Guerrero, MEXICO—A massive demonstration on September 26 will commemorate the struggle for the return of the 43 students who disappeared in Ayotzinapa  five years ago. The details of this incident, part of the criminal history of the capitalist system against the working class, have never been been revealed. Communists in the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) believe that as long as the capitalists are in power, they will continue to use state violence and criminal gangs to assassinate and disappear the students and workers who fight back. The only way to confront the bosses’ violence is to organize our class for communist revolution!
Guerrero: target for local, international capitalists
The state of Guerrero, where the rural education school of Ayotzinapa is located, has historically been one of the poorest in Mexico. The misery of the workers in this mountain region is similar to the most extreme poverty in Africa, and has its roots in the racist exploitation of a population with indigeneous and African roots.
International and local capitalists look to amass the wealth of the resources in the region through militarization to enforce increasingly fascist order upon the working class around some of the richest gold mines in Mexico. Exploitation of these mines, along with some of the largest poppy fields in the country, require tight control of the territory and the transportation routes by the drug traffickers located in the region.
To the bosses, any working class resistance that threatens their profits is unacceptable. With the support of the political apparatus of the capitalist state, especially the police and the military, they can protect their investments by systematically attacking the students and workers. Under capitalism, these criminal groups of capitalists entrenched in the mining industry and the repressive state apparatus are one and the same - and the workers need to organize to confront them all!
Capitalist dictatorship fears workers’ fightback
The previous government administration, under Enrique Peña Nieto, used so-called “education reform” to begin to eliminate teachers’ schools and to criminalize all types of social protest. Those of us fighting these conditions found ourselves in the crossfire of the repressive forces of organized crime that in reality are the same part of the police, military and paramilitary capitalist state apparatus that protects the mining interests and drug trafficking interests in the state.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) promised justice in the Ayotzinapa case, but the repression of the workers has only increased since he came to power. In order for the capitalist class to carry out their exploitation and control of the region’s resources, AMLO has taken advantage of the support of the working class that brought him to power to guarantee the benefits of the capitalists. For example, his new “ley garrote” (nightstick law), enacted in the state of  Tabasco criminalizes social protest and resistance to the capitalists’ megaprojects. There can be no justice for the workers under capitalism. The laws and the courts only serve to defend the interests of the capitalists.
Past and present: workers rebel!
This oppression has given rise to armed rebellion that began in the 1970s, under the leadership of teachers Genaro Vasquez and Lucio Cabanas, who graduated from the rural Education School of Ayotzinapa. For many young people in the region, to become a teacher is to live a life of subsistence. Many of these young teachers have helped to raise the political consciousness of the working class communities where they work. For this reason, the state has begun to eliminate these rural education schools and the resistance that they generate, due in large part to the pro-working class and communist ideas they learn in the schools.
We cannot expect justice from poiticians like AMLO. Only a society led by the workers can end the misery, exploitation and crimes committed against our class. PLP honors the memory of the 43 students and all of our class brothers and sisters who have been killed or disappeared for the bloodlust of capital. We call on the workers to have confidence in our class and to organize against this criminal system. Read and distribute CHALLENGE and join a study group or action today!