Communist Party of Spain
The Communist Party of Spain (PCE) is a Spanish political party of communist ideology, formed on November 14, 1921 as a result of a split from the Socialist Party Spanish worker dissatisfied with the social democratic political line of Marxism.
Originally founded by the union of the Spanish Communist Party and the Spanish Communist Workers' Party, it is especially recognized for its struggle during the Franco regime, from clandestinity and illegality, for the reestablishment of a parliamentary and democratic framework in Spain. It was legalized on April 9, 1977, after the approval of the Law for Political Reform promoted by the Government of then President Suárez. Since then, the PCE will be one of the most important architects of the Transition.
Since 1986, it has been part of Izquierda Unida, being one of the groups that promoted the Refoundation of the Left project. Its statutes set the objective of "participating democratically in the revolutionary transformation of society and its political structures, in the overcoming of the capitalist system and the construction of socialism in Spain, as a contribution to the transition towards socialism at the world level, with the perspective of the full realization of the emancipatory ideal of communism». It has been described, already within Izquierda Unida, as a party of the left or of the radical left and defines itself as a revolutionary, internationalist and supportive, republican, feminist and secular party.
History
Foundation and beginnings (1920-1931)
Background
On April 15, 1920, at the Casa del Pueblo in Madrid, the Spanish Communist Party was founded by the Federation of Socialist Youth, which had already supported the internationalists led by Lenin during the First World War, and which agreed at its V Congress, held in December 1919, adhere to the Communist International. Among its founders was Dolores Ibárruri, and it was formed from the beginning by young workers, students, workers, intellectuals and peasants. The expression organ of the Spanish Communist Party became El Comunista, in which the founding manifesto of the party appeared, in which it was emphasized that it was necessary to move away from reformism and defend the revolution as only way to achieve socialism.
On April 13, 1921, after the III Extraordinary Congress of the PSOE, in which the gap opened between supporters of joining the III International and those who did not, Antonio García Quejido, founder of the PSOE and the UGT, and one of the most prestigious leaders of the labor movement, declared that the members of the Executive in favor of the Third International were separating from the PSOE to constitute the Spanish Communist Workers' Party. Among them was Daniel Anguiano, who was in the Soviet Union to observe the march of this State; In his subsequent report, he considered the integration of the PSOE into this convenient, for assessing the Third International as an advance. The Executive Committee was made up of Antonio García Quejido, Anguiano, Virginia González Polo, Evaristo Gil, Manuel Núñez de Arenas and Facundo Perezagua.
Foundation of the PCE (congresses I, II and III)
Following the indications of the Communist International, the Spanish Communist Party and the Spanish Communist Workers' Party held in Madrid, from November 7 to 14, 1921, a merger conference giving rise to the Communist Party of Spain.
On March 15, 1922, the Spanish Communist Party held its First Congress in Madrid. The first general secretary was Antonio García Quejido, who raised the need to achieve the unity of the working class around the vanguard constituted by the new party, with the aim of achieving socialism.
The Second Congress, held on July 8, 1923, elected César Rodríguez González —who had co-founded the PCOE in 1921— as general secretary of the PCE. Already at that time the PCE feared regression and called for workers' unity. On September 13, General Miguel Primo de Rivera, in collusion with King Alfonso XIII, carried out a coup and established his dictatorship. The PCE premises are then closed and the arrests of communist militants and the general secretary follow one another.
With an illegal PCE, the III Congress was held in Paris in August 1925, which elected José Bullejos as the new general secretary, the PCE falling into sectarianism in those years. In 1927 a good part of the CNT in Seville adhered and in 1928 the entire leadership was dismantled. After the fall of the dictatorship in January 1930 and the arrival of the dictablanda, the government of General Berenguer restored some liberties and legalized some political parties, including the PCE. On August 23 of that year, the first weekly issue of the party organ, Mundo Obrero, appeared, which in December of the following year became a daily.
On April 14, 1931, the Second Republic was proclaimed, which the PCE considered a "deception for the working class". The PCE proclaimed: "Down with the bourgeois republic! Long live the Soviets!"
Second Republic (1931-1939)
Leadership of José Díaz (IV Congress)
After the proclamation of the Republic, the PCE returned to the light in a very precarious situation, after being practically in hiding or almost in it since its foundation, it became legal. The first communist mayor is elected during the Second Republic, Luis Cicuéndez, a native of La Villa de Don Fadrique, in the province of Toledo, where he was appointed mayor after the second round of the 1931 municipal elections. The PCE went from having a thousand militants at the beginning of 1931 and little social and institutional influence, to 8800 at the end of that year.
On March 17, 1932, the IV Congress of the PCE was held in Seville, which elected José Díaz Ramos as general secretary, with the aim of building a great mass communist party and by the end of that year it had already reached 15,000 affiliates, opening up to alliances with other political forces such as the PSOE. On December 3, 1933, the first communist deputy in the history of Spain, Cayetano Bolívar Escribano, who was released from prison to occupy his seat for the province of Malaga, was elected. Also the Basque-Navarrese Federation of the PCE, was constituted in the Communist Federation of Euskadi under the "Revolutionary Platform of the Communist Party for the National and Social Liberation of Euskadi".
