Mexico’s revolution resulted in two important developments that have played a major role in socialist construction.  Both contributions appeared in the Mexican Constitution of 1917, adopted eight months before the Russian Bolsheviks seized power in November.

The first contribution was a chapter on the rights of labor.  Bourgeois constitutions had emphasized “civil” rights:  the right to vote, trial by jury; freedom of speech, press, assembly; the right to go and come; the right to compensation when private property is taken for public purposes; the right to modify or replace the existing constitution.  The Mexican Constitution of 1917 contained a detailed specification of the rights of labor, including proper working conditions, adequate compensation, education, health, social security.  The Constitution also contained a crucial property provision:  the natural resources of Mexico are the property of the Mexican people and cannot be alienated.

This second provision was inserted in the Mexican Constitution at a time when extensive concessions to develop Mexican resources had been handed out to North American and European capitalists.  It was inserted in part because the social ownership and sharing of land and other natural resources has been one of the basic demands of the Socialist—­Communist—­Anarchist movements from their inception.

Monopoly capitalism depends primarily on the private ownership of the means of production, including natural resources.  Capitalist opposition to socialism is not only a matter of theory.  In practice the private ownership of natural resources enables the owner to charge rent to any and all users.  Natural resources are sharply limited and usually localized.  As population grows, demand for living space is intensified and rents rise.  It is not an accident that the stretches of “black earth”, of copper, iron, petroleum, the precious metals, and the land occupied by Mexico City, London, New York and other population centers, poured a stream of wealth into the treasuries and augmented the power of their owners.

Effects of the insertion into the Mexican Constitution of the provision making natural resources “the property of the Mexican people” have been far-reaching.  One socialist country after another has written into its constitution a provision that its natural wealth is the inalienable heritage of its people.  This provision has two important results:  it establishes natural resources as part of the public sector of the national economy; it also limits the possibility of handing out concessions to foreign exploiters, private or public.