The weekly newsletter of the Mexico Solidarity Project

Every issue archived online at mexicosolidarityproject.org/archives/

June 18, 2025

Families: Passing it Down

Agatha Hinman, for the editorial team

Stearns Lumber Company, Wendling, Mendocino, CA, 1910; Photo: J.H. Dilling, Courtesy Mendocino County Museum

“I’m the proud daughter of a proud GM worker!” exclaims Esmeralda Jazmín Alonso Guevara, coordinator of Casa Obrera del Bajío. We don’t often hear this from young activists, even when they are already fighting the good fight for workers’ rights in their own workplaces.

In the third grade, my teacher asked us to write down what our fathers did for a living. My best friend, whose father worked in the same place as my father, looked at me doubtfully, but I was already writing down proudly, “mill worker.”

I never doubted then that as a worker in that loud, dirty lumber mill paying its employees minimum wage and no benefits, my father was as worthy as the farmers and ranchers and small business owners of my town. To be honest, more worthy! But I realized that later. I knew little then about his history before the mill job — his work as a labor organizer with the Communist Party, or the blacklists and McCarthyism.

My father once refused to participate in a so-called community improvement association, explaining to me that it consisted of ranchers and business owners. It was not in the interests of workers, and he wanted no part of it. He was clear about his allegiance, clear about theirs.

In the US, we may think we’re born with class consciousness and the will to fight, or that we only learn it in struggle. But when Esmeralda talks with such pride about her father at GM Silao, we’re reminded how powerful it is to also have family passing it down. In her daily work at Casa Obrera assisting workers build independent democratic unions able to negotiate better wages and benefits and working conditions, Esmeralda not only has the consciousness, she’s carrying on the work.

Mexican Labor Activism 2.0

Esmeralda Jazmín Alonso Guevara currently serves as the coordinator of Casa Obrera del Bajío, where they organize to counter the historic attacks that capitalism has inflicted on Mexico. Born in the city of Silao, Guanajuato, Mexico, the proud daughter and granddaughter of farmworkers and factory workers, she has witnessed the transition of her home from farmlands to an industrial center. Alongside her father, a worker at GM Silao, she has joined the fight for authentic union representation and a society of equity, justice and collective good.

Did your father work at GM when you were a child? How did his work affect the family?

But since that time, things have changed. The CTM was the union from the beginning, and though the union representatives were workers, they were chosen by the union's top brass, led by PRI representative Tereso Medina.

The CTM was and is known for its “protection contracts” — that is, it protects the company! The contracts prevent workers from protesting anything the company does. CTM delegates at GM became more and more corrupt as they came to understand how the union could benefit them individually, rather than all the workers collectively. They collaborated with GM — the CTM even had an office at the plant — and working conditions deteriorated radically. Benefits were cut; wages didn’t rise. Workers who didn’t go along were threatened.

So the workers began organizing to replace the CTM, right? They named their group Generating Movement, or “the other GM!” Was your father involved?

Generando Movimiento, GM Silao: Photos: Willibaldo Gómez Zuppa; thanks to Bruce Hobson in The Nation

He wasn't one of those who started the rebellion — GM fired the founders of Generating Movement. The company threatened and physically intimidated others; of course that frightened the rest of the workers. Alejandra Morales, who would become the future leader of the new union, was tracked down and got threatened at her home. If your children are in danger, it's much harder to keep fighting. But Alejandra, a single mother, didn't give up, and neither did other Movimiento members.

Even though we were all afraid, the organizing continued quietly, and my father joined the opposition to the CTM.

Fortunately for us, in 2019, the government passed new labor laws requiring workers to ratify their existing contracts. Also, the new USMCA trade agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada took effect in 2020. It included a labor chapter that promised to enforce Mexican workers' right to form independent unions.

It was still up to us to organize a “vote no” campaign and convince workers that a better union was possible. And with the company’s and CTM’s intimidation and dirty tricks, the fight continued to be tough. We lost the first election. But ballot boxes had been taken and “counted” by CTM. We had to file a complaint under the USMCA to get a new election. The second time, we won by a landslide!

