Vicente Lombardo Toledano (July 16, 1894 – November 16, 1968) was one of the foremost Mexican labor leaders of the 20th century, called "the dean of Mexican Marxism ndthe best-known link between Mexico and the international world of Marxism and socialism." In 1936 he founded the

Confederation of Mexican Workers The Confederation of Mexican Workers (''Confederación de Trabajadores de México'' (CTM)) is the largest confederation of labor unions in Mexico. For many years, it was one of the essential pillars of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional ( ...

(CTM), the national labor federation most closely associated with the ruling party founded by President Lázaro Cárdenas, the Party of the Mexican Revolution (PRM). After he was purged from the union after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Lombardo Toledano co-founded the political party "Partido Popular" along with Narciso Bassols, which later became known as the Partido Popular Socialista.

Early career

Lombardo Toledano was born in

Teziutlán Teziutlán is a city in the northeast of the Mexican state of Puebla. Its 2005 census population was 60,597. It also serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding Teziutlán Municipality. The municipality has an area of 84.2 km2 (32.51 ...

, Puebla, to middle-class parents of Sephardic Jewish descent from Spain and Italy. After obtaining his law degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1919,Alisky, Marvin (ed.) (2008) "Lombardo Toledano, Vicente (1894-1968)" ''Historical Dictionary of Mexico'' Scarecrow Press, Lanham, MD, USA, p. 307, he pursued a master's degree in philosophy and letters there, and he began teaching at both the Popular University and at UNAM. He taught at UNAM until 1933, and it was there that he became a member of an informal group known as ''los siete sabios'' (the seven sages). During his tenure at the UNAM, Lombardo Toledano helped to organize a teachers' union. In 1921 he joined the Labor Party. As leader of that teachers' union, Lombardo Toledano entered the Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana (CROM), the largest and most powerful union confederation of the day and a key supporter of the regimes of Presidents

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 ...

and

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 ...

. Lombardo Toledano served as the house intellectual for CROM, not benefiting directly from its corruption but acquiring access to power instead. Lombardo Toledano then served as interim Governor of Puebla in 1923, was a councilman in the

Federal District A federal district is a type of administrative division of a federation, usually under the direct control of a federal government and organized sometimes with a single municipal body. Federal districts often include capital districts, and they ...

in 1924 to 1925, and was a congressional deputy from 1926 to 1928. In 1925, during his tenure as a councilman, he met with the colleague Juan Rico and chose the day March 13th to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the founding of

Tenochtitlan , ; es, Tenochtitlan also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, ; es, México-Tenochtitlan was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear. The date 13 March 1325 was ...

.Castillo Ledon, Luis (1925). ''La Fundación de la Ciudad de México 1325-1925'' Editorial CVLTURA p. 5, 55, 56 CROM lost most of its influence in 1928 after a right-wing

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

associated with the '' Cristero movement'' assassinated Obregón. Lombardo Toledano then left CROM and the Labor Party in 1932. He had organized a faction which he called the "Purified CROM" who left the CROM ''en masse'' in 1932. This mass flight left the CROM representing only a few unions in the textile industry. The Purified CROM became the

(CTM) in 1936, allying with the

populist Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develop ...

President Lázaro Cárdenas and the ruling Party of the Mexican Revolution (PRM), a rival to the Labor Party associated with CROM. Lombardo Toledano was the secretary general of the CTM from 1936 to 1940.

Formation of the CTM and alliance with Cárdenas

Outside of the CROM, Lombardo Toledano began to build a rival federation that combined his "purified" CROM with other labor groups. Among the first with whom he allied was the Confederación Sindical de Trabajadores del Distrito Federal, a union that included among its members not only low-wage workers but professionals, strikebreakers, some street vendors, and other members of the informal economy. Fidel Velázquez Sánchez was one of ''los cinco lobitos'' (the five wolf cubs) who led the CSTDF. Further distancing himself from Velázquez's group and the CGT, Lombardo Toledano formed a new federation, the ''Confederación General de Obreros y Campesinos de México'' (CGOCM). That group subsequently transformed itself into the CTM in 1936. The CTM had a strong relationship with the government of

Lázaro Cárdenas del Río Lázaro is a Spanish or Portuguese-based given name or surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Lázaro (footballer, born 1990), full name Lázaro Vinícius Alves Martins, Brazilian footballer * Lázaro (footballer, born 2002), f ...

from its inception. While Lombardo Toledano had opposed Cárdenas' candidacy in 1934, the CTM was the chief beneficiary of Cárdenas' need for labor support for his government after the employers of

Monterrey, Nuevo León Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anc ...

