MEXICO — The “war on drugs” reveals that capitalism means death, violence and terror for the working class. It has allowed the ruling class to turn most of Mexico into a militarized police state. These attacks are felt most by working-class youth, who also experience huge unemployment. The few jobs that can still be found don’t provide social security and the miserable salaries range from 400 to 600 pesos per week (US $31 to $46).

Access to education is constantly shrinking; the government has slashed the budget for education and health and funneled the money to the police and the army. Youth have lost faith and many have been swept up to fight the war, either as hired guns or in the police and military. Thousands have died in this war.

The military and police state terrorizes workers and violently represses any resistance. This is the fascist face of bourgeois democracy. The war on drugs hasn’t reduced the profits of drug cartels, estimated at $40 billion dollars a year, a good part of which enters the country’s financial system.

This ongoing militarization is also part of a fascist strategy to guarantee control over the natural resources in case of an eventual privatization of oil, gas and water, and the further privatization of the electrical supply. Industries that provide services, such as telecommunications. They are the focus of intense conflict between national and foreign capitalists.

The next national elections will take place in the context of this war and of major conflicts among the capitalists over the control of resources. All the candidates represent one section or another of the wealthy class. As workers we have nothing to gain supporting any of them. Quite the contrary, we must fight against them. U.S. rulers’ support of some of these candidates is still essential to their ability to get elected.

As in previous years, there will be electoral fraud. If that fails, then there will be military and police actions. In addition to official public and private financing of electoral parties, millions of dollars will be contributed as part of a money-laundering scheme. Candidates will have to respond not only to the millionaires who finance them, but also to the interests of the drug lords.

Workers here are angry with the government, but many still believe that elections are the only way to bring about changes. Some are apathetic about the struggle and choose to make individual efforts just to get by; some hold several jobs where they are super-exploited. Ultimately, the electoral farce and individualism are dead-ends.

We workers have an alternative to win our liberation: we must be part of an organized communist party, not a bosses’ electoral party. Capitalism, the system that exploits us and kills our young people, cannot be changed by elections. It must be destroyed by millions of organized, class-conscious workers, ready to build a new communist society.

Join a Progressive Labor Party study-action group. Join the struggle for a communist society, for the emancipation of the working class. Let’s turn the war against working-class youth into a class war against capital.