Was that the most exciting moment of the campaign for you?

For me, it was when the Mexican government officially recognized SINTTIA as a legitimate union. We had to get 30% of the workers to join SINTTIA to register as a new union. When our union name and logo became official, it was a tremendously symbolic and motivating moment.

Casa Obrera del Bajío is a workers' center linked to SINTTIA. Do GM workers go to SINTTIA or to Casa Obrera with a complaint?

SINTTIA has representatives on the factory floor. Workers can go to them for help, but with the intensity of production line work, they often don’t have time to stop and find a union representative. Instead, they can message the union with WhatsApp, and a union representative reads the message and reports the problem to the elected Executive Committee.

SINTTIA isn’t part of Casa Obrera, and Casa Obrera isn’t part of SINTTIA. We don’t interfere in SINTTIA's internal affairs. However, both of us share the vision of authentic and democratic unions of, by, and for the workers.

At a key moment in SINTTIA's struggle at GM Silao, CILAS, the labor research and advocacy center, formed Casa Obrera to provide support for workers without the resources to organize.

Casa Obrera del Bajío

 Since then, my team’s work has been to promote free and fair union elections, encourage workers to vote, and inform them of their rights. We support workers who wish to form independent unions. We don’t tell them which union to join, but we do encourage them to consider SINTTIA.

Currently, SINTTIA represents several factories in the automotive sector. What is its structure?

Are you hopeful that Mexico will eliminate the corrupt unions that work on behalf of the employers and for their own enrichment, and that the majority of workers will get to join democratic unions?

I’m the proud daughter of a proud GM worker! I’ve seen workers win and lose, but above all, I’ve witnessed their determination to fight for their dignity and rights. It remains an uphill battle. Even now, the CTM still has organizers inside the GM plant in Silao, causing trouble. It may not happen in my lifetime, but I have hope that one day the workers will triumph.

Trump's Attack on LA Meets the Resistance

Last week, the mass deportation campaign Trump promised, the centerpiece of his presidential bid, hit LA hard. ICE launched a series of raids centered at downtown workplaces and snatched up some of the hard-working people who fuel LA’s economy — including food service workers from local restaurants. Do you really need to be armed to the teeth and wearing a bulletproof vest to detain someone with a table fork and an apron?!

When the people of LA protested the brutal attack on their friends and neighbors, Donald Trump ordered 700 Marines to the City of Angels, on top of the 2,000 National Guard troops previously deployed — supposedly to quell violence. But the protests are largely peaceful, and the massive military presence is performative, a spectacle — as was his “birthday party” military parade. These made-for-TV events are designed to project strength and incite terror.

This isn’t only about ethnic cleansing. It’s the front line of an assault on the remnants of US democracy  — an assault that will not end with deportations. Trump is testing how far he can go in challenging the rule of law. He’s testing whether the US military is willing to carry out any order that he, the “king,” issues.

It helps that the spectacle of invading Los Angeles deflects attention from the destructive impact of the “TACO” or “Trump Always Chickens Out” tariff policy on the US and global economy and his recent feud with narcissistic billionaire Elon Musk.

But it’s not working. This racist campaign has sparked a broad and diverse resistance movement. While the current situation is fraught with challenges, it’s also triggering an expanding anti-fascist united front against Trump and MAGA.

We can build and consolidate our unity, develop a strategy that embraces a broad and creative range of tactics and enables us to leverage our strengths against our enemy’s weaknesses  — weakness made evident when he uses a tank to kill a mouse. When people demonstrate that the show of force doesn’t scare them but instead multiplies their ranks, they show that right can “trump” might.

Trump and much of the media are calling Los Angeles a war zone. That’s usual Trump hyperbole, but if it’s a war, it’s one launched by a racist despot acting in the interests of billionaires — and it’s not a war he can win. Trump faces a broad and diverse movement of peaceful, creative and militant resistance led largely by workers of color who are mostly women — the vibrant heart of LA’s economy and its growing labor movement. 