Later, in the so-called Revolution of 1934 against the policies of the radical-CEDA government, the PCE played a lesser role than the PSOE. However, it had to go underground, already having 20,000 militants. In 1935 the Communist Federation of Euskadi was constituted as a national and class party, Partido Comunista de Euskadi-Euskadiko Partidu Komunista (PCE-EPK). At that time, the PCE adhered to the policy of creating a Popular Front that brought together the all the forces of the left. After the electoral victory of the Popular Front on February 16, 1936, the prestige of the Communist Party grew rapidly: in five months it went from 30,000 to 100,000 members.
Since 1933 the PCE organized a paramilitary militia, the so-called Workers and Peasants Anti-Fascist Militias (MAOC), which in fact were the only party militia that had received authentic military training before the Civil War. The MAOC had the instruction of Army officers such as Francisco Galán or communist militants such as Enrique Líster and Juan Modesto who had received military training in the Soviet Union during the 1930s.
The expansion of the PCE had two major milestones in the moments before the Civil War and immediately after:
- The first was the unification of Socialist Youth and Communist Youth on April 1, 1936, which led to the formation of Unified Socialist Youth (JSU). Nevertheless, the JSU elected Santiago Carrillo as secretary general, who later became secretary general of the PCE.
- The second was the constitution of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) on July 23, 1936 following a pre-war process, but it accelerated as it began, and that it was the merger of four parties: the Communist Party of Catalonia, the Catalan section of the PSOE, the Socialist Union of Catalonia and the Partit Català Proletari.
Spanish Civil War
Since the National Revolutionary War (the party's name for the Civil War) broke out, the PCE's strategy was always to seek unity against the coup reaction, forming a Popular Front that would bring together all the forces loyal to the the Republic, including the petty bourgeoisie and certain sectors of the middle bourgeoisie.
Thus, he lent his support to organize the fight against fascism from the first government constituted during the war, the one chaired by José Giral, from the Republican Left (IR).
In Madrid, most of the PCE militants collaborated in closing the access roads to the city. At the same time, the party made a strenuous effort to incorporate into the struggle, recruiting thousands of anti-fascist fighters into the first militia battalions. In Barcelona, after defeating the rebellious garrisons, the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) was formed.
In this struggle, which took place from one end of the country to the other, the communist leaders José Díaz, Dolores Ibárruri, Vicente Uribe, Pedro Checa, Evaristo Gil and Antonio Mije took part from the very beginning, as well as the leaders of the Unified Socialist Youth such as Santiago Carrillo, Trifón Medrano, Fernando Claudín, José Cazorla, Federico Melchor, Ignacio Gallego, Andrés Martín and Lina Odena. The last two fell in the first fights.
The PCE was also responsible for the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Anti-Fascist Militias (MAOC) and for union unity between the General Workers' Union and the CGTU. During this period, the number of members of the PCE continued to rise, thus, at the end of June 1937, the membership was estimated at 301,000 members, to which must be added the 22,000 members of the Basque section and the 60,000 of the Catalan section of the party.
The republican government only received help from the USSR and Mexico, little in comparison with the immense military and arms support of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to the rebels.
The International Brigades
On July 29, 1936, ten days after the war began, Dolores Ibárruri made an international appeal by radio to defend the Republic. The International Brigades of volunteers began to form, representing more than fifty countries, made up of communists, socialists, people from other parties, workers, peasants, intellectuals and anti-fascists in general.
On September 4, 1936, the socialist Francisco Largo Caballero demanded the collaboration of the communists to accept government responsibilities, before which the PCE agreed to join the government administration and form a government of the Popular Front. Vicente Uribe was appointed as Minister of Agriculture and Jesús Hernández Tomás as Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, representatives of the PCE in the government.
In a public assembly held in Madrid, the PCE outlined the essential points of its political program, which were, in short, to win the war, solve the problems of the democratic revolution, and strengthen the unity of all the popular forces, thereby which the revolutionary measures would be postponed.
From the party they thought that if they had tried to establish communism, the Popular Front would have broken automatically and the continuation of the resistance to the fascist military aggression would have been impossible, so the PCE remained faithful to its commitments and defended the Republic.
The People's Army
The Communist Party began to create a Popular Army practically as soon as the war began with the formations that constituted the Fifth Regiment of Popular Militias, which came to have 70,000 anti-fascist combatants and laid the foundations of the new military organization. The 5th Regiment provided command cadres to the nascent People's Army.
The essential postulates of that policy were the following: the use of the commanders that emerged from the people in the positions to which they were raised by the combatants themselves; the development of an extensive work of preparation and military education of new cadres, also arising from the people; the simultaneous use in the new Army of all the former soldiers loyal to the Republic; the appointment of political commissars in all units of the armed forces...
Among the popular combatants were many members of the PCE such as Santiago Aguado, Guillermo Ascanio, José Bobadilla Candón, Manuel Cristóbal Errandonea, Valentín Fernández, Eduardo García, Enrique García Vitorero, Enrique Líster, "Manolín" Álvarez, Pedro Mateo Merino, Rafael Menchaca, Juan Modesto, Pando, Vicente Pertegaz, Polanco, Puig, José Recalde, Joaquín Rodríguez López, Francisco Romero Marín, Alberto Sánchez, José Sánchez, Eugenio R. Sierra, Ramón Soliva, Etelvino Vega, Agustín Vilella, Matías Yagüe and others. At the same time, soldiers from the old Army joined the PCE to end up becoming cadres and leaders of the same, such as Luis Barceló Jover, Bueno, Francisco Ciutat, Antonio Cordón, José María Galán, Rodrigo Gil, Ignacio Hidalgo de Cisneros, Manuel Márquez, Matz or Pedro Prado, among others. This employment of the officers of the former Army in positions of command and responsibility of the Armed Forces was considered to conform to the principles of Marxism-Leninism.
