The Matamoros workers rebellion
“If we had not struck, the union would have done nothing”
Thousands walk out in Matamoros as Mexican government lets corporations continue production during pandemic
By Andrea Lobo, 7 April 2020
A year after wildcat strikes involving 70,000 workers, the maquiladora workers in Matamoros are leading the fight against the dangers workers face from Covid-19.
Mexican National Guard deployed against Matamoros auto parts workers
By Andrea Lobo, 14 March 2020
The National Guard confronted 500 parts workers occupying the local labor court to demand the right to leave a pro-company union as a similar operation unfolded against teachers blocking a railway in Puebla.
Strike by Mexican Autonomous University staff in Oaxaca
Workers Struggles: The Americas
11 February 2020
Staff at the Benito Juárez Autonomous University at Oaxaca have been on strike since February 1 over salaries, retirement and other issues.
GM workers in Mexico thank US workers for donating to their defense fund
By WSWS Autoworker Newsletter, 27 December 2019
The militant workers’ group Generating Movement at the General Motors assembly plant in Silao, Mexico, express their appreciation to workers in the United States for supporting their defense fund.
AFL-CIO, Mexican government seek to chain renewed struggles across Matamoros to “independent” trade unions
By Andrea Lobo, 12 December 2019
After the historic wildcat strikes earlier this year, the channeling of a resurgence of struggles behind the trade union bureaucracy poses immense dangers to the working class.
Available in English and Spanish
New pamphlet on Matamoros wildcat strikes
6 June 2019
Mehring Books is pleased to announce the publication of a new pamphlet, The 2019 workers’ rebellion in Matamoros, Mexico by WSWS writer Andrea Lobo.
Matamoros workers run for office: The political questions
By Alex González and Andrea Lobo, 1 June 2019
The “20/32” election campaign was deliberately orchestrated to channel workers’ collective anger into the safe and acceptable channels of electoral politics.
Police and military crack down on spontaneous taxi strike in Matamoros, Mexico
By Eric London, 25 May 2019
Hundreds of taxi drivers blocked the international border crossing and several major thoroughfares in response to government efforts to decommission cabs.
New trade union bureaucracies or rank-and-file workers’ power?
Lessons of the Matamoros workers’ rebellion: Part five
By Andrea Lobo, 17 April 2019
This is the fifth and concluding part of a series of articles on the wave of strikes carried out by maquiladora workers in the Mexican border town of Matamoros. The lessons of this struggle are essential for not only Mexican workers, but for workers internationally.
New trade union bureaucracies or rank-and-file workers’ power?
Lessons of the Matamoros workers’ rebellion: Part four
By Andrea Lobo, 11 April 2019
The US and European ruling classes are promoting self-proclaimed “independent” unions in Mexico partnered, financed and in some instances created by the American AFL-CIO labor federation.
New trade union bureaucracies or rank-and-file workers’ power?
Lessons of the Matamoros workers’ rebellion: Part three
By Andrea Lobo, 3 April 2019
As the wildcat strikes began to spread, the government, companies and unions scrambled to suppress each new struggle and prevent them from uniting and spreading internationally.
As Mexican president calls Mussolini a “great leader”
Companies and police violently attack remaining strikes in Matamoros
By Andrea Lobo, 2 April 2019
The Mexican ruling class and its imperialist patrons in the US and Europe are responding to the largest strike in North America in the last three decades by turning sharply toward authoritarian forms of rule and militarized counterrevolution.
New trade union bureaucracies or rank-and-file workers’ power?
Lessons of the Matamoros workers’ rebellion: Part two
By Andrea Lobo, 29 March 2019
When workers in Matamoros learned their raise and bonus was being stolen and formed rank-and-file committees to launch a wave of wildcat strikes, Susana Prieto worked to isolate the struggle and chain workers to the unions and to illusions in the ruling party.
New trade union bureaucracies or rank-and-file workers’ power?
Lessons of the Matamoros workers’ rebellion: Part one
By Andrea Lobo, 25 March 2019
The ongoing strike wave on the US-Mexico border provides critical lessons for the incipient movement of the working class on an international scale.
Mexican government intervenes to end Coca-Cola strike in Matamoros
By Alex González, 23 March 2019
The AMLO administration’s action openly shows that the local, state, federal and court systems are jointly operating on behalf of the corporations and against the workers.
For joint action of US, Canadian and Mexican workers
Defend the Matamoros workers!
By WSWS Autoworker Newsletter, 12 March 2019
Terrified that wildcat strikes will spread throughout factories in Mexico and into the United States and Canada, the US and other foreign-based corporations and the local ruling elites are responding with mass firings, plant closings and other reprisals.
