Popular Socialist Party (Mexico)

Last updated
Popular Socialist Party
Partido Popular Socialista
AbbreviationPPS
Leader Manuel Fernández Flores
Founded1948 (1948)
Registered1948–1997
Split from Institutional Revolutionary Party
HeadquartersAv. Álvaro Obregón 182 Col. Roma Delegación Cuauhtémoc. México D.F.
Ideology Communism
Marxism
Political position Left-wing to far-left
International affiliation IMCWP
A PPS poster from 1978, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the nationalization of Mexico's oil industry. The slogan reads, "To Nationalize is to De-colonize". Ppstoledano.jpg
A PPS poster from 1978, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the nationalization of Mexico's oil industry. The slogan reads, "To Nationalize is to De-colonize".

The Popular Socialist Party (Spanish : Partido Popular Socialista, PPS) is an unregistered political party in Mexico. It was founded in 1948 as the Popular Party (Partido Popular) by Vicente Lombardo Toledano.

Contents

Lombardo Toledano, the initial leader of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), decided to launch a new party in response to the increasingly moderate and corrupt policies of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The Popular Party was supported by the mine, oil and rail workers' unions, but its potential strength in elections was reduced by the strength of the PRI.

The party adopted Marxism-Leninism as its ideological line in 1960. [1]

It was renamed the Popular Socialist Party in 1960, and over time its leadership became less critical of the PRI; indeed, in all presidential elections between 1958 and 1982 the PPS supported the PRI candidates, and therefore it was often criticized as being a "loyal opposition" or part of the status quo. Due to this, it was popularly known by many Mexicans as the Ni, ni, ni party, as in "Ni partido, ni popular, ni socialista" (Neither a party, nor popular, nor socialist). [2]

While allied with the PRI at the federal level, the PPS represented a serious opposition to the PRI at the local level in the state of Nayarit during the 70s; there, the PPS candidate Alejandro Gascón Mercado won the mayoral race in the state capital, Tepic, in 1972. Three years later, the PPS nominated the aforementioned Gascón Mercado as its candidate for the governorship of Nayarit in the 1975 state election. Back then, the PRI still governed all Mexican states and it was considered "unthinkable" that it would relinquish a state governorship to the opposition, but Gascón Mercado's candidacy attracted the support of wide sectors of the Nayarit electorate, to the surprise of the PRI bosses. On election day, 9 November 1975, the army guarded many polling stations under the pretext of "guaranteeing order", and the official results declared the PRI candidate, Rogelio Flores Curiel, as the winner with 69 762 votes against 44 152 votes for Gascón Mercado. [3] Gascón Mercado and the local membership of the PPS protested the results, accusing the PRI of electoral fraud and demanded that the election be nullified. [4] Days after the election, President Luis Echeverría, PRI President Porfirio Muñoz Ledo and PPS Secretary General Jorge Cruickshank García met to discuss the situation in Nayarit. [3] Shortly after, Cruickshank García was nominated candidate for Senator for the state of Oaxaca by the PPS in coalition with the PRI for next year's general election, which would be the first -and only- time that the PRI supported a Senatorial candidacy of someone who did not belong to the PRI; it was widely speculated that Cruisckshank was offered the Senatorship in exchange for the PPS conceding defeat in Nayarit. [5] Angered by this, Gascón Mercado left the PPS and founded the Mexican People's Party (Partido del Pueblo Mexicano, PPM), which later merged with the Mexican Communist Party to form the Unified Socialist Party of Mexico (PSUM).

The party broke with the PRI at the federal level for the first time in the 1988 presidential election, choosing instead to support the candidacy of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and entering his National Democratic Front. In the 1994 election, the party nominated Marcela Lombardo Otero, the daughter of party founder Vicente Lombardo, as its presidential candidate; she would only obtain 0.47% of the votes. [6] This result (second to last among nine presidential candidates) implied the loss of the official registry to her party, which was recovered in 1997, and then lost again definitely after the midterm elections of that year.

