The weekly newsletter of the Mexico Solidarity Project

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January 22, 2025

Neoliberalism Makes the Road to Hell

Meizhu Lui, for the editorial team

Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, 01/12/2025 Apu Gomes / Getty ImagesNe

A hellscape is coming to a neighborhood near you.

Around the world, the neoliberal right wing in power hastens climate catastrophe. Brazil’s former president Bolsonaro handed over the Amazon forests — which have been called “the lungs of the world” since they pour much-needed oxygen into our carbon saturated air — to private ranchers who chopped them down for grazing land. US president Trump loves carbon-producing oil a lot more than he loves the people of Los Angeles.

The right wing has no problem setting the world on fire. If that’s the price of private enrichment, so be it!

In the world of neoliberalism, privatization is the answer to everything and government is the cause of every problem. Public goods like electricity and public services like education are thrown into the fire, all contracted out to a messy jumble of private enterprises, which fail to serve unprofitable rural or minority communities

Inevitably, the rich get richer, the poor poorer and the middle classes run on a treadmill going nowhere fast. The people become frustrated, restless, angry. Who to blame? Where to turn? The right? The left? They grasp at straws, voting for anyone who promises change. In many countries, when the left is unable to break the confines of neoliberalism, voters perform the electoral two-step, choosing governments from the right to the left and back again.

What’s the way out of this frustrating cycle? As we learn today from Edwin Ackerman, AMLO’s genius lay in taking the neoliberal bogeyman out of the shadows, exposing its ugliness for all to see. When the people understand fully the mechanics that deliver what belongs to them into the hands of the wealthy few, they get clear about which side they’re on.

Can we in the rest of the world stop the fire of neoliberalism from consuming us all? Mexico is showing us how.

For a deeper dive into current news and analysis in English, check out our media website. And definitely see the new English podcast ¡Soberanía! (Sovereignty) with José Luis Granados Ceja and Kurt Hackbarth.

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AMLO Teaches a Class in Class Politics

Edwin F. Ackerman is an associate professor of sociology at Syracuse University. He is the author of Origins of the Mass Parties: Dispossession and the Party-form in Mexico and Bolivia (Oxford Press: 2022), and a close observer of Mexican politics.Today’s interview is based on his article in Jacobin magazine.

Former president Lopez-Obrador promised a “fourth transformation” as profound as the Revolution against Spanish rule of 1810, the “Reforma” that broke the control of the Catholic Church in 1850, and the democratic revolution against dictatorship in 1910. Did he deliver?

Additionally, the country’s Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality, improved, and overall poverty dropped by 8.5 percent. Over nine million people were lifted out of poverty — the largest reduction in twenty-two years.

Morena’s progress was affirmed at the polls in early June, when 60% of the voters — including most voters from the working class — gave Claudia Sheinbaum a resounding mandate to continue on AMLO’s path. Morena also won a two-thirds majority in the legislature, empowering Morena to make constitutional changes locking their advances in place.

But AMLO didn’t just improve the standard of living. He convinced the Mexican working and middle classes to reject neoliberalism, the dominant world economic system! How did he manage that?

If there was a distinguishing feature of AMLO’s political style, it was his ability to articulate and demonstrate that neoliberalism is synonymous with corruption. Historically, anti-corruption politics have been the mainstay of the neoliberal right, which argued that corruption is synonymous with government and therefore government itself is the problem. AMLO adroitly repurposed anti-corruption politics and shifted public anger from the government onto the neoliberals themselves.

“It sounds harsh, but privatization in Mexico has been synonymous with corruption,” AMLO said in his inaugural speech in December 2018. “Unfortunately, this malady has almost always existed in our country, but what happened during the neoliberal period is unprecedented in modern times — the system as a whole has operated for corruption,” he added. “Political power and economic power have mutually fed and nurtured each other, and the theft of the people’s goods and the nation’s wealth has been established as the modus operandi.”