Amid national strike wave
Mexican ruling class responds to Matamoros: Militarization and alignment with Trump’s attacks on immigrants
By Alex González, 6 March 2019
The AMLO administration has prevented immigrants from reaching the border and is forcefully detaining them, creating the framework for escalating attacks on the entire working class.
“The union abandoned us and allowed for management to blacklist us”
US, Canadian and Mexican workers denounce mass firings of Matamoros strikers
By our reporters, 2 March 2019
Mexican auto parts and other “maquiladora” corporations are firing workers in retaliation for launching a wave of wildcat strikes that brought the Mexican border town of Matamoros to a standstill.
Mexico: Metalworkers, universities join strike wave as 90,000 Walmart workers threaten to walk out
By Andrea Lobo, 28 February 2019
As the strike movement builds, the trade unions are scrambling to co-opt, isolate and shut down each rank-and-file struggle.
Ford production crippled by Mexican workers’ strike
By Jerry White, 27 February 2019
After concealing news about the strike in Mexico for six weeks, the Detroit Free Press acknowledged that it has forced Ford to halt production due to a lack of steering wheels.
Oppose the attacks by company thugs against Mexican worker Luis Daniel Prieto!
By our reporters, 27 February 2019
US and Canadian workers must defend their Mexican class allies from threats by thugs.
State and corporate attacks escalate against workers in Matamoros, Mexico
By Andrea Lobo, 22 February 2019
The World Socialist Web Site has received new reports of assaults against workers in Mexico who are voicing opposition to the right-wing offensive of the government and companies against social and democratic rights.
GM worker in Mexico speaks in support of fight against plant closures in the US and Canada
By our reporters, 19 February 2019
The WSWS Autoworker Newsletter interviewed a GM autoworker in Silao, Mexico, about conditions at the plant, the struggle by workers in Matamoros, rank-and-file committees and a joint struggle of autoworkers across North America and beyond.
The International Socialist Organization covers up for the unions, AMLO in Matamoros, Mexico maquiladora strike
By Alex González, 19 February 2019
The ISO’s dishonest account covers up the role of the trade unions and Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Union thugs assault striking Matamoros workers
By Andrea Lobo, 16 February 2019
Threats by management, police and the unions are increasingly frequent across the city.
Democrats capitulate to Trump, agree to wall funding
By Eric London, 12 February 2019
As Trump was delivering another fascistic rant in the border city of El Paso, Texas, Democrats were agreeing to advance his anti-immigrant crackdown.
The international upsurge of working class struggle in 2019
By Niles Niemuth, 12 February 2019
This year is witnessing a resurgence of class struggle that expresses the objective unity of workers in every part of the world.
Mexican union apparatus, government scramble to suppress growing strike across Mexico
By Andrea Lobo, 12 February 2019
Inspired by the wave of wildcat strikes by maquiladora workers in Matamoros, Mexico, militancy and opposition to the trade unions and the AMLO administration are growing.
Strike action in the US hits a 32-year high
By Patrick Martin, 9 February 2019
In 2018, the number of workers involved in large strikes, walkouts involving 1,000 or more workers, was the highest since 1986.
Wave of walkouts in Matamoros, Mexico builds toward general strike
By Alex González, 7 February 2019
An additional 15,000 workers have gone on strike across multiple industries, threatening to bring the city to a standstill.
As Unifor escalates racist anti-Mexico campaign
Canadian union leader postures as supporter of Matamoros strikers
By Roger Jordan, 6 February 2019
Unifor’s near-total silence about the courageous struggle of the Matamoras workers is of a piece with their reactionary campaign attacking Mexican workers for GM’s job massacre.
Mexican auto parts workers support February 9 demonstration in Detroit
By Andrea Lobo and Eric London, 6 February 2019
“I support the call for a general strike in Canada, the US and Mexico. We must be united. There are no borders. We stand firm here.”
The US pseudo-left’s conspiracy of silence on the Matamoros workers’ rebellion
By Alex González, 4 February 2019
Through its dishonest silence, the US pseudo-left is demonstrating its hostility to the courageous struggle of one of the most oppressed sections of the international working class.
Matamoros strike grows as Mexican ruling class warns of national strike wave
By Eric London and Andrea Lobo, 2 February 2019
The leading financial paper wrote: “As easy as one two three, the labor stability which we have maintained for decades, with hundreds of thousands of successful contract negotiations, is broken. And it won’t stop there.”
