The Confederación General de Trabajadores (General Confederation of Workers, CGT) was a federation of

labor unions A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

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 ...

. It was founded in February 1921 by

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

syndicalists Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the left-wing of the labor movement that seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of prod ...

and others on the far left who opposed the more moderate, pro-government

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

(CROM). In particular, the founders of the CGT criticized the CROM's close relationship with the conservative

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutu ...

(AFL). Unions split from the CROM, with 43 affiliating with the new CGT, but it was just a tenth the size of the CROM, with strength among textile workers. President Alvaro Obregón (1920-1924) favored the CROM, and his administration attempted to suppress the CGT. When

Adolfo de la Huerta Felipe Adolfo de la Huerta Marcor (; 26 May 1881 – 9 July 1955) was a Mexican politician, the 45th President of Mexico from 1 June to 30 November 1920, following the overthrow of Mexican president Venustiano Carranza, with Sonoran generals ...

made a bid for the presidency in 1923 in an armed rebellion, some in the CGT supported him.Aguilar García, Javier. "Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana (CROM)" in ''Encyclopedia of Mexico''. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, pp. 295-96 Briefly after its formation, the CGT allied with 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), but disputes ended the relationship almost immediately. In the decades that followed, the CGT became increasingly

anti-communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

. The CGT remained far smaller than the CROM, and by the 1930s both federations were dwarfed by 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).

See also

References

Further reading