In short, taxes paid by poorer classes flowed upwards into the capacious pockets of already wealthy private individuals and government officials. Thus, AMLO argued that neoliberalism was not, as it claimed, about reducing the size of the government, but rather about using the state to serve the rich. Thanks to AMLO, Mexico’s debate is not, as in the United States, about small government versus big government. It’s not a matter of size. It’s whether government serves the rich or the poor.

Genaro García Luna, sentenced for taking bribes to aid the Sinaloa Cartel. Getty Images

When AMLO promised “Republican austerity,” many of us on the left were nervous, since “austerity” is associated with the neoliberal agenda of cutting public services.

“Republican austerity” refers to cutting from the top, while neoliberal austerity cuts public services on which the working class depends. AMLO at once set an example by selling the presidential jet; he flew coach class and drove all over Mexico in his VW Jetta.

To protect public resources from unnecessary bureaucracies and wasteful expenditures, AMLO worked to eliminate costly intermediaries between the state and the citizenry, such as clientelist brokers, NGOs receiving government funds, the fideicomisos, and private companies given contracts to carry out government functions such as constructing public buildings. These companies took large amounts of money out of the public treasury for themselves and often performed shoddy or unfinished work. A push to recentralize outsourced government functions has therefore been central to Morena’s politics. When big projects like the Tren Maya or the new airport became publicly managed, they were completed on time and on budget.

With Claudia Sheinbaum’s monumental defeat of the neoliberals, those who for decades have puzzled over how to revitalize a working-class left project have taken notice. What can we learn?

The historian Robert Brenner has long argued that the neoliberals redistribute income upward through political means. The state intervenes in the economy to alter the balance of class power in favor of the rich. They cut taxes, privatize public assets at bargain prices, but socialize or make the taxpayer pay for massive private sector losses, such as when they bailed out the big banks after the financial crisis of 2008.

Neoliberalism is difficult to dislodge because of its fusion of political, administrative, and economic power. But in his daily mañaneras addressed to the people, AMLO succeeded in exposing the neoliberal elites to a moral and political critique with clarity and force.

AMLO demonstrated that his left-wing anti-corruption politics work. He clawed back millions in taxes owed by the rich, ended profit-making contracts for public works and used those dollars for new social programs and public projects. He reversed the trend across much of the rich world where the working class has often become aligned with neoliberal thought. Mexico’s working class came back into the fold of a left-wing party and project.

The global left has much to learn from Mexico’s example.

Firestorms of Climate Change Burn in LA

For the past two weeks, flames, toxic smoke and destruction have torn through major sections of Los Angeles County. The flames have destroyed tens of thousands of homes and community structures; rebuilding costs are estimated at $60 billion and climbing. Mexico sent a brigade of firefighters to help; thankfully, the US press covered this widely. But while National Public Radio also aired a story about a contingent of Latino immigrants volunteering in the wildfire zones to support the first responders, I think that was the only media story showing the true character of our people in California.

The local and national media are also falling short in explaining the fire’s causes. They do point to the climate crisis and its variety of causes, which threaten the very existence of life on Mother Earth, but have failed to cover the fossil fuel industrial complex’s massive GhG emissions, which underlie these “natural disasters.” I’ve read of no suggestions that polluters pay for the cost of rebuilding or that they should begin an immediate program of emission reductions.

They have also failed to cover how these wildfires impact LA’s Latino population. They are the largest sector of Los Angeles County’s nine million residents; the great majority are Chicano-Mexicano. 

The UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute reports that Latinos make up at least 36% of the formal workforce in key wildfire zones, while making up only 23% of the residents. In the Palisades Fire Zone, Latinos make up 34% of the workforce but only 7% of the residents. We know who watches the children and elders, who cleans and maintains homes and landscapes, and who builds the “remodeling” projects of the wealthy residents. They do the work and then go home to poor barrios. Remote work? Forget it! Latinos are overrepresented in the jobs that require a “physical presence.”

The UCLA study also shows that 85% of these Latino workers — because of questions about their legal status — face enormous challenges accessing unemployment benefits after losing their jobs due to the fire. But of course, Latino workers will actually do the rebuilding; they are 84% of the construction workforce. They will also endure the health risks from the asbestos, lead and dangerous chemicals released by the fires.

