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Who is really behind the ‘Gen Z’ protests in Mexico? The protests on 15 November, at which 33 civilians were injured, 64 were arrested, and 40 police were hospitalised, were first promoted by an account disseminating AI content of the palace burning. The promotion began weeks before the mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo, was assassinated on 1 November, an event that was used to catalyse support for the demo. Manzo was known as the ‘Mexican Bukele’ and took a hard-line stance against drug cartels, which the opposition says run the state. From the beginning, the PRI and PAN – which ruled Mexico for decades and oversaw massive attacks, killings, and imprisonment of youth, workers, and peasants – had their hands all over this ‘spontaneous movement’. The only ones who were fooled were the wilfully ignorant international media who uncritically lumped these with Gen Z protests around the world. In one of its first communications on 4 November, a Twitter account called ‘Generation Z Mexico’, which called for the 15 November march, said: “This is never about supporting an ideology, much less political parties. There are no hidden interests or disguised agendas here. We are young people who deeply love our country and are fed up with the same old story, the same abuse, and the same corruption. [...] We are neither left nor right.” And yet, that very same day, the PRI dragged out their youngest deputy, 31-year-old millennial Carlos Gutiérrez Mancilla (who in past sessions in the congress had punched senators of Morena) to pose with a One Piece flag and a ‘justice for Carlos Manzo’ shirt. He said: “Young people today are more awake. The youth have awakened, the farmers have awakened, and we are going to oust Morena. Out with Morena, out with narco-politicians, and may God bless the Mexican Republic.” One 39 year old, who calls himself part of the organic leadership of the march, has spoken about PRI infiltration from early on. The Twitter account promoting the march published a link to a Discord server where a PDF manifesto was published. Its metadata showed it was created by Monetiq, an agency that helps monetise far-right media and shares a tax domicile with the former deputy of the PRI, José Alfredo Femat Flores. The right wing and billionaires can’t simply snap their fingers and bring a few thousand people onto the street. The PRI and PAN are severely discredited in the eyes of the Mexican workers and peasants, and a demonstration put on with their banners and slogans would attract no one. Hiding behind a One Piece flag is a good way to cover their reactionary demands. One particularly demonstrative report was shown by the podcast Sobernia, which did street interviews with attendees at the protest. The demands of the (mostly old) protestors ranged from confused people raising genuine concerns – like ending forced disappearances, the cost of living crisis, ending violence towards women – to others raising openly reactionary demands – like opposing abortion, calling for US intervention, strengthening the bourgeois family, and open support for Trump. There is a real mood developing among a layer against the Morena government, which has a material base. It’s possible that astroturfed movements [i.e. movements that create the false impression of a ‘spontaneous’, ‘grassroots’ composition] can sweep up confused elements who have no outlet for their legitimate opposition. But it must be said clearly: a return of the PRI and PAN will solve nothing. The real Gen Z march The true nature of this march was known to revolutionaries weeks before it happened. Comrades of the Revolutionary Communist Party in Mexico, as well as other left-wing youth groups, united to march on 8 November to show where the youth really stand. Their main slogans were “organised students against the crimes of the state” and “against the opportunism of the right wing.” Before all else, it’s necessary to say clearly: we do not defend Sheinbaum, Morena, or any other bourgeois reformist party doing the bidding of the bosses. The Morena government, which represents a continuation of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s ‘fourth transformation’, is an attempt to administer Mexican capitalism and give a human face to the system without changing its internal dynamics of exploitation. Not by accident, many of Shaunbaum's meetings are with billionaires like Carlos Slim, José Antonio Chedraui, and executives of BlackRock, Walmart, the World Bank, and the OECD. The heroic struggle in the 2000s to get Morena elected in the face of PRI election fixing, coupled with the fact that many of Morena’s programmes have lifted millions from poverty, have given them a wide base of support. But the youth, who are most affected by the crisis, are less easily captured by these illusions and can see and feel the limits of Morena’s capitalist programme, as they suffer from unemployment, housing costs, and narco violence. None of these contradictions have been solved in seven years of Morena rule. The entire experience of the left ‘pink tide’ governments in Latin America shows what's coming. Morena has learnt nothing of the failures of Evo Morales in Bolivia or Rafael Correa in Ecuador, who propped up capitalism and attacked workers when they could no longer fund social programmes. Similar cracks are beginning to show in Mexico. This was recently shown by the struggle Sheinbaum waged against fair pensions for teachers, against the 40-hour work week, and against a policy to combat gentrification. We are against the moves by reactionaries to bring back the right-wing governments of PRI and PAN. Their astroturfed movement will have repercussions. Any youth-led movement can now be easily painted by Morena as a PRI plot with no social base. In a similar way, general strikes in Bolivia in 2010 to raise the minimum wage were accused by the ‘left-wing’ government of Evo Morales of being pawns of the right. These attempts must be rejected while exposing the cynical plots of the PRI and PAN. There are no signs of this movement dying down (its Twitter account has 100k followers). They have millions of dollars of funding from the capitalists to run thousands of online bot accounts, something we do not have. Even if there are honest youth elements attempting to organise around the symbols of ‘Gen Z revolution’ inspired by movements around the world, it’s clear the PRI elite have sunk their claws into them to use them for their own aims. It’s clear the lack of ideology and party-affiliation of such ‘Gen Z’ movements make them ripe for infiltration. Discontent with Morena is real, especially among the youth, but the crisis can only be solved by overcoming the sinking capitalist system Sheinbaum has chained herself to. The real Generation Z of Mexico are radicalising, and its most class-conscious layers are organising around revolutionary ideas. https://marxist.com/who-is-really-behind-the-gen-z-protests-in-mexico.htm? Back |
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