Ricardo Flores Magón
Ricardo Flores Magón was an anarchist, a visionary, a prophet—and suffered a lifetime of persecution as do all outliers who dare to speak their truths.
Magón founded the Mexican Liberal Party which supported the then-outlandish notions of no-reelection (of Porfirio Díaz, or anyone else), no death penalty for political prisoners, an end to child labor, compulsory secular education for all through the age of 14, a minimum wage, an eight-hour work day, safe industrial working conditions, compensation for industrial accidents, and expropriation of large estates, especially those owned by United States corporations. (Ironically, most of these reforms would eventually be incorporated into the post-Revolución Constitución of 1917). His party members, called Magonistas, fought with all the armies that brought Diáz down, although most revolutionaries considered them to be too radical. Magón felt similar, albeit inverse impatience: he turned down an invitation to join Emiliano Zapata (who’d incorporated some of Magón’s ideas into his Plan of Ayala) since he believed Zapata wasn’t radical enough.
On and off again throughout his life, Magón published an anarchist newspaper, Regeneración, which often got him into trouble: “It is the duty of us poor people to work and fight to break the chains that make us slaves. … We commoners, we raggedy, we the hungry, those of us who do not have a lump to rest our heads on, those of us who live tormented by the uncertainty of tomorrow’s bread for our companions and our children … it is up to us to make powerful efforts, a thousand sacrifices to destroy to its foundation the edifice of the old society that has been up until now a loving mother to the rich.” And “Without the principle of private property, there would be no reason for government, which is necessary solely for the purpose of keeping the disinherited within bounds … [to thwart] their rebellions against those who hold the social wealth.”
After Díaz repeatedly imprisoned him, Magón fled to the United States, only to be imprisoned there again and again as well. Finally, the US government used the Espionage Act to convict him of “obstructing the war [WWI] effort” (the same law used to silence union leader Eugene D. Debs and, more recently, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning). Magón died in Leavenworth Prison of “natural causes,” most likely murder by medical neglect.
The Mexican Chamber of Deputies eventually succeeded in repatriating Magón’s body, “rendering posthumous homage to the grand Mexican revolutionary…martyr and apostle of libertarian ideas,” and interred it in Mexico City’s Rotunda of Illustrious Persons.
Oh, that the United States could so honor its outliers!
This is a selection from Ellison’s recently published book, Streets of Mexico: Tales of Tragedy and Triumph.
- Streets of Mexico – December 2024 - November 30, 2024
- Streets of Mexico – November 2024 - October 29, 2024
- Streets of Mexico – October 2024 - September 28, 2024