Yet, Donald Trump, the new US president, has promised to deport most of these Latino workers. He’s threatened to withhold federal assistance to California if it doesn’t immediately repeal legislation providing health care to immigrants or if the state refuses to cooperate with his mass deportation scheme.

We need cross-border solidarity more than ever. Media must counter the characterization of our people as “rapists” and “criminals.” We must defend immigrants from deportation and also defend California’s currently inclusive programs. Latinos are major contributors to Los Angeles’ economy and culture — we cannot allow them to be thrown into the fire.

Hasta La Victoria Siempre!

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.

Kurt Hackbarth, Assessing AMLO: The Path to Power Jacobin. Mexico’s staunchly left-populist former president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, just spent six years in power. But his road to the National Palace was anything but a straight line.

Partido del Trabajo impulsa reforma laboral de 40 horas; también consideran necesaria una reforma fiscal Conciencia Pública. “Desde los tiempos de la revolución mexicana y el Partido Liberal que hizo la demanda, hasta ahora no ha habido ningún avance en lo que se refiere a la duración de la jornada laboral, seguimos con las 48 horas pese a que ya pasaron 100 años de aquella heroica.”

Tallis Boerne Marcus, 100 days of Claudia Sheinbaum People’s Dispatch. With 350,000 in attendance, Claudia Sheinbaum’s Zocalo rally on shows Mexico’s fourth transformation is stronger than ever.

Salvador Corona y Otilia Carvajal, Gobierno anuncia creación de Olinia, armadora de autos eléctricos; primer modelo se estrena en Mundial 2026 El Universal. Se estarán diseñando tres modelos: Movilidad personal, de barrio, última milla, cuyo precio, dependiendo el modelo, será de 90 mil pesos a 150 mil pesos.

Miguel A. Romero, Mexico prepares its consulates in the US to face Trump’s mass deportations People’s Dispatch. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reaffirms support for migrants amid Trump’s deportation plans, and proposes a regional summit to address the causes of immigration.

Marath Bolaños López, Trabajo en plataformas digitales: certidumbre, derechos y flexibilidad Milenio. La reforma busca regularizar a los trabajadores de plataformas que ganan el salario mínimo mensual, pero ¿qué impedirá que las corporaciones de plataformas limiten las horas de los trabajadores para mantenerlos por debajo del umbral?

Latin American Ministers Meet in Mexico to Unify Stance on Trump’s Policies Telesur English. The “Meeting on Human Mobility in the Northern Route of the Continent: Towards an Orderly, Safe, Regular, Responsible, and Humane Management” was attended by representatives from Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, and Venezuela.

Alonso Urrutia y Braulio Carbajal, Presentan el Plan México; la meta es ser la décima economía global La Jornada. Se trata de fomentar una visión del desarrollo de nuestro país: equitativo, sustentable, de industrialización, de crecimiento económico, pero, sobre todo, de bienestar para nuestro pueblo y de beneficio para todas y todos. Una meta sustantiva es disminuir pobreza y las desigualdades. El objetivo no es quedarse en la presentación global, sino que cada uno de nosotros sepamos a dónde queremos llegar.

Maria Luisa Torres, More than 70 Firefighters from Mexico Assist with Firefighting Operations San Fernando Valley Sun. “We will stay as long as necessary,” said Laura Vázquez Alzúa, head of Mexico’s Civil Protection, shortly after the Mexican firefighters arrived at LAX. “We will support in a spirit of solidarity and with all our experience and commitment to the people of California.”

Brian Prado, Plan México obliga a fortalecer inspecciones laborales La Jornada Estado de México. “El Plan México nos obliga a que, lo que nosotros hacemos y producimos en México lo hagamos de la mejor manera. La idea es poder incentivar a las micro y pequeñas empresas a créditos fiscales y en el caso de la secretaría del trabajo con los mejores trámites y que las inspecciones no les lleguen de momento sino a lo mejor tener una inspección de asesoría que está permitida por la ley”, detalló.

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.  To give feedback or get involved yourself, please email us!

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