Vicente Lombardo Toledano - Fall From Power

Fall From Power

Cárdenas' successor, Manuel Ávila Camacho, had been a protégé of Cárdenas, but was more conservative. He engineered Velázquez's appointment as head of the CTM when Lombardo Toledano did not stand for reelection in 1941. Lombardo Toledano remained influential in CTM, pursuing a course of support for the war effort and opposition to strikes when Mexico entered the war against Hitler.

Lombardo Toledano soon fell out, however, with the CTM and the government. Although the CTM had (along with the CGT, CROM and the electrical workers union) formally aligned with the PRI in 1938, Lombardo Toledano concluded that the PRI, now led by Miguel Alemán Valdés, was too conservative and formed his own party, the Partido Popular, to run against it. The Partido Popular never achieved more than fringe party status; it was renamed the Partido Popular Socialista in 1960.

The CTM refused, however, to support Lombardo Toledano's new party. Velázquez formally expelled Lombardo Toledano from the CTM in 1948. Lombardo Toledano left the union, but only after delivering a bitter denunciation of those who had brought about his downfall. He also referred to himself in the first person ("yo") sixty-four times in that speech — a fact noted by some newspapers, which proceeded to nickname him the "Yo-yo Champion".

Lombardo Toledano launched two publications, a magazine called América Latina and a daily called El Popular, while continuing to publish books, pamphlets and newspaper articles. He also founded the Workers' University in 1936, which he headed until his death.