Since we arrived here we have learned
that the American people do not want war,
and especially the working people.
-Carlos Lovera
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday August 15, 1916
From The Masses: Robert Minor on Class War in Pittsburgh
From the International Socialist Review:
In this months Review, George P. West reports on a meeting held recently at the headquarters of the American Federation of Labor between American and Mexican labor leaders. Today we present part one of the article by West and will conclude with part two in tomorrow’s Hellraisers Journal.
FACE TO FACE
By George P. West
[Part I]WHILE every big special interest newspaper and every jingoist in the country is shouting for war with Mexico, five official representatives of the Mexican labor movement are meeting with the executive council of the American Federation of Labor in complete harmony and friendship.
At the Federation headquarters in Washington, the common interests of the peoples of the United States and of Mexico are being emphasized in the conferences that are proceeding with a view to removing misunderstandings and preventing war. The Washington meetings are historic as being the most effective effort ever made by the workers of two countries to avoid war. Mexican delegates to the conference are in close touch with First Chief Carranza, while American labor through President Gompers is making its wishes known to the American administration.
The Mexican labor representatives include Carlos Lovera, Baltazar Pages, Luis Morones. Salvador Gonzalo Garcia and Colonel Edmund Martinez. They are here at the invitation of President Gompers.
Women and children will join with the men of Mexico in resisting American occupation, the Mexican delegates told Washington newspaper correspondents who had asked what would happen if the American troops are not withdrawn.
The interview was arranged in the office of the Committee on Industrial Relations by Lincoln Steffens, who led the questioning with a view to bringing out the attitude of the Mexican people.
[Said Carlos Lovera, of Yucatan, and chief spokesman for the Mexicans:]
We represent 60 Mexican labor unions with a membership of 100,000. We realize that it is quite possible we shall have to go to war when we have no quarrel, and we are here to do what we can to prevent it. It may be that we shall fail, just as labor failed in Europe.
Since we arrived here we have learned that the American people do not want war, and especially the working people. To a certain extent we can carry that news to the Mexicans and give them that impression, that the American people have no quarrel with us and do not want war. We believe the trouble is made by the special interests and not by the people.
Mr. Carranza does not want war, nor do the men around him.
As far as we know, we don’t think there is anyone in Mexico that wants war.
Labor and the government of Mexico are working together. The government recognizes us, and the labor movement agrees to help the Constitutionalist revolution. We had regiments in the field, under our own officers. They were called the “red battalions.”
When we have a big strike now, the military does not help the employers. They do not interfere, they do not help us, but they leave us free to use the strike weapon. The government of Yucatan is helping all they can. We have the eight-hour day and the English week of 44 hours. We quit work at 11 o’clock on Saturday morning and are paid for the full day.
On the day we left Mexico we had the first actual distribution of land in Yucatan.
The Mexican delegates were told that Americans say Mexicans are treacherous. They said that the Mexicans believed the same thing about Americans. Asked why, Lovera said:
In the first place, the war of 1848. The United States took California and Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, nearly half our country. General Grant and many other Americans have condemned that war. After that, the United States government and press tried to support the Diaz government, which was bad for the Mexican people. Then there was the part we believe Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson took in over-throwing Madero. He was a friend of Huerta and used his influence to put Huerta in power.
Now we see a punitive expedition taking heavy artillery into Mexico to capture a bandit. They have set their military base 150 miles south of the border. Besides, they are talking of building military railroads. Do you use heavy artillery to chase bandits?
Even Mr. Carranza would not be able to control the people and prevent war if the troops stay in Mexico. Mr. Carranza feels no different about it from all the people of Mexico.
The Mexicans were asked about American ownership of mines and railroads.
[Said Lovera:]
Until the revolution, employes on the railroads with $100 a month were all Americans. For thirty or forty years the Mexicans did all the track work and all the hard labor, under the command of Americans. No matter how bright or capable a Mexican might be, he could not be promoted. The American employes were paid in gold. The Mexicans got silver; they got about one-half or one-fourth of what the Americans used to get. It was the same in the mines.
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SOURCE
The International Socialist Review, Volume 17
-ed by Algie Martin Simons, Charles H. Kerr
Charles H. Kerr & Company,
July 1916-June 1917
https://books.google.com/books?id=SVRIAAAAYAAJ
ISR Aug 1916
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=SVRIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA69
“Face to Face” by George P West
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=SVRIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA100
IMAGE
Masses, Pittsburgh, Robert Minor, Aug 1916
http://dlib.nyu.edu/themasses/books/masses064/21
See also:
“WE NEVER FORGET: The Pittsburgh Steel Strike and The Braddock Massacre of May 2, 1916”
http://caucus99percent.com/content/we-never-forget-pittsburgh-steel-strike-and-braddock-massacre-may-2-1916
“Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “Marching Through Mexico” by J. K. Turner”
http://caucus99percent.com/content/hellraisers-journal-international-socialist-review-marching-through-mexico-j-k-turner
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Internationale – Socialist Victory Choir