Mexican Workers and the State: From the Porfiriato to NAFTA

Almost eighty years before the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Ricardo Flores Magonrevolutionary, anarchist, labor organizer and expatriate nationalist - challenged the prevailing social order of both Mexico and the United States. Magon predicted that if Mexican workers failed to organize and shake off the yoke of capitalism, the nation would soon be dominated by foreign interests. Magon's message: "Mexico for Mexicans." Historian Norman Caulfield demonstrates the fragmentation of "Mexico for Mexicans" along class lines as he traces the evolution of organized labor from its anarchosyndicalist roots during the Mexican Revolution to more recent developments after the implementation of NAFTA.