But the politics of the Popular Front led him into conflicts with the anarchists of the CNT-FAI and the anti-Stalinist communists of the Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (POUM), who did not agree with alliances with the petty bourgeoisie or in postpone revolution to war. On the other hand, as the architect of the militarization of the militias in the Popular Republican Army, the PCE was also accused of dehumanizing the revolutionary process.
During the civil war, the party reached 300,000 members, while the JSU 500,000 members.[citation needed]
Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975)
Reorganization and armed struggle
After Franco's victory, democrats in general and communists in particular went through hard times. Franco's regime, with anti-communist traits, demonized the PCE, imprisoning, torturing and murdering its members, subjecting some of them to very summary trials that lacked minimum guarantees so that the defendants could be tried fairly. The Franco government applied the law retroactively, classifying as insurgents those who remained faithful to constitutional legality. Under these extremely harsh conditions, the PCE had to reorganize itself in hiding (the Basque Country, Galicia, Andalusia, Extremadura, Valencia, Navarra and Catalonia maintained their organization), in exile (Mexico, Cuba, Chile, Uruguay, France and the north of Africa, in addition to the Soviet Union) and in prisons (where there were leaders such as Domingo Girón or Guillermo Ascanio).
In the interior of Spain, the party was gradually reorganizing and in 1943, Mundo Obrero, Verdad, Unidad, El Obrero and Nuestra Bandera were published in various areas of Spain. It was for a long time the main, if not the only, organized force against the Franco dictatorship. Shortly after the start of the Second World War, Secretary General José Díaz died in Tbilisi and was replaced by Dolores Ibárruri, Pasionaria.
Closely aligned with the USSR, the signing of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact did not raise serious objections within the party, which while the pact was in force modulated its anti-fascist discourse. When the war broke out in September 1939 after the Nazi invasion of Poland, the party issued a manifesto signed by José Díaz y la Pasionaria in which they stated:
The current European war has nothing in common with the just war, with the war of national independence that the workers, the peasants, the masses of people in Spain carried against the internal and international reaction. The current European war is an imperialist war, war directed against the interests of the working class, the workers and the peoples. It is a war between two imperialist sides by the domination of the world.
Only after the invasion of the USSR by the German army did the PCE join the resistance movement against Nazism, integrating the Group of Spanish Guerrillas into the French Forces of the Interior (FFI), ending many of its militants in the camps of concentration as Mauthausen. At the same time, he promoted the guerrilla fight in Spain, the so-called maquis, since they hoped that with the defeat of Hitler there would be an intervention in Spain, something that finally did not take place.
The party decided to abandon the guerrilla path in 1948, after the failure in 1944 of the invasion of the Aran Valley, internal dissensions, which unleashed the monzonist purge, and the murder by their comrades of Gabriel León Trilla, when Dolores Ibárruri and Santiago Carrillo together with Jesús Monzón held him responsible for his failure, the death of many communist militants and a harsh repression of the civilian population in the areas where this guerrilla was operating, which led to the loss of support in a rural population that also suffered serious economic difficulties. Some guerrilla pockets remained until 1952.
The guerrilla peak period was between 1945 and 1947. In 1948, Stalin made it clear that the communist guerrillas had to be dismantled in Spain. Despite the PCE's change of position in June 1956, proposed by Santiago Carrillo through the slogan and political objective of "national reconciliation", it can be said that the end of the maquis was marked by the deaths of Ramón Vila in 1963 and José Castro in 1965.
Broad front and trade union struggle
In 1947, the first protest movements took place in the metal industry of Madrid and in the textile companies of Catalonia, harshly repressed by the Franco regime. Following the Leninist tactic, the party chooses to combine the clandestine struggle with the use of the legal loopholes that the system allows: the communists participate in the vertical unions and in all the mass organizations that exist (brotherhoods of Catholic action, unions....). Numerous communist workers and other conscientious workers were already elected in the 1950 union leader elections. This movement will give rise to the Workers' Commissions.
But the situation worsens again for the communists, since the repression of the regime is joined by the cold war, during which the dictatorial government becomes an important aid in the policy of the United States against the Soviet Union, which largely marks the line of the PCE. In 1950 the Minister of the Interior of the French socialist cabinet, Jules Moch, decreed the illegalization of the PCE in France and the arrest of its political cadres. Meanwhile, Radio España Independiente broadcasts from Eastern Europe to Spain the vision of the PCE.
On March 12, 1951, the PSUC called for a general strike in Catalonia. Other strikes took place in Euskadi, Navarra and Madrid. The workers are being joined by students and intellectuals, many of them already belonging to a new generation raised during the Franco regime.
