The working-class unity pact: continental antecedents in Chile and Mexico, 1936

This article examines a little known event in the labor history of Latin America. In January 1936, two meetings held in Santiago de Chile -with the presence of several labor leaders from American countries- discussed the main problems the working class faced in the continent. The workers gathered in Santiago signed a pact, hitherto unpublished, to raise awareness among workers of the continent on the need to unite. In Mexico, Vicente Lombardo Toledano also made a call for workers' unity, collaborating actively in promoting the installation of a Latin American Labor Congress, in order to enforce the covenant.