The economics of the North American auto industry
How global auto parts corporations profit by exploiting Mexican workers
By Shannon Jones, 2 February 2019
With 345 Tier 1 auto parts suppliers operating in Mexico, the country is an enormous source of enrichment for transnational corporations.
Worker in Mexico fired, beaten, censored, and falsely charged for protesting corporate abuses
By Andrea Lobo and Alex González, 1 February 2019
Inspired by the courageous stand taken by Matamoros workers, Luis Daniel decided to share his story with the WSWS to encourage workers internationally.
Matamoros, Mexico maquiladora workers threatened with mass plant closures
By Alex González, 31 January 2019
The strike of auto parts and electrical workers in Matamoros, Mexico has powerfully demonstrated the international character of the class struggle.
Defend the Matamoros workers! For a united fight by US, Canadian and Mexican workers to defend jobs and decent living standards!
March on February 9 to oppose GM job cuts!
the Steering Committee of the Coalition of Rank-and-File Committees, 29 January 2019
The courageous stand by the maquiladora workers in Mexico is part of a growing movement of the working class across the world against austerity and social inequality.
As strike expands in the maquiladoras
Mexican auto parts workers explain how they formed strike committees
By Andrea Lobo, 26 January 2019
”I think that, indeed, the independent committees are much more useful than the union because we asked ourselves ‘this is the proposal, what do we do?’—something that the union never did.”
Matamoros, Mexico strike becomes “legal” as ruling class fears contagion
By Alex González, 25 January 2019
Conditions are ripe for the Matamoros strike to spread throughout the US-Mexico border region.
Matamoros strike set to expand as ruling class boosts unions
By Eric London and Andrea Lobo, 24 January 2019
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has intervened on behalf of the corporations to call on the unions take “control” of the situation.
“I want the working class, the class that drives society, to fight for a better life”
Matamoros, Mexico maquiladora worker speaks out
By Alex González and Andrea Lobo, 24 January 2019
Miguel described working conditions and social services that are common to workers all around the world.
Amid growing calls by workers for an international struggle
Companies, union appeal for federal intervention against strike in Matamoros
By our reporters, 23 January 2019
The ruling class is desperate to prevent millions of workers in the rest of Mexico and internationally from adopting the example of Matamoros.
Thousands of striking Matamoros, Mexico workers march to border to appeal to US workers
By Alex González, 22 January 2019
Workers gathered at the border crossing between Matamoros, Mexico and Brownsville, Texas to appeal for international support.
Matamoros strike threatens to shut down North American auto industry
By Eric London, 21 January 2019
The corporate media are blacking out coverage of the largest strike in North America in the last two decades.
Workers call for election of committees
Auto companies scared, parts run low across North America as strike grows in Matamoros, Mexico
By Andrea Lobo and Alex González, 19 January 2019
The struggle by Maquiladora workers has reached a crucial point in which workers must take the struggle away from the trade unions, and appeal to their class brothers and sisters across North America and beyond.
Amid media blackout, workers expand strike
Matamoros, Mexico strike of over 70,000 workers enters sixth day
By Alex González and Andrea Lobo, 18 January 2019
The strike at Matamoros is being blacked out by the corporate media because the ruling class is terrified of the prospect of workers uniting internationally in the fight for social equality.
“Those workers are setting an example, they are starting a movement”
Canadian and US autoworkers voice support for striking maquiladora workers in Mexico
By Shannon Jones, 18 January 2019
The striking workers in Mexico include many employed by US and global auto parts suppliers who rely on their labor to fuel their massive profits.
Mexican strikers show working class answer to capitalist reaction at US-Mexico border
By Eric London, 17 January 2019
At the US-Mexico border, the two chief social classes under capitalism—the capitalist class and the working class—are demonstrating the two alternatives for the future of mankind.
Mass strike enters fifth day in Matamoros, Mexico
Thousands gather at mass meeting as maquiladora strike grows
By our reporters, 17 January 2019
Despite threats of mass firings and plant closures by the employers, over 70,000 striking workers are advancing their fight against social inequality.
The global class struggle in 2019
By Joseph Kishore, 16 January 2019
The year 2019 is beginning with a wave of strikes, demonstrations and other manifestations of class struggle around the world.
Mexican, US workers exchange statements of support as Matamoros strike grows
By our reporters, 16 January 2019
The massive citywide strike is expanding today in Matamoros, Mexico as the union and employers failed to meet the workers’ demands.
Rebellion in Matamoros, Mexico
70,000 workers strike at US-Mexico border sweatshops
By Alex González and Eric London, 15 January 2019
Workers are waging a struggle against the pro-company trade union and the brutal “maquiladora” sweatshops across the US-Mexico border.
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