In September 1954 the V Congress of the PCE was held, in which the new tactic was established, in two stages. The first advocated the creation of a broad front to liquidate the dictatorship and form a provisional government. This government should restore democratic freedoms, grant amnesty to prisoners and political exiles, and adopt urgent measures to improve the living conditions of the population. After that, elections should be called and democracy developed. In June 1956 the PCE designed its "National Reconciliation" to which the PSUC also joins. At that time, the students had a growing force, the SEU had been liquidated and bourgeois democratic movements began to emerge in the interior of Spain, some of whose members came from dissatisfied sectors of the right, and even from the Falange itself. Increasingly, the PCE's struggle more clearly represents the struggle for democratic freedoms. In order to ally all the democratic forces, it is understood that responsibilities for the civil war and the postwar period must be cancelled:
"...The Communist Party undoubtedly represents the part of the people that has suffered most in these twenty years; the working class, the agricultural laborers, the poor peasants, the advanced intellectuality. If the chapter of grievances were to be dealt with, no one would have greater than ours. We understand that the best justice for all those who have fallen and suffered for freedom is precisely that freedom is established in Spain. A policy of revenge would not serve Spain to leave the situation in which it is. What Spain needs is civil peace, reconciliation of its children, freedom. "
But the Franco regime had received a very important boost in 1955: supported and endorsed by the United States, it became part of the UN. The clandestine struggle must continue, as the regime feels strengthened and accentuates the repression. In 1957 the PCE promoted the pro-Amnesty movement and participated in the boycotts that took place in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as in the workers' struggles that took place in Seville, Alcoy, Valladolid and especially in the of the miners of Asturias in March 1958. He promoted the Peaceful National Strike of June 18, 1959.
Leadership by Santiago Carrillo
In January 1960, the VI Congress of the PCE met in Prague, which elected Santiago Carrillo as general secretary, who displaced Dolores Ibárruri to the presidency of the Party. In the midst of the economic crisis, with the real salary of workers falling by more than 40% due to the suspension of overtime, bonuses and bonuses, the Party capitalized on the response to Franco by creating the Workers' Commissions (CCOO). The CCOO union was not created by the PCE, but by workers who formed workers' commissions in workplaces and called the National Peaceful Strike. Layoffs were becoming more frequent and unemployment was increasing, difficulties that would also reach the petty bourgeoisie and merchants, also affected by the drop in purchasing power of the majority of the population.
Between 1961 and 1964, 1,500 communists were arrested. In 1962, Julián Grimau, recently elected member of the PCE Central Committee, was arrested and tortured by the regime's Political-Social Brigade. In 1963 he was sentenced to death, a fact that unleashed an unprecedented international reaction of protest and pressure, with massive demonstrations in several European and Latin American capitals. General Franco attributed this pressure to a "masonic-leftist conspiracy with the political class," while Manuel Fraga, Minister of Information and Tourism, launched an intense campaign directed at the international press, attributing the greatest crimes to Grimau. He was shot at dawn on April 20, 1963.
Internally, following in the footsteps of the Italian Communist Party, the PCE is looking for an autonomous path to that of the CPSU and the Soviet Union, outlining what will be called Eurocommunism. Along this path, the sometimes excessively personal attitude of the new general secretary will gradually separate those who disagree with the leadership line: in 1964 Fernando Claudín and Jorge Semprún are summarily expelled from the party. That same year there was a division of a sector against the policy of national reconciliation and Eurocommunism, which went on to form the Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist).
In mid-1965 the VII Congress of the PCE was held, in which the advance towards socialism was defended through a peaceful, parliamentary path appropriate to the specific features of Spain, betting on not alignment at the international level. After the condemnation of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, the Communist Party of Spain (VIII-IX Congresses) will split.
After the VIII Congress (1972), in which the definitive line that the party would follow was drawn, Enrique Líster founded the Spanish Communist Workers' Party, which split from the PCE. Carrillo's new policy materializes in the constitution in Paris with other parties and independent personalities of the Junta Democrática de España on July 30, 1974, a key body in the Spanish transition and later on in Coordinación Democrática (the so-called " platajunta"), a union between the Junta and the Convergence Platform sponsored by the PSOE.
Between 1967 and 1976 the Supreme Court condemned a multitude of opponents, 36% from the PCE and 25% from the CCOO. In 1973, Process 1001 took place, in which the CCOO leadership was tried and sentenced for its links to the PCE.
Transition and internal rupture (1975-1986)
Legalization of the PCE
In December 1975, King Juan Carlos conveyed to Santiago Carrillo the message that he intended to democratize the regime, asking for patience and an end to the attacks on the Monarchy. The PCE, which until then continued to promote a "democratic rupture", in the executive committee of January 1976, already put aside criticism of the king and lowered the level of offensive and mobilization. This position was ratified in the Central Committee held in Rome on July 28, where it was agreed to end the cell structure to promote territorial groups, and where the PCE broke the Democratic Junta to get closer to the Convergence Platform.
On January 24, 1977, what is known as the Atocha massacre of 1977 took place: a far-right commando entered a CCOO and PCE labor law law firm in the center of Madrid, killing them with bullets. five of them and leaving another four injured. The funeral was attended by more than one hundred thousand people and it became a massive demonstration, which passed without incident. Major strikes and shows of solidarity followed across the country, as well as a general strike by workers the day after the attack.
On February 11, 1977, the PCE presented the documentation to be included in the Registry of Associations and on April 9 of that same year, the PCE was legalized, presenting itself to the elections with Santiago Carrillo as a candidate. The militancy of the interior, very close to the Spanish reality and representative of the rupturist positions with the dictatorship, saw themselves as the custodians of the Party until the "historical" Exiles could return, but when that happened, the returned exiles were tremendously cut off from Spanish reality due to their long absence.
