The Casa del Obrero Mundial () or COM was a

libertarian socialist Libertarian socialism, also known by various other names, is a left-wing,Diemer, Ulli (1997)"What Is Libertarian Socialism?" The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 4 August 2019. anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarianLong, Roderick T. (20 ...

and

anarcho-syndicalist Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence i ...

worker's organization located in the popular Tepito Barrio of

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

, founded on September 22, 1912. One of its founders was

Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama Antonio Diaz Soto y Gama (23 January 1880 – 14 March 1967) was a Mexican politician and revolutionary during the Mexican Revolution. Biography He was born in San Luis Potosí to Conrado Díaz Soto y Gama and Concepción Cruz. He studied in Sa ...

, one of the founders of the

Liberal Party of Mexico The Mexican Liberal Party (PLM; es, Partido Liberal Mexicano) was started in August 1900 when engineer Camilo Arriaga published a manifesto entitled ''Invitacion al Partido Liberal'' (Invitation to the Liberal Party). The invitation was addr ...

(PLM). COM served as a cultural institution promoting worker's education and social transformation through a rationalist,

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

orientation, and as the headquarters for a number of syndicates and unions on a mutual aid basis.

Formation and the revolution

The Casa del Obrero Mundial was founded in the capital in July 1912, during the presidency of Francisco I. Madero; its founders included

, Manuel Sarabia, and Lázaro Gutiérrez. The Casa del Obrero Mundial was at the center of the Mexican labor movement in the early 20th century, and was nourished in part by Spanish anarchosyndicalist exiles of the

Confederación Nacional del Trabajo The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo ( en, National Confederation of Labor; CNT) is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions, which was long affiliated with the International Workers' Association (AIT). When working ...

. At the time, the Mexican labor movement was relatively advanced, and though it was not a predominantly industrial economy its non-peasant workers were fairly conscious of popular struggle and their weight in society. It was founded in the general uprising of the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...

after the long, heavy-handed repression of labor under the

Porfiriato , common_languages = , religion = , demonym = , currency = , leader1 = Porfirio Díaz , leader2 = Juan Méndez , leader3 = Porfirio Díaz , leader4 ...

. The COM sought abolition of the capitalism and the coordination of worker's syndicates into a confederated socialist economy. In order to do this it engaged in many strikes that struck Mexico before and during the revolution, aiming for its preferred goal of

general strike A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coa ...

. In a heavily agriculture-based economy, however, its alliance with Mexican campesinos was crucial to its success, but in this aspect it failed, and, through the convoluted situation of the revolution, allied itself with Carranzista forces and formed Red Battalions to fight its supposedly counter-revolutionary enemies, namely the rural-based

Zapatistas Zapatista(s) may refer to: * Liberation Army of the South, formed 1910s, a Mexican insurgent group involved in the Mexican Revolution * Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), formed 1983, a Mexican indigenous armed revolutionary group based ...

. The House went into decline following Carranza's increasing suppression of strikes, ultimately pushed out of the labor opposition by labor unions more under government control, such as the

CROM Crom or CROM may refer to: Places * Crom, a townland in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland * Crom Estate, a Northern Irish National Trust Property ** Crom Castle * Ben Crom, a mountain in the Mourne Mountains in County Down, Northern Ireland * C ...

. Following the suppression of a general strike on 31 July 1916, the COM was banned on 2 August, with arrest warrants being issued for its leaders. Its regional offices and armories were also seized, and Carranza authorized use of force to arrest other strike participants.Araiza, ''Movimiento obrero'', III, 138–178; Salazar, ''La Casa del Obrero Mundial'' (México, 1962), pp. 217-222; Salazar and Escobedo, ''Las pugnas'', I, 181–184; Huitrón, ''Orígenes e historia'', p. 295; Ruiz, ''Labor and the Ambivalent Revolutionaries'', pp. 54-55; Carr, ''Movimiento obrero'', I, 101-102; and interview: Salazar (Tlalnepantla), August 10, 1969. See . After the suppression of Zapata's

Morelos Commune During the Mexican Revolution, from roughly around 1913 to 1917, the peasants from the Mexican region of Morelos established a territory with an alternative political, and economic system. They were heavily influenced by Emiliano Zapata and his ide ...

, strikes were banned by Carranza entirely.

References

This article was adapted from the equivalent Spanish-language Wikipedia article on June 28, 2013. {{reflist

External links

Los centros urbanos y la aparición del anarcosindicalismo en México

José Estévez y Ramón Gil
Casa del Obrero Mundial
Bicentenario.
Revolutionary Syndicalism in Mexico
John Hart. 1912 in Mexico Libertarian socialist organizations Anarchism in Mexico Anarcho-syndicalism 1912 establishments in Mexico 1917 disestablishments

Formation and the revolution

See also

Further reading

References

External links