The Mexican Working Class under the Diaz Dictatorship

Mexico had gone through rapid industrialization under D？az, During this period, wage-laborer were massively formed in such industries as export-related industries and transportation industries, while the capitalist mode of production promoted to the level of predominance. In order to host foreign capital, the Diaz government resorted to the despotic mode of class domination to secure industrial peace. Without legal protection for the workers, the capitalists set the terms of labor conditions at will and exercised the despotic mode of class domination on the shopfloor. What mexican workers experienced under the despotic mode of class domination without legal protection were coarse labor conditions and tough labor control. Coarse working conditions were consisted of low wages and long work day above all, and tough labor control measures deployed by the omnipotent supervisors included not only material sanctions such as fines and discounts but also physical sanctions such as assaulting and confining. These coarse working conditions and tough labor control measures constituted the core of worker grievances. In addition to that, discrimination against mexican workers in favor of foreign workers made mexican workers to express their grievances in the form of hostility against foreign supervisors. However high the level of worker grievances was, worker grievances failed to lead to working class formation. The D？az government exerted repression over the union-type worker organizations although it was rather permissive to the mutual-aid societies. Furthermore, the escalated state repression after the 1907-8 strike wave reinforced the failure of organizational formation of the mexican working class. Ideological formation of the mexican working class was hampered by the prevalence of patronistic capital？labor relationship. In the textile industry for example, the persistence of internal subcontracting and the existence of company towns contributed to the reproduction of patronistic relationship