In November 1977, Carrillo went to Washington to give lectures and hold a meeting with the US Department of State. In his speech at Yale University, Carrillo announced that the PCE would renounce Marxism-Leninism in the following Congress. That same year a sector called the Left Opposition (OPI), which had emerged after the VIII Congress, left the PCE and adopted the name of the Communist Workers' Party (PCT).
In 1978, at the IX Congress of the PCE, the first Congress held in Spain since 1932, Santiago Carrillo was re-elected as general secretary, while Dolores Ibárruri would be elected as party president. The divisions that already existed before continued to deepen when the PCE stopped considering itself Marxist-Leninist to define itself as revolutionary Marxist, by 965 votes against 248. Francisco Frutos, who would later be general secretary of the PCE, was the one who defended the Leninist theses in Madrid, which in the Catalan PSUC (where he was a member) were in the majority. In addition, the change from a cellular structure to a territorial one was confirmed (thus breaking with the traditional organizational structure of the communist parties) and the distance from the USSR and the rest of the Warsaw Pact countries was consolidated, in order to grant a certain openness to the organization and increase electoral support, a fact that gave rise to many internal convulsions.
In 1979, the PCE went from 200,000 to 170,000 militants.
The Leninist sector and the "renovational" sector
In July 1981 the X Congress of the PCE was held, which at that time had 84,500 militants plus the 80,000 of the PSUC in Catalonia. Two tendencies opposed to the direction of Santiago Carrillo were erected: the Leninists (also called pro-Soviet) such as Ignacio Gallego or Francisco García Salve defended a more orthodox position and closer to the Union Soviet; the renovadores defended a more moderate and open position. In order to harmonize the internal relations of the PCE, Julio Anguita proposed a paper to give rise to various internal tendencies, a proposal knocked down by the carrillistas. In turn, Santiago Carrillo proposed the creation of the figure of the general deputy secretary, within the executive, being appointed Nicolás Sartorius for such position.
Meanwhile, in the Basque federation of the PCE, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Euskadi (PCE-EPK) Roberto Lertxundi announced its integration into Euskadiko Ezkerra (EE), so that Santiago Carrillo disavowed such decision and expelled from the same to the entire Basque PC. This started an internal debate about whether the independence of the PCE federations was really respected, a debate that accentuated internal divisions by expelling militants who did support the decision of the Basques, such as a group of councilors from the Madrid City Council, among whom was Cristina Almeida. During 1981 and 1983 the expulsions continued by hundreds of different sectors, such as Francisco García Salve, Ramón Tamames or Carlos Alonso Zaldívar. The pro-Soviet sector that years later formed the Partit dels Comunistes de Catalunya (PCC) and the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE) was also expelled from the PSUC.
By October 1982, general elections had been called in Spain, and Santiago Carrillo denounced that the call would be held with the electoral norms of 1977 and 1979, which he considered of "dubious constitutionality", since they benefited Popular Alliance (precursor of the current Popular Party) and the PSOE. In addition, he assured that then-President Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo had precipitated the call to provoke a political bipolarization in both parties, with the aim of minimizing the political representation of the PCE, which was then the only party that defended a front "democratic, Marxist and revolutionary". And so it was, because in those elections the electoral fall continued as the vote of the left was concentrated in the PSOE, which it won with an absolute majority, for which Carrillo resigned as general secretary, being replaced by Gerardo Iglesias.
Renewal and expulsion of the carrillistas
After the resignation of Carrillo and after a slight electoral recovery in the municipal elections, on December 20, 1983, the XI Congress of the PCE was held, in which 85,000 militants participated, and which ended up totally divided between the Carrillistas, the pro-Soviet or Leninist sector, led by Ignacio Gallego, and the renovadores who achieved the majority by electing Gerardo Iglesias as Secretary General, Dolores Ibárruri as President, as well as Enrique Curiel as Deputy Secretary General, agreeing on the construction of a unitary project of the left, which would seek social and political convergence with other forces. In said Congress, Santiago Carrillo and his followers declared themselves against the direction of Gerardo Iglesias, proposing a shared general secretariat between the two, a suggestion that would be rejected by the general secretary. In this way, Santiago Carrillo would accuse the renovators of not having their own program, of being dependent on the PSOE and of trying to destroy the PCE, in a context in which the Carrillistas were in a clear minority.
On the other hand, between January 13 and 15, 1984, the Congress held by the pro-Soviet sector took place in Madrid, in which the Communist Party of Catalonia, the Unified Communist Party of Spain (PCEU), the Movement for the Recovery of the PCE and Communist Cells. This process, in which 10,000 militants participated, gave rise to the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE) and its youth organization, the Colectivos de Jóvenes Comunistas (CJC). The new party was also recognized by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the communist parties of the Warsaw Pact countries.
In October 1984, the government of Felipe González agreed to an electoral reform with Alianza Popular, and the then deputy general secretary of the PCE, Enrique Curiel, criticized that said reform maintained the D'Hondt Law, which especially harmed the communists and that it favored bipartisanship, since it maintained the great differences in the cost of votes that the parties need to obtain a place in Parliament.
In 1985, prominent members such as Julio Anguita or Marcelino Camacho, even former members of Carrillo's leadership such as Nicolás Sartorius, Simón Sánchez Montero or Dolores Ibárruri herself and Gerardo Iglesias decided to expel Santiago Carrillo on April 15, the Carrillistas were removed from the leadership bodies and they split to found the Workers' Party of Spain-Communist Unity (PTE-UC). Also in 1985 the federal leadership of the PCE dissolved the regional committee of the UJCE in Madrid and expelled 6 of its members, for their Eurocommunist position and contrary to the party's convergence policy. That year the membership of the PCE had dropped to 67,000.
