This book is a brief descriptive history of the Mexican Communist Party during the Comintern’s existence and the latter’s influence in the party. After an introduction by Robert J. Alexander, Herman develops the story in a chapter on the Comintern, one on those Mexican conditions that seemed to make the country susceptible to Communism, five chapters on the party, and one of conclusions. Surprisingly, there are no preface, author’s introduction, bibliography, index, nor utilization of post-1963 studies (an omission with serious consequences). On the other hand, the author makes adequate use of primary sources.
Herman argues that, except for the Cárdenas period, Mexican Communists failed to make significant inroads in that country, even though Mexican problems provided fertile ground for the growth of Communism, and even though a Mexican Communist Party appeared as early as 1919. The author explains this failure by demonstrating that the party obediently followed the Comintern’s Soviet foreign policy ends, regardless of objective Mexican reality, and sometimes with disastrous results. Nevertheless, the Comintern had no lasting effect on Mexican Communism. Communists did achieve considerable influence during the Cárdenas regime, especially in the Mexican Labor Federation and the Education Ministry. On this basis, Herman argues that strong and dynamic liberal or native social revolutionary movements might not offer the best resistance to Communism but instead facilitate its growth.
Most scholars agree that Communism has had negligible influence on Mexico, but Herman’s conclusions on Communist influence during the Cárdenas regime and the “threat” of Communism to nationalistic revolutionary regimes are dubious at best. Perhaps because he displays no familiarity with recent scholarship on Mexico, he overestimates PCM influence in labor and educational circles, and he underestimates the power of the Mexican state and the mystique of the Mexican Revolution.
Contrary to his assertions and suggestions, the creation of the CTM was not a PCM success; the PCM never controlled the CTM; “socialist education” was not “Communist education”; and the Cárdenas regime was neither dependent upon nor beholden to Mexican Communism. In fact, Cárdenas excluded the PCM in his political reorganization of Mexico; gave Trotsky exile against PCM-Comintern protests; castigated the USSR attack on Finland; cracked down on the Party in his last days in office; and chose a non-leftist as his successor.
Herman never comes to grips with the Mexican Revolution and its impact on Mexican society. As Alexander points out in the Introduction, Herman does not speak to the problem of Mexican Communists in dealing with the Mexican Revolution, nor does he stress the effects of Communist disparagement of the Mexican Revolution and the insistence upon advocating the Russian Revolution as a model. Mexican nationalism was xenophobic in general, not just anti-American, and the revolution, imperfect as it was, gave people hope that Mexican answers would be found to Mexican problems.
The merits of the book are several. It proves again that Communism and the Comintern in Mexico were straw men. It provides a sketch of early Mexican Communist Party history. Using it with caution, scholars can build on this useful beginning.