Mexican Liberal Party Program
From 1906 on, the PLM program called for an armed rebellion against the Porfirio Diaz dictatorship. For nearly five years, the PLM was the only force to advocate armed revolution against the Díaz regime. Anarchists had ample authority and stimulated many movements and rebellions. Their weight became evident in the strikes of the Cananea, Sonora mines, and the Río Blanco, Veracruz, textile industry, as well as in other textile factories. They inspired peasant rebellions in Veracruz, as well as military actions in other regions. However, it was only in September 1911 after the downfall of the dictatorship that Ricardo Flores Magón conceived this rebellion as an anarchist and communist revolution, which had to abolish private property and the state, as well as all the institutions based on them. The revolution should aim at capitalism, the clergy, and the state in general. Ricardo Flores Magón’s ideas influenced many leaders who shared his objectives but who differed from his confrontational tactics. They ended up joining one or another faction in the fight for power. During the Revolution, anarchists influenced the Casa del Obrero Mundial (House of World Workers), the Zapatistas, and the drafting of the Constitution of 1917. Anarchists reappeared later in the Confederación General de Trabajadores (CGT, or General Confederation of Workers), the Ligas Agrarias (Agrarian Unions), and the Communist Party in its early stages. However, their radicalism isolated them and prevented them from playing an independent role in the Mexican Revolution.
Almost simultaneously, a more reformist type of socialism started to take shape. Already in 1905, after failing to get Ricardo Flores Magón to temper the tone of Regeneración, Camilo Arriaga and Santiago de la Vega split off from the PLM and began to collaborate with the moderate weekly Humanidad. After Díaz’s downfall a Magonista group rejected the tactics of openly calling for communist revolution during Francisco I. Madero’s presidential campaign They joined Madero, hoping to radicalize the movement from within its ranks. Alarmed by Flores Magón’s outspoken communist convictions, they published an alternative Regeneración in Mexico City. Moderate Magonistas, such as Juan Sarabia, Antonio Villarreal, and Antonio Díaz Soto y Gama took part in the formation of the Casa del Obrero Mundial in 1912. Later, part of the Casa’s leadership supported Álvaro Obregón and the Constitutionalist faction of the Mexican Revolution. Others opted for the Zapatistas.