Activity in Izquierda Unida (1986-present)
United Left Foundation
In 1986, and as agreed in the last congress, the PCE is the main promoter of the United Left (IU) coalition, formed together with other political forces such as the Republican Left, and in which the PCPE.
Facing the 1986 general elections, Santiago Carrillo declared that supporting the IU meant "burying communism" and benefit "right hand" to the detriment of the PSOE. Finally, IU obtained 7 seats, corresponding 4 to the PCE and 1 to the PCPE, while the PTE-UC of Santiago Carrillo did not obtain representation.
In February 1988, during the XII Congress of the PCE, Gerardo Iglesias resigned from all his positions and Julio Anguita, known for having been mayor of Córdoba, became the general secretary of the PCE. Under his leadership, the Party recovered a good part of its illusions and anti-capitalist ideological precepts, a fact that made the then PCPE general secretary, Ignacio Gallego, consider returning to the PCE. Thus, in November of that year he was expelled, and in January 1989, after an Extraordinary Congress, he would rejoin the PCE along with 8,000 militants, 48 members of the Central Committee and the majority of PCPE public officials.
All in all, the sector headed by its new general secretary, Juan Ramos Camarero, remained in the PCPE, who left the coalition, and in the following general elections of October 1989, IU would double its number of votes and obtain 17 deputies, 13 corresponding to the PCE and 1 to the PSUC. A month later, on November 12, Dolores Ibárruri, "Pasionaria", died.
Leadership by Julio Anguita
But despite the good results that the IU was having, at the XIII Congress of the PCE, held in December 1991 and which was attended by 70,000 militants, there was a sector, headed by Francisco Palero and Juan Berga, who considered that communism as an ideology had been exhausted, and that the communist parties were no longer valid instruments, for which reason he defended the dissolution of the party within the IU. The position prevailed by 74.6% defended by the general secretary, Julio Anguita, to continue with an IU built as a political and social movement, which would have parties within it as currents, due to the ideological plurality of the coalition components. The PCE would cede part of its sovereignty to increase the activity of the IU, and to make its decisions binding.
In the following elections, IU got almost 400,000 more votes, gaining a new seat. The political strategy of the PCE, which would be more insisted upon since the XIV Congress, in December 1995, was to avoid any type of pact with the PSOE, as long as the latter did not abandon its policies &# 34;neoliberals" and "conservatives". For the PCE, the leaders of the PSOE were part of the dominant elite and accused them of having shielded themselves with good salaries and perks, and of being part of the aristocracy. At the same time, tensions with the PSUC increased, due to the intention of its general secretary to dissolve it in Iniciativa per Catalunya, and with the CCOO, whose general secretary, Antonio Gutiérrez (later a PSOE deputy between 2004 and 2011), was accused of having a pact with the PSOE. The union ran the risk of becoming an "appendage of the State," warned Julio Anguita, who also announced that he would not run for re-election as general secretary of the PCE.
It was during this stage that the IU achieved its best results, since in the general elections of March 1996, the IU would reach its all-time high, surpassing the barrier of 10% of votes and obtaining 21 deputies, 12 from the PCE and 2 from the PSUC. In September 1997, at the PCE Fiesta, Anguita announced that they were going to defend a republican and federal Spain, and at the Fiesta the following year, he defended the right to self-determination of the peoples, and clarified that his party had only accepted the Monarchy temporarily, during the Transition, to reach consensus, as long as the constitution was developed. However, on August 17, 1998, Anguita suffered a second heart attack, which accelerated his withdrawal from the political front line.
In December 1998, the XV Congress of the PCE was held, in which Julio Anguita left the general secretary of the PCE, which happened to be occupied by Francisco Frutos. In his speech, Anguita asked the communist militants to vindicate the principles of anti-capitalism and the fight for an egalitarian society. He equated the PSOE and the PP politically and called on the militancy to recover the fight in the streets.
That congress was held in the midst of great tensions with the Comisiones Obreras, since the communists defended a "class and democratic" union, while accusing the leadership of "repressive" 34;, and defended that the militants fight democratically within the union "to change policies and some leaders", something that the union considered interference.
Reaching the PSOE and decline
On the occasion of the general elections of March 2000, Frutos was appointed candidate of the United Left without having been elected general coordinator, and having signed a pre-electoral investiture agreement with the PSOE. The result was a failure for the PCE, so at the end of that same year, Gaspar Llamazares was elected federal coordinator in the VI Federal Assembly of the IU by a narrow margin against Francisco Frutos, combining the votes of various critical IU currents. with outgoing address.
The new IU coordinator leaned on the PSOE, with a policy of confrontation with the PCE, which would bring strong internal problems and pressures that weakened the Party.
Despite the differences, at the XVI Congress of the PCE, held in March 2002, Frutos agreed with the then general coordinator of the IU on a list, facing that of Ángeles Maestro (Red Current), in order to achieve a majority in the CCOO different from that of José María Fidalgo.
In December 2004, the VIII Federal Assembly of the United Left was held on an extraordinary basis, after the crisis opened by the successive electoral defeats suffered by the coalition and by the division in its leadership. The PCE then presented Enrique Santiago as a candidate, but Gaspar Llamazares was again elected as federal coordinator, in a highly controversial process that some sectors described as irregular because Santiago's candidacy (also backed by the Communist Youth) and the one presented by Sebastián Martín Recio (backed by the sectors furthest to the left of IU), they added more than 50% compared to 49% of the official list of Llamazares.
