Communist Party of Mexico addresses indigenous peoples of Mexico City

“The first thing that Indigenous peoples must understand is their political enemy: capital. Indigenous peoples fight against capital, but when it comes to the weapons of struggle, capital holds the most decisive one: the state. The state apparatus is the instrument that resolves the political conflict in favor of capital.

Therefore, the struggle of indigenous peoples must be structured in two phases. The first phase is the resistance and defense of their territory (which we are already in), and the second phase is the offensive and the struggle for political power.”

The first phase is described to be already taking place as the fights for territory, autonomy, and self-determination are occurring, along with the defense of collective rights. The fight and opposition to the General Development Plan and the SEPI (State Secretariat of Indigenous Peoples) registration of Indigenous communities serve as examples of this. There are, however, ongoing struggles that show the state is not neutral in the conflict between Indigenous peoples and capital. CPM argues the reason for this is that in Mexico City, collective rights are written into the Constitution, and there is a law called the Law of Indigenous Peoples. However, public and private works projects move forward in Indigenous lands without prior consultation and in rigged assemblies led by illegitimate representatives, who are still considered valid mediators and real representatives by the state.

It is pointed out that the state is the first to trample on all these rights through co-optation, manipulation, division, and repression of the legitimate movements of Indigenous peoples. Therefore, CPM suggests that this first phase of resistance necessarily requires its articulation with the second: the seizure of power. 

“Power is the axis of politics, and the struggle of Indigenous peoples is, in essence, a struggle for it. This is because autonomy and self-determination can only be fully exercised when there is a real capacity to decide without external impositions. That capacity is sovereignty: the ultimate power of decision in the hands of the people.”

Arguing that without access to power, autonomy and self-determination are limited or become illusory. Consequently, any popular movement seeking to achieve its objectives must consider the struggle for and conquest of power as a fundamental condition.

The Communist Party of Mexico calls upon the Indigenous peoples “to maintain and strengthen the struggle against capital and to demonstrate to the state the dignity and willingness of our people to fight. And for those communities to whom our political perspectives resonate, for those who wish to move toward a definitive solution to these problems, we invite you, first, to approach the Communist Party of Mexico and join the May Day mobilization, because Indigenous peoples are made up of workers, not the bourgeoisie; and second, to work on the first necessary step: creating an anti-capitalist front.”