Iain Dalton, Yorkshire Socialist Party
Amid scenes of protesters attempting to stop its parliament from sitting, the populist Morena government under Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (Amlo) in Mexico passed its reforms to the federal level judiciary, including the Supreme Court, by a two-thirds majority.
This is part of a package of 20 constitutional amendments and initiatives that Amlo has pledged to pass before he hands over the presidency to his Morena-backed successor in October, Claudia Sheinbaum. The other reforms, as well as some reorganisations of state bodies, are a lengthy list of provisions including the right to a pension at 65, that the minimum wage will rise with inflation, capping maximum salaries of public officials to that of the president, banning of GM crops, as well as fracking and open-pit mining.
Morena campaigned in the recent elections on these pledges and, combined with Amlo and Sheinbaum’s opposition to the corrupt, oligarchical establishment, saw it win a two-thirds majority necessary to carry through constitutional reforms.
The proposals call for the election of federal judges – from magistrates up to the supreme court, as well as reducing the number of supreme court judges from 11 to 9 and reducing Supreme Court term-lengths from 15 to 12 years. The reforms fall short of electing judges at lower-level courts, and they allow a process of nomination before whittling down a shortlist of approved candidates before they are put to voters.
Like the rest of the capitalist class in Mexico, sections of the judiciary are widely seen as corrupt and in the pockets of the drug cartels that effectively run parts of Mexico. Half of respondents in an annual government survey of confidence in the judicial system said they had little to no confidence. The Mexican Supreme Court has also acted to block a number of reforms advocated by Amlo and Morena.
Federal judges have been on strike against these proposals since late August, while other court officials whose jobs are tied to the federal judges appointing them have also taken strike action over the threat of losing their jobs. These non-judicial court officials should simply be brought into permanent public employment, rather than allow the current situation where capitalist interests are exploiting their insecurity.
The capitalist class has been apoplectic at these proposals: “Electoral democracy is at stake in Mexico” states a law professor interviewed by Al Jazeera. US business associations have written to the Biden administration demanding they exert pressure on Amlo and are quoted in the Financial Times stating the need for “US investors to have fair and predictable recourse in Mexico’s justice system”, ie a justice system that will defend the interests of the multinationals!
What is at stake for them is a key cog in the capitalist state machine that protects their interests. The judiciary is only independent in a formal sense – judges’ benches around the world are packed with representatives of the interests of the capitalist class – drawn from the same social backgrounds and often financially remunerated so their living standards (and therefore outlook) are the same. This acts as an important check for the capitalist class on any particular government who can be restrained if they are not acting in the interests of the capitalist class as a whole.
We would also raise subjecting judges and other public representatives to only take an average worker’s wage, and improving access for those from working-class and poor backgrounds to train in law and other forms of higher education, including proper financial support.
The capitalists fear not just this step to potentially make judges more accountable to the population, but that it can be a step to more thoroughgoing measures – to act against their profits in the interests of the working-class majority. It is only with such measures being taken, that put the control of the vast resources in society in the hands of elected workers’ representatives, that the resources of society can be democratically planned to improve the living standards of all. That would bring about real justice for working-class people.