The re-election of Gaspar Llamazares was very controversial because it was due to a system approved in a reform of the statutes prior to the election and during the Assembly itself, consisting of not only half of the Federal Political Council elected in the very Assembly, competent body to elect the federal coordinator, but also the coordinators of the federations. Thus, the entire Federal Political Council ratified the election of Gaspar Llamazares by 54%, something that also generated controversy, since his opponents understood that a minimum of 60% was necessary to stand for a second re-election as coordinator, as provided The statutes. The Guarantees Commission resolved the issue in favor of Llamazares, understanding that the second term had not expired, since the VIII Assembly had been anticipated.
Reconstruction and relaunch of the PCE
At the XVII Congress of the PCE, held in June 2005 with 27,000 militants, Francisco Frutos was re-elected Secretary General, and Felipe Alcaraz was elected president, who would gather various responsibilities up to that moment of the general secretary. Dolores Ibárruri, La Pasionaria, is declared Honorary President in perpetuity. She is committed to the reconstruction and relaunch of the party, which is considered to have begun to function as a current within the IU.
For this, the departure of the IU is not accepted, as proposed by Corriente Roja, and which would lead the organization to split from the PCE. Instead, it is committed to recovering sovereignty within the IU, understanding that it should function again as a political and social movement that would allow different parties to converge on programmatic criteria, thus also surpassing the XIII Congress of the PCE.
There was also a debate on a document presented by Julio Anguita, in which he reflected on the International Communist Movement, and called for the refounding of the party. The document pointed out the negative impact brought by the fall of the Soviet Union and the uncriticism and submission of the unions and the Left to the established capitalist order. It was agreed to create a work team that would meet with other communist and left-wing organizations, coordinate and collect proposals and discuss them in a Conference, which would draft and approve a new Manifesto-Program for the next Party Congress.
In 2006 a serious internal crisis began in Asturias, where the PCE canceled the last congress of the Communist Party of Asturias (PCA) due to irregularities in the census. Llamazares, who had already lost the support of the three main federations (Andalusia, Madrid and the Valencian Community), would thus also lose control of the last fiefdom that remained in the communist organization.
At the end of 2007, the PCE promoted the holding of primary elections in the Federal Political Council of the IU to designate the candidate for the Presidency of the Government in the general elections of 2008. In front of Gaspar Llamazares, the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Valencian Country (PCPV), Marga Sanz. The referendum is held in November by a registered mail system, which the PCE harshly criticized. Finally, with a participation of around 38%, Llamazares obtained 13,626 votes (62.5%) and Sanz 8,169 (37.5%).
Refoundation of the United Left
On April 22, 2008, Julio Anguita sent a document to the Federal Committee of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) in which he also defended the need for a 'refoundation' of UI, which would only be possible from the commitment to start from scratch. In his letter, he defended radical democracy, the fight for the Third Republic and federalism, both for the organizational model of the coalition and for the state model defended. In his opinion, the debate should be opened at the next federal assembly of the IU Thus, on June 28 and 29, 2008, at a Political Conference of the PCE, the reconstruction of the party was linked to the refounding of Izquierda Unida. For this, it was agreed to promote a series of changes in the next Federal Assembly of IU.
In the IX Federal Assembly of the IU, held on November 15 and 16, 2008, the PCE presented its candidacy for the Federal Political Council, with Cayo Lara as the consensus candidate of the list «Another IU is Possible». His proposal, entitled "For an anti-capitalist, republican, federal and alternative United Left, organized as a political and social movement", obtained 43% of the votes, but the lack of agreement with other currents meant that the assembly concluded without the election. of a new Federal UI Coordinator.
Finally, the Federal Political Council, convened on December 14, elected Cayo Lara as federal coordinator of the coalition with 55.08% of the votes. As the new general coordinator, Cayo Lara integrated people from all sectors and currents of formation into the new leadership from the beginning, and urged them to abandon internal struggles and worry about what really happens in the country. In his first public intervention, he mentioned the poor, the unemployed and the mortgaged, and called for a necessary general strike, in his opinion.
The alliance of Izquierda Unida with Podemos and the entry into the government
On April 13, 2009, the party demanded in a manifesto on the occasion of the 78th anniversary of the Second Republic that the workers "do not pay" the economic crisis and that the economic situation be addressed through "the rupture of the constitutional pact" and the opening of a "constituent process by the Third Republic".
In that manifesto, it is also declared that capitalism has failed and that no efforts should be made to "refound it," since they do not consider it a solution to the problems of humanity and revolutionary changes must be made. They declare that we must undertake, as other countries have already done, the path of socialism in the 21st century.
With the purpose of renewing strength in the face of the challenges that post-industrial capitalism seems incapable of solving, and in order to face the nascent process of Refoundation of the Left approved at the IX Federal Assembly of the IU in 2008, the party celebrates in November its XVIII Congress in 2009, which it arrived with 20,000 militants. In the conclave, his orientation towards the IU was approved, with 82% of favorable votes, the maintenance of Comisiones Obreras as a union reference (69%) and José Luis Centella was elected as general secretary, with 85% of the votes, in substitution of Francisco Frutos.
