with the Yunque to help the Mexican government repress student and worker movements. This included Tlatelolco on October 2, 1968, where hundreds (some claim thousands) of protesting students and workers were massacred. Los Tecos’ slogan was “fight communism in Mexico.”
While some see the Yunque as a social, not political, problem, it has power and control in the National Action Party (PAN). It has created mass organizations involving tens of thousands. It also works inside the PRI and Morena electoral parties.
Eduardo Verastegui, a former actor, religious fanatic, and representative of the right wing, recently failed to get enough signatures to run for president in the next elections. However, he garnered support from more than 160,000 citizens. Verastegui is linked to presidents Milei (Argentina), Bukele (El Salvador), to Trump, and to leaders of Spain’s fascist VOX party.
Vox, part of the Popular Party of Spain formed in 2013, is like El Yunque. It openly participates in elections and has gradually gained positions of power in Spain and the European Parliament. The two organizations form alliances with fascist governments in Italy, Poland, Argentina, and others.
VOX has hosted conferences like the Madrid Forum, an alliance of parties of “Spain and Hispanic America.” Its manifesto successfully promoted the “communication of objectives to prevent the advance of communism in Latin America” by backing right-wingers in Peru in the impeachment of President Pedro Castillo.
Anti-communism: main weapon of the capitalists and imperialists.
Now, when the great imperialist powers China and the US are fighting for control of the world’s markets, fascist groups are growing. The rulers’ biggest fear is that the masses will unite against their imperialist wars and their system in crisis for revolution to establish real communism. That will end their bloody rule forever. That’s why they work overtime to build fascist groups and fascist ideas to attack communism and communists.
We, the working class, produce everything in society. The capitalists and imperialists are just parasites living off our labor.
Mexican teachers are in struggle against all the electoral parties. They and millions of workers from Mexico to Spain can be won to join the fight for communism.
By building a mass ICWP of millions, we can defeat the rulers’ fascism and genocidal imperialism. We need to confront and defeat anti-communism in our own ranks and among the masses by showing that real communism is humanity’s future. We will collectively produce everything our class needs, without capitalists, wage slavery, or money.
Read the Red Flag Article Series: “US Capitalists Create Right-Wing Christianity to Support Their Rule here
Read the ICWP Manifesto: “Mobilize the Masses for Communism” here