Judging the Crimes of Fascist US Imperialism

ByMartin Esparza

This article by Martin Esparza originally appeared in the May 8, 2026 edition of Revista Contralínea.

Within the framework of the celebration of the 164th Anniversary of the Battle of May 5th in Puebla, the International Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Fascist Meeting was held at the headquarters of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union ( SME ), with the attendance of representatives of social and struggle organizations from the continent and the world, to promote alliances and processes of national and popular unity, in order to confront the onslaughts of US imperialism against not only their resources and natural wealth, but also their democratic freedoms and human rights.

For the SME, given its origins and historical nature as an independent union in the country, it is a priority to seek, from the grassroots level around the world, the articulation of progressive and left-wing political and social movements, at a time when imperialist colonialism has initiated a chain of interventions and aggressions against all those progressive nations and governments that fight for the defense of their sovereignty and their energy and natural resources, which belong to their people.

Celebrating this meeting on a date of special importance for the history of Mexico implies a reflection to remember that, throughout our history, there have been recorded nationalist and honorable acts where it has been shown that the strongest cannot always humiliate, much less defeat, the weakest.

On May 5, 1862, the armies of the Mexican Republic, commanded by General Ignacio Zaragoza, under the presidency of the illustrious Indian from Guelatao, Benito Juárez, demonstrated to the world and to Napoleon III that Mexicans wanted to be free to determine their form of government, by closing the doors to the intended monarchy of Maximilian of Habsburg.

The epic Battle of Puebla was one of the most glorious chapters in our history, because the arrogant French general Lorencez had to flee, dragging the weight of the defeat inflicted by the brave and indomitable Zacapoaxtla Indians.

The failed occupation resulted in the execution of Maximilian at the Cerro de las Campanas in Querétaro; along with the invader, traitors to the homeland Miguel Miramón and Tomás Mejía were also executed.

After demonstrating the courageous defense of the homeland with which Mexico rejected being a colony and assumed being a free and sovereign nation, the Benemérito de las Américas coined a phrase that today gains greater strength and relevance in the face of the resistance that the nations of the world must initiate to stop the Monroe Doctrine, now renamed the Donroe Doctrine by the US president, Donald Trump.

Juárez coined the phrase: “Among nations as among individuals, respect for the rights of others is peace.”

It is time for the peoples of Latin America and the world to remember these heroic deeds and the yearning for freedom and unity of the peoples of the continent, encouraged by Simón Bolívar, José Martí, Túpac Amaru and other fighters who dreamed of a free and united America, in the face of the colonialist and interventionist principles of the Monroe Doctrine.

It is important to reclaim these liberatory aspirations to build a grand alliance that will help peoples threatened by US military intervention realize that only by uniting and fighting with common goals and clear principles can they defend their national sovereignty from aggressions like those suffered by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Congresswoman Cilia Flores. This also includes the aggressions faced by the Iranian people, not to mention the Holocaust of the Palestinian people perpetrated by the resurrected Hitler, Benjamin Netanyahu, with Trump’s support.

Photo: Jay Watts

Imperialism and its neoliberal doctrine have entered a decadent phase, but this makes them more dangerous because, faced with the inability to preserve their predatory model through global trade agreements and respect for International Law, they now openly threaten the world by appropriating everything they deem necessary to increase their power, through the force of arms and even wars invented in the offices of the oligarchs who govern alongside Trump in Washington.

Once again, the Ernesto Velasco auditorium, named after one of our founding fathers, who paid with imprisonment for the struggle for the rights not only of the SME electricians but of the entire working class of the country, in the second decade of the last century, was the stage where the voices of popular and social struggles from around the world decided to begin a day of struggle and awareness so that those who try to revive the past, in which authoritarian and fascist governments trampled the rights of millions of workers, know that there are millions who are not willing to meekly accept such historical regression.

Photo: Jay Watts

Specifically, the Mexican Electrical Workers Union has been one of the independent unions in Mexico and around the world that has opposed the abuses and excesses of power committed by neoliberal governments such as that of Felipe Calderón, who, with the use of military and police forces, carried out what can be considered a coup d’état against the working class, by expelling 44,000 workers from their workplaces under the cover of night on October 11, 2009.

The solid ideological principles of our founding fathers have been, are, and will be one of the most important bulwarks in continuing the struggle to recover our source of employment. The abuse of neoliberal power against the SME is a clear example of why the people of the world must unite to confront this wave of attacks from imperialist fascism.

That is why it is important that, in the work to be carried out at this International Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Fascist Meeting, the triumph of the people of Mexico in the Battle of Cinco de Mayo be considered, because it represented a great defeat and a bulwark against the colonialism of that time.

Photo: Jay Watts

It is everyone’s duty to build an international structure to halt the rise of fascism, which the civilized world believed it had already overcome. This authoritarian model is one that the working class must combat because, as we have already mentioned, weakening the labour movement is precisely one of its objectives.

Of paramount importance is the proposal to create an Ethical Tribunal to judge the crimes of colonialism and US imperialism, analyzing from the perspective of each community and country the abuses committed by this colonialist model that seeks to divide the world once again, now openly through the force of arms. People must begin to unite now more than ever.

Martín Esparza is General Secretary of the Mexican Union of Electricians (SME).