Popular Socialist Party

The Popular Socialist Party (, PPS) was a political party in Mexico. It was founded in 1948 as the Popular Party (Partido Popular) by Vicente Lombardo Toledano. Lombardo Toledano, the initial leader of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), decided to launch a new party in response to the increasingly moderate and corrupt policies of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The Popular Party was supported by the mine, oil and rail workers' unions, but its potential strength in elections was reduced by the strength of the PRI. The party adopted Marxism-Leninism as its ideological line in 1960. It was renamed the Popular Socialist Party in 1960, and over time its leadership became less critical of the PRI; indeed, in all presidential elections between 1958 and 1982 the PPS supported the PRI candidates, and therefore it was often criticized as being a "loyal opposition" or part of the status quo. Due to this, it was popularly know by many Mexicans as the Ni, ni, ni party, as in "Ni partido, ni popular, ni socialista" (Neither a party, nor popular, nor socialist). This led to a split by the PPS's left wing in the 1970s which formed the Party of the Mexican People (PPM), which merged with the Mexican Communist Party to form the Unified Socialist Party of Mexico (PSUM).