Mexican workers struggle at Ford plant

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16 SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 1990 By MACKLER On Jan. 22, 2500 Mexican police mobilized to remove 1500 striking autoworkers from a Ford plant on the outskirts of Mexico City, thus ending a two-week sit-in. The workers, who are now engaged in a "sit-out" adjacent to the plant, plan to continue their struggle in the face of company efforts to break their contract and decertify their union.

The plant had been occupied since Jan. 5, when 150 hired thugs joined Mexican state and judicial police in a murderous attack on a plant-gate rally of 2000 autoworkers. Armed with steel pipes and machine guns, the thugs clubbed 21 workers, sending two to a local hospital. The workers responded by occupying the plant, which is located in the industrial town of Cuautitlan.

The rally was called at 6 a.m. to protest moves by the U.S./Mexican-owned Ford Motor Company of Mexico to fire the local union executive board and eliminate a Christmas bonus. In collusion with the company and the Mexican government, Hector Uriarte, a national official of the .. South Africa (continued from page 1: “Eastern Airlines militant assesses effectiveness of strike tactics”)

Washington and other imperialist capitals) now offers the possibility of "reforms" to lure Black leaders into a series of neverending talks. Ultimately, the ruling class hopes that the Black struggle will be pushed "out of the streets and into the closet" of backroom deals.

A glimpse of what the South African government might put on the negotiating table can be seen in the "working document" drafted last year by the Broederbund, a semisecret group of wealthy Afrikaners of which F. W. De Klerk is a member.

The document concedes that Blacks might take part in a future parliament-and even assume the presidency on a rotating basis— as long as each racial group (whites, Blacks, and mixed-race) is able to approve decisions before they become law.

These Afrikaner capitalists, of course, preferred to remain silent on the possibility of the Black majority actually ruling the country. Nevertheless, the Broderbund and other representatives of South African capitalism have had several closed-door meetings with leaders of the ANC. They seem to have found a certain meeting of minds.

Nelson Mandela agreed (in a letter to former president P.W. Botha, published in South in January) that negotiations would have to "reconcile" the demand for Black majority rule with "the insistence of whites that majority rule will not mean domination of the white minority by Blacks."

"Civilized" forms of capitalism?

The Broderbund's document meshes nicely with views expressed by the governments of the United States and Western Europe. It also complements the Soviet bureaucracy's "new thinking."

Over three years ago, Gleb Starushenko, a member of the Soviet Union's Africa Institute, advised the ANC to provide "elaborate comprehensive guarantees for the white population that could be enforced after the suppression" of apartheid. These guarantees would give the white minority veto power over the Black majority.

More recently, Soviet diplomats have recommended that the Black liberation movement stop talking about socialism. The movement should counter apartheid, say the Gorbachevites, with the prospect of developing a "more civilized" form of capitalism.

A biweekly magazine published by the Fourth International. One year: $47. Write to: rue Richard Lenoir, 93108 Montreuil, France. United Ford Workers Union (Sindicato Unico) agreed to the bonus cut by accepting a scheme to impose a special tax on the workers.

On Jan. 8 at 4:30 a.m., with only a few workers remaining in the plant, the company sent in 200 armed thugs dressed in company uniforms and carrying company identification papers. Their goal was to restore company control of the plant and prevent the local union leadership from entering.

The workers responded by organizing a union defense of their sit-in. When 2000 workers joined the effort, the retreating thugs opened fire, shooting eight and beating several others. Two days later, autoworker Cleta Nigmo Urbini died from gunshot wounds inflicted in the battle.

Three captured thugs confessed to the strikers (before being turned over to police) that they had been hired by Hector Uriarte and Guadalupe Uribe. Uribe is a representative of Mexico's largest trade-union body, the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM).

Most trade unions Blacks in South Africa still face the terrorism Unfortunately, this proposal has had an echo inside South Africa itself.

In its new constitutional guidelines supplanting the old Freedom Charter, the ANC indicated that it is willing to give large concessions to the South African capitalist class. In its meetings with ruling-class representatives, the ANC has put forward proposals for a "post-apartheid" government, stressing that the bosses "have nothing to fear."

In Paris last December, ANC leaders sat down for some "honest thinking" with representatives of South African capitalism. The conference was sponsored by Daniele Mitterand (the wife of the French president).

"Considerable, common ground on a pragmatic, post-apartheid economy for South Africa was found at the Paris Conference," reported the Dec. 4 Business Day newspaper. "It was agreed that such an approach should accommodate the need for a free-market system."

