Quintana Roo, Mexico, March 2025—Teachers on strike
Mexico: Teachers’ Struggle Needs Communist Ideas
MEXICO, April 19—The National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers (CNTE) is calling for a national strike beginning May 15. It demands better living and working conditions for all government employees. We have brought our communist newspaper Red Flag to many of the teachers’ actions.
This fight takes place amid the struggle between the biggest capitalist powers for a new distribution of the world’s resources and markets. Meanwhile, media scandals reveal internal struggles among capitalists in Mexico.
President Sheinbaum tells teachers, “There is no money” while trying to convince the working class she can meet the Trump administration’s challenges.
She recently called for a mass rally in Mexico City for the “defense of sovereignty.” She claims that “all of us” should defend Mexican capitalist exporters from Trump’s 25% tariffs on iron and aluminum. Postponing the imposition of the tariffs for a few days was presented as “a triumph.” Now that the tariffs are in force, there is no more talk of her “success.”
The working class and other exploited and oppressed people in Mexico and the world have nothing to gain by defending capitalist exporters who use, benefit from, and abuse workers’ labor power.
What we need is to build our International Communist Workers’ Party to end capitalism and build a life without commercial relations. And therefore without money, without racism and prejudice against women workers, nor towards our LGBTQ+ working class siblings. And without wage slavery.
Let’s understand that the bourgeoisie in Mexico and its governments, including Sheinbaum’s, have been skillful in their dealings with US regimes to keep a good part of the surplus value (profit) extracted from Mexican workers’ labor power for themselves.
The Trump administration has demanded from the Mexican government measures to contain migration from south of Mexico. Thousands of National Guard forces have been stationed at the border to comply with this demand.
The US government also demands the arrest of leading drug traffickers and the quick extradition of those who are imprisoned and undergoing lengthy trials. The latter has been promptly complied with. However, some analysts say that Mexico has handed over those who are of less interest to the US government, which calls drug cartels “terrorists”.
The powerful leadership of the Mexican army demanded and won the release of ex-Minister of Defense General Cienfuegos from prison in the US. The “Godfather” of one of the drug gangs was accused of drug trafficking, corruption, and expanding his influence in the government.
The Plan Mexico announced by former president AMLO and now programmed in detail by President Sheinbaum was presented as the effort to unite the entire continent to the “North American region in order to better confront China.”
But investment by Chinese capitalists is growing in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. Local capitalists effectively leverage Chinese and Russian political backing to negotiate against the Trump administration’s noisy hype that meets domestic internal opposition on many fronts.
This May Day, we reclaim the struggle of the world’s working class to end all capitalist exploitation with communist revolution. In the teachers’ strike we will mobilize with our communist ideas.
No capitalist or imperialist is our friend. Only communism will end capitalist exploitation of workers’ labor power, capitalist corruption, and wars for profit.
Join with us in ICWP.
Read our pamphlet:
Communist Education for a Classless Society here