Dear Penners:
This morning, NPR ran a segment on the right-wing PAN candidate's meteoric
rise in the polls and the possibility that he might actually win the
election in August. The business and financial elites would have no
problem, obviously, with PAN's ideology and there was even speculation that
Salinas would secretly work for this guy's election to go down in history as
the President who brought "democracy" to Mexico [in other words, the PRI
won't steal this election like they probably stole the last one from
Cuautemoc Cardenas]. The issue is: does PAN have a policy? would they
basically do everything Salinas did but not have PRI's patronage machinery
to control the popular organizations? How does the PAN compare to the
"Reform" party in Canada. There was part of the segment when candidate
Diego (?? forgot his last name) appeared at the UNAM and was heckled as a
fascist by the pro-Cuautemoc students --- there's some blatant anti-semitism
in the PAN allegedly. Is the rise of Reform in Canada, Perot in the US, PAN
in Mexico an example of the "ruling class losing the ability to rule...?"
If so, unfortunately, the choice that Rosa Luxemburg noted (socialism or
barbarism) is getting pretty near. As always, we support a movement that
has barely formed here in the US --- in places like Mexico and even Canada
there's much more in existence.
Who out there (David Barkin? others) can give us a quick read on the PAN and
their likely program and how the left in Mexico as well as solidarity
movements can play a positive role in the face of the surprising surge of
this "television candidate"!? Thanks in advance, Mike
--
Mike Meeropol
Economics Department
Cultures Past and Present Program
Western New England College
Springfield, Massachusetts
"Don't blame us, we voted for George McGovern!"
Unrepentent Leftist!!
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[if at bitnet node: in%"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" but that's fading fast!]
