The Mexican Laborist Party ( es, Partido Laborista Mexicano, PLM), also translated as the Mexican Labor Party, was a

social democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

that existed from 1919 until the early 1940s. The PLM was founded by

Luis Napoleón Morones Luis Morones Negrete (1890 – 1964), also known as Luis Napoleón Morones, was a Mexican major union leader, politician, and government official. He was a pragmatic politician who experienced a rapid rise to prominence from modest roots and ma ...

, one of Mexico's main union leaders. The PLM functioned as the political branch of the

Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers The Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers ( es, Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana, CROM) is a federation of trade union, labor unions in Mexico, whose power was at its height between 1918 and 1928. CROM was an umbrella organization for ...

(CROM), the country's most powerful union. The party gave a platform to a particular portion of Mexico's social base and was in opposition to the Constitutionalist Party.Aguilar García, Javier, "Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana (CROM)" en ''Encyclopedia of Mexico'', Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, p. 295 In the 1920s the PLM was the most powerful party in Mexico. Presidents

Álvaro Obregón Álvaro Obregón Salido (; 17 February 1880 – 17 July 1928) better known as Álvaro Obregón was a Sonoran-born general in the Mexican Revolution. A pragmatic centrist, natural soldier, and able politician, he became the 46th President of Me ...

(1920–1924) and

Plutarco Elías Calles Plutarco Elías Calles (25 September 1877 – 19 October 1945) was a general in the Mexican Revolution and a Sonoran politician, serving as President of Mexico from 1924 to 1928. The 1924 Calles presidential campaign was the first populist ...

(1924–1928) were elected on a PL ticket and in 1922 the PL managed to defeat the Liberal Constitutionalist Party in congressional elections, becoming largest party in the

Congress of Mexico The Congress of the Union ( es, Congreso de la Unión, ), formally known as the General Congress of the United Mexican States (''Congreso General de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos''), is the legislature of the federal government of Mexico cons ...

. Competition with rival parties, including the PLC, the National Cooperativist Party (PNC), the

Mexican Communist Party The Mexican Communist Party ( es, Partido Comunista Mexicano, PCM) was a communist party in Mexico. It was founded in 1917 as the Socialist Workers' Party (, PSO) by Manabendra Nath Roy, a left-wing Indian revolutionary. The PSO changed its name ...

(PCM), the National Agrarianism Party (PNA), and the National Anti-Reelectionist Party (PNA) was often violent, with the government usually supporting the PL. After the assassination of Obregón, who was recently elected, in 1928 the party's power started to decline. Morones was suspected to benefit from Obregón's death and lost support. In 1929, Calles founded the National Revolutionary Party (PNR), which became the new "official party" and absorbed much of the cadres and leadership of the PL. No longer endorsed by the Mexican political elite, the Laborist Party fell into irrelevance. It last participated in the election in 1940, when it supported the centre-right candidate Juan Andreu, and disappeared entirely soon after.

References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in Mexico Social democratic parties in Mexico Political parties established in 1919 1919 establishments in Mexico Labour parties Political parties disestablished in the 1940s