The following article describes the opening week of the campaign of Manuel Aguilar Mora, presidential candidate of the Socialist Coalition, the Mexican revolutionary socialist bloc.
The bloc includes organizations with which Socialist Action has maintained close fraternal relations-the League for Socialist Unity (Liga de Unidad Socialista-LUS) and the Socialist Workers Party (POS). The basis of the campaign was explained in our last issue.
By Jorge Bojalil
MEXICO CITY-Manuel Aguilar Mora began his tour of the Mexican state of Guanajuato [traditionally a conservative Catholic state and the home base of Vicente Fox, the candidate of the right-wing Catholic party, the PAN].
On May 5, Manuel arrived in Irapuato, where he meet with a group of teachers from sections 13 and 45 of the SNTE [teachers’ union].
On May 5, along with Cuauhtehmoc Ruiz from the leadership of the Socialist Workers Party (POS), he participated in two rallies. The first was in the National Teachers University of Irapuato. The second was at the plenary session of the Union Civica Salmantina Francisco Villa de Salamanca, where he was introduced by the leader of the union, Renee Ramirez, and by the teacher Maura Vazquez, a member of the Frente Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (FZLN).
On Sunday, May 7, Manuel went to Leon and San Francisco del Rincon. In the first city he met with comrades from the Liga de Unidad Socialist (LUS) to organize a future visit to the town. In San Francisco del Rincon, the home base of some of the most reactionary elements in the country, he carried out an intensive campaign, accompanied by Lavier Mirles, Ladislao Torres, and other members of the FZLN and the Socialist Coalition.
For more than an hour, he explained to a group of 200 students at the Universidad La Salle del Bajio the reasons for his independent revolutionary candidacy. He had a lively discussion with the audience. Later, he gave two speeches, one in the Constituyentes preparatory school, where he spoke to 200 students who engaged him in a thoughtful dialogue.
In the headquarters of the debtors’ association, El Barzon, the Socialist Coalition held a press conference for the local media. The busy day ended with a talk at the Comboniano seminary (named for the missionary Comboni) in which Manuel explained the reasons for his campaign. He got an enthusiastic reception from about 20 students with whom he ate dinner.
On May 10, there were two rallies in Irapuato. In the morning, he explained to an assembly of pupils at the Ignacio Manuel Altamirano preparatory school the political reasons that led the Socialist Coalition to run an independent presidential campaign. Afterwards, there was a press conference for the media in the city of Irapuato.
The following day, Manuel went to Mexico City for a campaign rally in the San Juanico neighborhood, near the Northern Sector underground cable center of the light and power company. [One of the main struggles in Mexico today is the fight of the electrical workers against the privatization of their industry.]
In the evening, he attended the presentation of the book, “The Twenty Mexican Octobers” by Sergio Tamayo, in the San Angel Cultural Center.
On Friday, May 12, he returned to Guanajuato, and presented the platform of the Socialist Coalition to the students at the Irapuato school of the University of Leon. That evening, he spoke to the students of Irapuato’s Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores, the only public institution of higher learning in the city.
In the evening, he went to Salamanca and met with a group of teachers, oil workers, and members of left organizations. In this meeting, the Socialist Coalition delegation explained its political strategy and called for independent revolutionary socialist unity. He returned to Irapuato in the evening and had a meeting with activists from other organizations in the city.
On Saturday, May 13, Manuel returned to Mexico City and took part in a rally for the release of the American Black political prisoner journalist Mumia Abu Jamal in front of the U.S. embassy.
At the same time in Guanajuato, a week of intense activity culminated in a rally in front of the U.S. consulate in support of Mumia and in protest against the persecution of undocumented Mexican workers in Arizona.
