Stumbling Its Way Through Mexico

Spencer (Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologia Social, Mexico) explores the impact of the Mexican and Bolshevik revolutions on the Communist International's 1919-1929 attempt to build a Communist Party and movement in Mexico. She concludes that the radicalization of traditional Mexican social organizations and community life during the prior Porfirian dictatorship, strengthened by a decade of armed revolution, led to a growing ideological platform embodied in the 1917 constitution. Workers' acceptance of corporate capitalism in exchange for the security of being included in the new revolutionary state project greatly hampered the penetration of Bolshevik ideas. Spencer first examines the Soviet, Mexican, and international contexts in which the Communist International arose and its emissaries sought to found a Communist Party in Mexico. She details the leading participants' efforts to recruit Mexican workers and intellectuals in the face of a fluid reality that contrasted with preconceived ideas of Mexico. A final section analyzes the consequences of the Soviet Union's change in foreign policy in 1921 from confrontation to collaboration with capitalist governments and then of simultaneous crises in both the USSR and Mexico at the end of the 1920s. Notably, Spencer uses Russian state archives that became available in the 1990s. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.
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"This is a well-written, forceful, and clearly argued work that shows how the Russian and Mexican revolutions intersected. It is based on extensive archival research in Mexico, Holland, the United States, and Russia. Spenser uses rigorous analysis and makes sound judgments based on the evidence."--Gregg Andrews, author of Shoulder to Shoulder?: The American Federation of Labor, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1924

"This is a pioneering and innovative study of the relationship between the Comintern and Mexico's early Communist Party. New Moscow-based sources and an engaging reconstruction of the roles of transnational revolutionaries from Europe, Asia and North America make this a fascinating read."-- Barry Carr is a visiting professor with the department of history, University of California, Berkeley and the coauthor of The Cuba Reader