The Purified CROM became the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) in 1936, allying with the populist President Lázaro Cárdenas and the ruling Party of the Mexican Revolution (PRM), a rival to the Labor Party associated with CROM. Lombardo Toledano was the secretary general of the CTM from 1936 to 1940. Formation of the CTM and alliance with Cárdenas Outside of the CROM, Lombardo Toledano began to build a rival federation that combined his "purified" CROM with other labor groups. Among the first with whom he allied was the Confederación Sindical de Trabajadores del Distrito Federal, a union that included among its members not only low-wage workers but professionals, strikebreakers, some street vendors, and other members of the informal economy. Fidel Velázquez Sánchez was one of los cinco lobitos (the five wolf cubs) who led the CSTDF. Further distancing himself from Velázquez's group and the CGT, Lombardo Toledano formed a new federation, the Confederación General de Obreros y Campesinos de México (CGOCM). That group subsequently transformed itself into the CTM in 1936. The CTM had a strong relationship with the government of Lázaro Cárdenas del Río from its inception. While Lombardo Toledano had opposed Cárdenas' candidacy in 1934, the CTM was the chief beneficiary of Cárdenas' need for labor support for his government after the employers of Monterrey, Nuevo León, called an employers' strike on February 5, 1936. Cárdenas led a demonstration in Monterrey in which he called for unification of the various labor organizations into one national body associated with the PRI, then named the Partido Revolucionario Mexicano. The political crisis deepened when Calles launched a series of verbal attacks on Cárdenas that amounted to a call for his overthrow. The "Purified" CROM, the CSTDF, other labor bodies, and the PCM rallied to defend Cárdenas. With their support Cárdenas had Calles and Morones arrested and deported that year. The CTM was formed shortly thereafter, absorbing the major petroleum workers and railroad workers unions. It also had the support of the Mexican Communist Party (PCM) and the industrial unions it had founded. Those unions nearly walked out of the CTM twice in its early years, however. The first time that they threatened to leave was at the founding convention of the CTM in 1936, when Lombardo Toledano chose Velázquez (rather than the individual from their wing who had been promised the position) as organizational secretary of the new organization and a