In 1997, a second party with nearly the same name—the Popular Socialist Party of Mexico or PPSM—split off from the older PPS. This splinter group claims to be the true descendant of Lombardo Toledano's party.

The PPS's traditional political space (i.e. to the left of the PRI) was largely captured by the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) since 1989. The PPS lost its registration as a national political party in 1997, though it is currently registered as a national political association under the name Popular Socialista.

PPS presidents

  1. Vicente Lombardo Toledano (1948–1968)
  2. Jorge Cruickshank García (1968–1989)
  3. Indalecio Sáyago Herrera (1989–1997)
  4. Manuel Fernández Flores (since 1997)

PPS candidates

  1. Vicente Lombardo Toledano (1952)
  2. Adolfo López Mateos (allied with PRI and PARM; 1958)
  3. Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (allied with PRI and PARM; 1964)
  4. Luis Echeverría Álvarez (allied with PRI and PARM; 1970)
  5. José López Portillo (allied with PRI and PARM; 1976)
  6. Miguel de la Madrid (allied with PRI and PARM; 1982)
  7. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano (allied with PARM, PFCRN, and PMS to form National Democratic Front; 1988)
  8. Marcela Lombardo Otero (1994)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institutional Revolutionary Party</span> Mexican political party

The Institutional Revolutionary Party is a political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 and held uninterrupted power in the country for 71 years, from 1929 to 2000, first as the National Revolutionary Party, then as the Party of the Mexican Revolution and finally as the PRI beginning in 1946.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vicente Lombardo Toledano</span> Mexican politician

Vicente Lombardo Toledano was one of the foremost Mexican labor leaders of the 20th century, called "the dean of Mexican Marxism [and] the best-known link between Mexico and the international world of Marxism and socialism." In 1936, he founded the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), the national labor federation most closely associated with the ruling party founded by President Lázaro Cárdenas, the Party of the Mexican Revolution (PRM). After he was purged from the union after World War II, Lombardo Toledano co-founded the political party "Partido Popular" along with Narciso Bassols, which later became known as the Partido Popular Socialista.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution</span> Defunct political party in Mexico

The Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution was a Mexican political party that existed from 1954 to 2000. For most of its existence, the PARM was generally considered a satellite party of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Popular Socialist Party of Mexico</span> Communist party in Mexico

Popular Socialist Party of Mexico is a communist party in Mexico, formed in 1997 after a split from the Popular Socialist Party (PPS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexican Communist Party</span> Communist political party in Mexico (1917–1981)

The Mexican Communist Party was a communist party in Mexico. It was founded in 1917 as the Socialist Workers' Party by Manabendra Nath Roy, a left-wing Indian revolutionary. The PSO changed its name to the Mexican Communist Party in November 1919. It was outlawed in 1925 by the government of Plutarco Elías Calles and remained illegal until 1935, during the presidency of the leftist Lázaro Cárdenas. The PCM saw the left wing of the nationalist regime that emerged from the Mexican Revolution—i.e. Cárdenas and his allies—as a progressive force to be supported. The PCM disappeared after helping form the Party of the Democratic Revolution, a split from the PRI led by the son of Lázaro Cárdenas, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mexican Socialist Party</span> Political party

The Mexican Socialist Party was a left-wing Mexican political party, and one of the immediate antecedents of the present Party of the Democratic Revolution. It was the last effort to unify the different Mexican left-wing parties, as well as the last political party in the country to officially use the word "socialist" in its name. It existed between 1987 and 1989.

