... (Chapel Hill, 1934). Ashby explains the formation of the Confederación de Trabajadores de México (CTM) and its relationship with the government. He covers the “labor theory” of the regime apart from a chapter on leadership and includes chapters on the three major expropriations which grew out of labor...

... working class in the nearby cities of Torreón and Gómez Palacio. Both the Mexican Communist party (PCM) and the newly founded Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) played a crucial role in cementing the worker-peasant alliance which was predicated on the need to transcend capitalist social and economic...

... of the favored “official” union, the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM). The collection’s eight contributors leave the impression that the era of harmony between the government and the working class is over and that the future of relations between workers, unions, and the state is much in doubt...

... of the Confederación de Trabajadores de México (CTM) in February 1936, and the second details the CTM’s offensive during 1936 and 1937 to fight for the rights of labor and its efforts to forge a political alliance with the official party, the PNR. The authors rightly assert that the formation of the Comité Nacional de...

... control of the unification movement, aiming to make some inroads in the larger struggle against Lombardo Toledano’s CTM for dominance of Mexican labor organizations and to give their party a foothold in the public schools. This rivalry between the aggressive Communists and the relatively less organized...

... Trabajadores Mexicanos (CTM), which he used to organize industrial and agricultural workers. He also armed over 3,000 agraristas, and in October 1937 he redistributed 1.3 million acres of land to 11,500 ejidatarios. Then, in 1938 Cárdenas tried to consolidate his political base by constructing a corporatist...

... as “socialism from below” (p. xiv), which, in terms of labor history, means unionism independent of the state and large labor organizations such as Mexico’s CTM. Mexicanists and Latin Americanists who disagree with this ideological position should nevertheless brace themselves and read this brief, relatively...

... of mission alternating with an opportunistic personalist pragmatism. How Lombardo established the groundwork for the eventual seizure of the CTM by Fidel Velázquez is well described, but the analysis would have benefited from a longer view of the relationship between Mexico’s urban labor leadership...

... the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) of leftists, promoting charrismo in the CTM leadership, and unleashing the military on petroleum workers who dared to strike against the state. Medin reveals no clues to how Alemán’s mind worked. In fact, most of the personalities he discusses are flat and one...

...; and secretaries general of the CTM, CNC, and FSTSE. The bibliographical essay (pp. 463-468) describes privately published directories, public directories, magazines, newspapers, monographs, and bibliographies that the author found to be most useful as sources. There are bound to be errors in such a large...

..., 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...

... has displayed an ambivalence toward border industrialization by endorsing increased employment but also labor peace. On the other hand, local unions in Matamoros, Reynosa, and Nuevo Laredo have retained a relatively high degree of autonomy from the CTM, CROC, and CROM and have displayed greater...

... Trabajadores Mexicanos (CTM) that was created with Cárdenas’s support. Using data from army records, Hernández Chávez shows how approximately 350 generals were controlled through frequent transfers (with their staff personnel, but without troops), how factions were played off against each other (e.g...

... and effusive praise for Don Benito. Coverage of the Revolution reflects almost no recent studies. The urban/rural contradiction is left with personalities, and the post-Huerta fighting with Villa is narrated in line with Obregón-Guzmán mythology. The Casa del Obrero Mundial and CTM are misnamed. The army...

... with the independent Confederación General de Trabajadores (CGT), was the precursor of the government-dominated Confederación de Trabajadores Mexicanos (CTM). The interactions of the CROM, CGT, ferrocarrileros and the government during the strikes of the early 1920s and the de la Huerta crisis are handled ably...

... explanations about the transitional period from the predominance of CROM to that of the CTM are fresh and concise. Several individual contributions are of particular value. Salvador Cordero, whose recent work appears in El Colegio de México’s monograph series, provides a thoughtful essay...

... drastically reduced the number of paraestatal enterprises. Middlebrook is not surprised, given the compliant leadership of the Confederación de Trabajadores de México, that U.S. maquila owners prefer the CTM to the troublesome independent unions. Any work of this complexity and size will have weaknesses...

... explores the shift in its activities to a more pro-republican position once the Civil War began. The organization was, for example, central to the publicity generated for the famous niños de Morelia ; the Orfeó Català even developed links to Lombardo Toledano and the CTM. At one level, as Spanish...

.... Its early phase is shown to have been socialist-communist dominated. This was particularly true of the 1930’s (depression years) and the 1940’s (war years). Again, Mexico’s role was outstanding: Vicente Lombardo Toledano (Marxist), founder of Mexico’s biggest labor group (CTM), headed the most...

... the United States. By the time the delegation arrived in Mexico in September 1937, the fallout from Berrondo's article was too great to ignore. Initial efforts to organize meetings with leaders of the Confederación de Trabajadores de México (Mexican Confederation of Workers, CTM), Mexico's largest labor...