"We have gone beyond the simplistic cliches of socialism versus capitalism," declared the satisfied president of the JCI Trust, Murray Hofmeyr, who attended the Paris meeting. Naturally, nothing was said at the conference about the fundamental demand of "Black majority rule."

Conference for Democratic Future To sit down with the capitalists in Paris is one thing, but to convince Black workers to ally with their bosses will prove more difficult. Even within the ranks of the ANC (including some leadership circles) there seems to be considerable uneasiness with proposals to "accommodate" the leaders of apartheid capitalism.

Hours after the issue of South containing Mandela's letter went on sale, for example, the United Democratic Front (UDF, a mass coalition allied to the ANC) issued another handwritten statement by Mandela. In it, he said it was "inconceivable" that the ANC would modify its policy advocating "the naFEBRUARY mally affiliated with Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). While they function as real trade unions in many respects, their central leaders are closely associated with the government and its anti-worker policies.

With the strike extending to other auto plants and with the workers electing rank-and-file commissions to lead their struggle, CTM head Fidel Velasquez was pressed to agree to the formation of a tripartite commission of the CTM, the National Ford Union, and the newly formed workers' commissions. This body was to reopen negotiations with the company.

Velasquez also agreed to a plant-wide referendum on whether Uriarte should be removed from his post. If he is removed, he will be replaced in a new election to the union's national executive committee.

The striking autoworkers, with the solidarity of the associated warehouse local of the Ford Motor Company, declared an indefinite occupation of the plant pending the implementation of their agreement with Velasof apartheid's power.

tionalization of the mines, banks, monopoly industries."

The New York Times (Jan. 26, 1990) commented that Mandela "may have wanted to reassure Blacks that he was not about to sacrifice their interests in his talks with the government, which have been conducted in an atmosphere of secrecy that has worried some Black leaders."

Opposition also flared at the Conference for a Democratic Future, an unprecedented meeting in December in which 4462 delegates from various tendencies of the Black ancallection of essays in dejeuse of socialist democracy Editedby Cari twannore Essaysiby Volkom liemre Broue, Susany 3801 20, yvonnen Seze, koon lent bigniewnkowalewski. Gerry Foley Flayden Perry-. quez. Terms of this agreement include a plant-wide referendum, the restoration of their bonus, the rehiring of the fired union leaders, and the bringing to justice of those responsible for the armed attacks and killing.

The company responded by initiating proceedings through the government labor ministry to break its contract with the union.

A round-the-clock plant occupation was conducted in two shifts by 5000 workers. With the exception of a handful of unarmed company security police who were allowed in the plant to observe that no machinery was being harmed, the plant was under the complete control of the workers.

The strikers are urging that messages protesting the brutal attacks on their union be sent to: Ford Motor Company, Paseo de Reforma 33, Mexico, D.F., CP 06500, Mexico. Send copies to: Carlos Salinas de Gortari, President of Mexico, Los Pinos, Mexico, D.F., Mexico.

Letters of solidarity can be sent to: Democratic Movement of Ford Workers, Doctor Lucio 103, Edificio Orion A-4, Desp. 103, Mexico, D.F., Mexico.

liberation movement gathered together to promote unified strategy and action.

The conference was backed primarily by the ANC and other groups that have signed the "Freedom Charter," such as those in the UDF. The PAM (Pan Africanist Movement, a successor to the Pan Africanist Congress) was one group that refused to attend the conference, saying that it opposed a "negotiated settlement" and "collaboration with white liberals and employers."

The conference endorsed, by majority vote, the Harare Declaration adopted by the Organization of African Unity on Aug. 21, which put forward a series of conditions to be met in order to negotiate a "transition toward democracy. " These conditions included freedom for political prisoners, legalization of anti-apartheid organizations, and an end of the state of emergency.

Pandelani Nefolovhodwe, a member of the Black Consciousness Movement, was one of the delegates who opposed adopting the declaration. "If you impose the vote of a 'negotiation' with the oppressor," he said, "you will divide the ranks of the oppressed."

And Nkosi Molala, president of AZAPO (the Azanian Peoples Organization), which had close to one-third of the delegates, told the conference: "We will be happy to be able to realize unity against the apartheid regime. But unity on what basis? What is the OAU declaration proposing to us? First of all, a transitory government, a common government with the oppressors."

"We exploited and oppressed people cannot accept that," Molala said. "We oppose 10 that the demand of one person, one vote, for a single constituent assembly for all the country, elected by universal vote."

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