Marcela Lombardo Otero was a Mexican politician, daughter of the leftist Vicente Lombardo Toledano, founder of the Popular Socialist Party. She was a deputy during the L and LIV Legislatures, from 1976 to 1979 and 1988 to 1991. In the 1988 election, she was the only female candidate from any of the parties that formed the FDN to win her seat in congress by majority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1988 Mexican general election</span>

General elections were held in Mexico on 6 July 1988. They were the first competitive presidential elections in Mexico since the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) took power in 1929. The elections were widely considered to have been fraudulent, with Salinas de Gortari and the PRI resorting to electoral tampering to remain in power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Democratic Front (Mexico)</span> Political party in Mexico

The “National Democratic Front” was a coalition of Mexican left-wing political parties created to compete in the 1988 presidential elections, being the immediate predecessor of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). It was result of an agglutination of small political left and center-left forces with dissident members from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Their candidate for the presidential election was Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas.

The Movement of National Liberation (MLN) was a Mexican leftist political party composed of numerous socialist, Marxist, and peasant activist groups. They operated primarily between 1961 and 1964.

Narciso Bassols García was a Mexican lawyer, socialist politician, ambassador to France, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom, and professor of law at the National University of Mexico. He co-founded the Popular Party, and the League of Political Action. Bassols is most noted for his role in socializing the country's public education system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1952 Mexican general election</span>

General elections were held in Mexico on 7 July 1952. The presidential elections were won by Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, who received 74.3% of the vote. In the Chamber of Deputies election, the Institutional Revolutionary Party won 151 of the 161 seats. These were the last presidential elections in Mexico in which women were not allowed to vote.

Jorge Cruickshank García was a Mexican politician. He was the general secretary of the Popular Socialist Party and a five-time parliamentarian.

The Mexican People's Party was a political party in Mexico, founded in 1977. PPM was led by Alejandro Gascón Mercado. PPM was mainly based in the Nayarit and Jalisco states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1976 Mexican general election</span>

General elections were held in Mexico on 4 July 1976. José López Portillo was the only candidate in the presidential election, and was elected unopposed. In the Chamber of Deputies election, the Institutional Revolutionary Party won 195 of the 237 seats, as well as winning all 64 seats in the Senate election. Voter turnout was 65% in the Senate election and 62% in the Chamber election.

Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Party of the Democratic Revolution. He represents Nayarit and the first electoral region as a deputy to the LXIII Legislature of the Mexican Congress.

The following lists events that have happened in 1926 in Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LIV Legislature of the Mexican Congress</span>

The LIV Legislature of the Congress of the Union of Mexico met from 1 September 1988 to 31 August 1991.

Samuel Ocaña García is a Mexican politician and doctor who served as the Governor of Sonora from 1979 to 1985 as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He was known for his contributions towards the advancement of Sonoran culture and education during his term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Workers' Socialist Party (Mexico)</span> Mexican political party

The Workers' Socialist Party was a socialist political party in Mexico. The PST was founded in 1975 by Rafael Aguilar Talamantes, Graco Ramírez and Juan Ignacio del Valle, though the party did not obtain its official registration until 1979. The party nominated Cándido Díaz Cerecedo in the 1982 presidential election.

References

  1. Rodríguez Araujo, Octavio. La reforma política y los partidos en México . México: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1989. p. 43
  2. Aguilar García, Francisco Javier (2017). Estado mexicano, crecimiento económico y agrupaciones sindicales : del porfirismo al periodo neoliberal en el siglo XXI. -- II (First ed.). UNAM, Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales. p. 247. ISBN   978-607-02-8839-5 . Retrieved 28 August 2023.
  3. 1 2 Granados Chapa, Miguel Ángel (April–June 1976). "Nayarit: Consolidación del monopartido". Foro Internacional. 16 (4 (64)): 441. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  4. Granados Chapa, pp. 441-448
  5. Narvaez Robles, Jesus (17 February 2005). "Falleció ayer en Tepic Alejandro Gascón Mercado". La Jornada (in Spanish). Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  6. Velazquez, Gabriela (July 8, 2006). "Patricia Mercado, la mexicana con más votos en elección presidencial - El Universal - Elecciones" (in Spanish). El Universal. Retrieved 9 February 2011.