Mexican Workers Confederation

The Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) is a labor union founded on February 24, 1936, during the government of President Lázaro Cárdenas. Vicente Lombardo Toledano was appointed as the first Secretary General in the history of this Confederation. Since 2016 it has been directed by Senator Carlos Aceves del Olmo, replacing Joaquín Gamboa Pascoe who died in office.

History

Background

It has as a precedent the Mexican Regional Workers' Confederation (CROM), in which the founders of CTM were members for five years from 1924 to 1929, the year in which they decided to withdraw to form a new center. First, the Trade Union Federation of Workers of the Federal District is established. A manifesto Why we separated from the CROM was signed in 1929 by, among others, Fidel Velázquez himself and Jesús Yurén (who was General Secretary of the Federation of Workers of the Federal District until his death), who were part of a group of union leaders, Fernando Amilpa (who at one time was General Secretary of the CTM) with two companions better known as the five lobillos who, with the ideologist Vicente Lombardo Toledano, created the workers' central that It brought together workers from all branches of industry, and later services, throughout the country.

The Marxist ideologies of Vicente Lombardo Toledano, in the international context of the Cold War and the formation of communist parties in the national context, resulted in controversial public opinion. Octavio Nicolás Fernández Vilchis himself, a pioneer of Trotskyism in Mexico, expresses that the way in which the foundation took place was not ideal. This, because it was at the expense of unions, such as that of Juan R. de la Cruz, that the Proletarian Defense Committee was created, a Trotskyist slogan that Lombardo would convert into the Confederation of Mexican Workers.

Foundation

"At 13 hours on the 24th of February, a thousand nine hundred and thirty-six, the Constituent Congress of Mexico's Unique Workers' Center declares the only workers' centre in the countryside and the city of the Mexican Republic created and established. (Applause) The name of these centers is, from this moment on, the Confederation of Mexican Workers. All the organized workers of the countryside and the city will have to develop from this moment on our struggles and perform our best triumphs. Comrades. (Applause.) Juan Gutiérrez.

Over the years, in 1947, Fidel Velázquez and Vicente Lombardo Toledano disputed whether the CTM should be annexed to the Federation of World Trade Unions to which Toledano was a party. However, the Lombardo Toledano plan did not come true.

Structure

The Confederation of Mexican Workers has a State Federation in each entity of the country. In addition to being made up of multiple national industry and trade unions. In turn, each Federation brings together the local unions of each entity. There are also municipal Federations that have that rank due to the number of workers they bring together.

Leaders

The general secretaries of the CTM have been:

• Vicente Lombardo Toledano (1936 - 1941)
• Fidel Velázquez (1941 - 1947)
• Fernando Amilpa (1947 - 1950)
• Fidel Velázquez (1950 - 1997)
• Leonardo Rodríguez Alcaine (1997 - 2005)
• Joaquín Gamboa Pascoe (2005 - 2016).
• Carlos Aceves del Olmo (2016 - news)