, called an employers' strike on February 5, 1936. Cárdenas led a demonstration in Monterrey in which he called for unification of the various labor organizations into one national body associated with the PRI, then named the Partido Revolucionario Mexicano. The political crisis deepened when Calles launched a series of verbal attacks on Cárdenas that amounted to a call for his overthrow. The "Purified" CROM, the CSTDF, other labor bodies, and the PCM rallied to defend Cárdenas. With their support Cárdenas had Calles and Morones arrested and deported that year. The CTM was formed shortly thereafter, absorbing the major petroleum workers and railroad workers unions. It also had the support of 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) and the industrial unions it had founded. Those unions nearly walked out of the CTM twice in its early years, however. The first time that they threatened to leave was at the founding convention of the CTM in 1936, when Lombardo Toledano chose Velázquez (rather than the individual from their wing who had been promised the position) as organizational secretary of the new organization and a second time the following year. In both cases, however, the unions returned under orders to accept unity at any cost as part of the party's

Popular Front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalition ...

policy. Lombardo Toledano was never, as far as it is possible to determine, a member of the PCM. However, he had even stronger support from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

during the

era than the nominal leaders of the PCM. Following the policy of that era, he and the CTM supported the Cárdenas administration enthusiastically, intervening to moderate union demands during the railroad workers' and electrical workers' strikes in 1936 and then the petroleum workers' strike in 1937. Lombardo Toledano and the CTM were vocal supporters for Cárdenas' nationalization of the oil industry in 1938. Lombardo Toledano also formed the Confederación de Trabajadores de América Latina in 1938. John L. Lewis from the Congress of Industrial Organizations attended its founding. The

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

American Federation of Labor boycotted it.

Fall from power

Manuel Ávila Camacho Manuel Ávila Camacho (; 24 April 1897 – 13 October 1955) was a Mexican politician and military leader who served as the President of Mexico from 1940 to 1946. Despite participating in the Mexican Revolution and achieving a high rank, he cam ...

, a protégé of and successor to Cárdenas, was more conservative. He engineered Fidel Velázquez's appointment as head of the CTM when Lombardo Toledano did not stand for reelection in 1941. Lombardo Toledano remained influential in the CTM, pursuing a course of support for the war effort and opposition to strikes when Mexico entered the war against Hitler. Lombardo Toledano soon fell out with both the CTM and the government. Although the CTM had (along with the CGT, CROM and the electrical workers union) formally aligned in 1938 with the precursor to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the Party of the Mexican Revolution (PRM), Lombardo Toledano concluded that the PRI (now led by

Miguel Alemán Valdés Miguel Alemán Valdés (; 29 September 1900 – 14 May 1983) was a Mexican politician who served a full term as the President of Mexico from 1946 to 1952, the first civilian president after a string of revolutionary generals. His administr ...

) was too conservative and formed his own party to run against it, the Partido Popular. The Partido Popular never achieved more than fringe party status, and it was renamed the Partido Popular Socialista in 1960. The CTM refused to support Lombardo Toledano's new party, and Fidel Velázquez formally expelled Lombardo Toledano from the CTM in 1948. Lombardo Toledano left the union, but only after delivering a bitter denunciation of those who had brought about his downfall. He referred to himself in the first person ("yo") sixty-four times in that speech — a fact noted by some newspapers, who proceeded to nickname him the "Yo-yo Champion". Lombardo Toledano launched two publications (a magazine called ''América Latina'' and a daily named ''El Popular'') while continuing to publish books, pamphlets, and newspaper articles. He also founded the Workers' University in 1936, which he headed until his death.

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