Watch out, Trump, we’re coming for you, without guns and wearing the simple aprons of workers! ¡Sí Se Puede!

The June Donation Drive is surging ahead! Soberanía: The Mexican Politics Podcast has raised 67% of our goal of $1000USD. If we reach our goal, your support dollars will be matched by a generous anonymous donor! Soberanía is hosted by journalists and Mexico Solidarity Project members José Luis Granados Ceja and Kurt Hackbarth.

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Recent news reports and commentaries, from progressive and mainstream media,
on life and struggles on both sides of the US-Mexico border. Compiled by Jay Watts.

Amy Stillman and Maya Averbuch, Mexico’s Pledge to Give Deportees Jobs Hits Snag Over US Flights Bloomberg. Mexican officials initially expected that planes carrying deportees would land in Mexico City, where they had organized services to receive them. But their plans were disrupted when US deportation flights began landing instead at airports in southern Mexico.

Alejandro Páez Varela y Álvaro Delgado Gómez, "Trato en LA es brutal" Sin Embargo. Noroña anuncia una comisión de legisladores para revisar en EU agresión a migrantes.

President Sheinbaum Expresses Solidarity With Cristina Fernandez Telesur English. On Wednesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed her solidarity with former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez (2007–2015) after Argentina’s Supreme Court upheld a six-year prison sentence and disqualified her from holding public office.

María Fernanda Sosa Santiago, Claudia Sheinbaum viaja al G7: se reunirá con Donald Trump y líderes globales en Canadá El Economista. La presidenta de México, Claudia Sheinbaum, partió este lunes rumbo a Canadá para asistir a la Cumbre del G7, donde sostendrá encuentros con líderes internacionales.

Enrique Acevedo, Why we fly the Mexican flag at the L.A. protests Washington Post. What unsettles people isn’t the flag itself; it’s what it reveals about being American.

Sabina Berman, Los decepcionados de Morena El Universal. Corrupción o no corrupción. Extirpar el cáncer de los corruptos o dejarlo que invada todo el organismo. El dilema de Morena está a la vista y apalabrado por sus propias bases.

Maria Movsesyan, Mexico’s Developing Democracy: Controversy Amidst A Historic Judicial Election Organization for World Peace. To truly effect the virtue of popular sovereignty that is inherent to democratic procedures, Mexican voters must act on their power to determine political outcomes by participating in the election process. Going forward, the country’s civilians must harness this constitutional right in order to hinder nation-wide conflict, violence, and corruption.         

"Tengo al pueblo al lado" Sin Embargo. “Mi líder moral es un gigante de Macuspana”, responde Cornejo a críticas de Morena.

Tallis Boerne Marcus, Sheinbaum addresses misleading White House statement and offers support to Mexicans in LA People’s Dispatch. Following comments from the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem that misconstrued Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s comments on the demonstrations against ICE in Los Angeles, Sheinbaum has clarified her position.

Abelardo Carro Nava, Aunque la 4T se vista de seda, neoliberal se queda Profelandia. Ahora intentan calmar el descontento magisterial con una semana más de vacaciones y con reducir gradualmente los años de jubilación; perdón, pero eso no es lo que Sheinbaum prometió; ¿hay quién todavía duda de que el neoliberalismo recorre las venas de la llamada cuarta transformación y su segundo piso?

The Mexico Solidarity Project brings together activists from various socialist and left organizations and individuals committed to worker and global justice. We see the 2018 election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president of Mexico as a watershed moment. AMLO and his progressive Morena party aim to end generations of corruption, impoverishment, and subservience to US interests. Our Project supports not just Morena, but all Mexicans struggling for basic rights, and opposes US efforts to undermine organizing and Mexico’s national sovereignty.

Editorial committee: Meizhu Lui, Bruce Hobson, Agatha Hinman, Victoria Hamlin, Courtney Childs, Pedro Gellert.  To give feedback or get involved yourself, please email us!

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