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As indicated in chapter 1, the prevailing notion concerning union government in Mexico is expressed in the concept of charrismo. This has come to be used as a catch-all epithet to describe a variety of union practices. The term is largely devoid of analytic utility, as may be seen from the following representative statement:
Charrismo is a particular form of trade union control which is characterized by: (a) the use of the repressive forces of the state to support a trade union leadership; (b) the systematic use of violence; (c) the permanent violation of workers' union rights; (d) misuse and theft of trade union funds; (e) dishonest dealing with the workers' interests; (f) connivance between union leaders and the government and capitalists; (g) corruption in all its forms.
In this usage, charrismo simply indicates that the author or speaker disapproves of the union leadership in some way. Furthermore, there is a generalized belief that Mexican unions typically are charro unions. Yet there appear to be very few serious studies of internal union government in Mexican unions. This belief is a generalization from a number of specific cases, such as the 1958–9 railway strike.
Two questions immediately spring to mind: (a) to what extent is this picture of charrismo an accurate description of Mexican unionism? (b) If non-charro unions exist, are they more likely to be found among the ‘independent’ unions, or are these also breeding grounds for charrismo?
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