Lombardo Toledano, Vicente (1894-1968)

Mexican labour leader. In 1923 he joined the Mexican Regional Confederation of Workers (CROM) and, in 1933, established the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM). Under Lombardo's leadership, the CTM became influential, founding a workers' university and promoting labour and welfare reforms, some of which were accepted by Lázaro Cárdenas, who was Mexican president 1934-40. However, Lombardo and the CTM faced repression under the conservative regime of Manuel Ávila Camacho 1940-46.

Lombardo was born in Teziutlan, Puebla state, into a middle-class family of Italian origin. He worked initially as a Marxist-influenced journalist and lawyer and, in 1920, became governor of his home state. Lombardo left the CTM to form the Popular (Socialist) Party in 1948 and unsuccessfully contested for the presidency in 1952. Also prominent in international affairs, in 1949 he established the Latin American Confederation of Labor (CTAL).