As of April 2017, the PCE had approximately 10,500 members, although 2,000 of them had joined since the 2015 general elections.
At the end of 2017, the second phase of the XX Congress of the PCE was held, in which significant changes were approved, the most far-reaching being the return to Marxism-Leninism, which was abandoned in the IX Congress of 1978. This caused a major organizational change, since democratic centralism was re-adopted, ceasing to be a federal organization, which corresponded to the division by autonomous communities of Spain, being replaced by committees dependent on a Central Committee. It is also approved to include a five-pointed red star in the upper part of the party logo, in reference to proletarian internationalism.
In January 2020, the PCE once again had representatives in the Council of Ministers, with the appointment of Alberto Garzón as Minister of Consumption and Yolanda Díaz as Minister of Labor and Social Economy.
In 2021, the PCE celebrated the centenary of its foundation.
In July 2022, the XXI Congress of the PCE took place, which was marked by tensions led by the sector critical of the policy of government pacts.
On November 11, 2022, on the occasion of its centenary, Correos issued a commemorative stamp that caused criticism in the opposition. This stamp was suspended by the Spanish Foundation of Christian Lawyers on the 12th of the same month and returned to circulation on November 18, 2022.
Election results
General Election
Electoral results in the general elections | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Compositions | Candidate | Votes | % | Deputies | Senators | Notes | ||||
1931 | José Bullejos | -... | 0.77% | 0/470 | -... | |||||
1933 | José Díaz Ramos | -... | 1.80% | 1/473 | -... | |||||
1936 | José Díaz Ramos | -... | 3.5% | 17/473 | -... | Member of the Popular Front. | ||||
1977 | Santiago Carrillo | 1.709.890 | 9.33% | 20/350 | 5/248 | |||||
1979 | Santiago Carrillo | 1.938.487 | 10.77% | 23/350 | 1/264 | |||||
1982 | Santiago Carrillo | 846.515 | 4.02% | 4/350 | 0/264 | |||||
1986 | Gerardo Iglesias | 935.504 | 4.63% | 4/350 | 0/264 | As part of the United Left | ||||
1989 | Julio Anguita | 1.858.588 | 9.07% | 13/350 | 0/264 | As part of the United Left | ||||
1993 | Julio Anguita | 2.253.722 | 9.5% | 13/350 | 0/264 | As part of the United Left | ||||
1996 | Julio Anguita | 2.639.774 | 10.54% | 12/350 | 0/264 | As part of the United Left | ||||
2000 | Francisco Frutos | 1.263.043 | 5.45% | 7/350 | 0/264 | As part of the United Left | ||||
2004 | Gaspar Llamazares | 1,284.081 | 4.96% | 2/350 | 0/264 | As part of the United Left | ||||
2008 | Gaspar Llamazares | 969.946 | 3.77% | 1/350 | 0/266 | As part of the United Left | ||||
2011 | Cayo Lara | 1.686.040 | 6.92 per cent | 4/350 | 0/266 | Within the coalition "The Plural Left". | ||||
2015 | Alberto Garzón / Yolanda Díaz | 926.783 | 3.68% | 2/350 | 1/266 | Within the Popular Unity and En Marea coalitions. | ||||
2016 | Alberto Garzón | N/D | N/D | 5/350 | 2/266 | Within the U.S. coalitions Podemos and Marea. | ||||
2019 | Enrique Santiago | N/D | N/D | 4/350 | 0/266 | Within the UN coalitions Podemos and En Comú Podem. | ||||
Source: Ministry of the Interior and the World |
Deputies and senators
- Annex:Deputies and Senators of All Spanish Legislatures
Municipal elections
Election results in municipal elections | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Leader | Votes | % | Councillors | ||||
1931 | José Bullejos | 3/1974 | ||||||
1933 | José Díaz Ramos | 28/19 068 | ||||||
1979 | Santiago Carrillo | 2.139.603 | 12.70% | 3727/67 505 | ||||
1983 | Gerardo Iglesias | 1.500.015 | 8.17% | 2495/67 312 | ||||
Source: Ministry of the Interior, El Mundo and INE |
Organizational committees
There are the following Organizing Committees, which are "Regional Committees" or "National Committees". Until the XX Congress, the PCE had been organized in federations since 1978, but by re-adopting Marxism-Leninism, it also meant returning to a centralist organizational model.
General Secretaries
Timeline
Notable personalities
- José Díaz Ramos (Sevilla, 1895) Panadero. General Secretary of the PCE from 1932 to 1942, which led the PCE to bet on the unity of the leftist forces during the Second Spanish Republic.
- Aída Lafuente (Leon, 1915 - 1934). Working milliant.
- Dolores Ibárruri (Abanto y Ciérvana, Vizcaya, 1895 - Madrid, 1989). Historic leader of the PCE nicknamed the Passionaria, who highlighted as a political leader in the Second Spanish Republic and in the Spanish civil war. General Secretary between 1942 and 1960.
- Trifón Medrano (Madrid 1912 - 1937)
- Concha Carretero (Barcelona, 1918 - 2014) Anti-Francoist Militant who survived the prison.
- Pablo Picasso (Málaga, 1881). Pintor, pioneer of Cubism.
- Miguel Hernández (Orihuela, Alicante 1910-1942) Poet and communist militant. He fought in the Spanish civil war and died in prison.
- Manuel Delicado (Sevilla, 1901). Leader of the PCE.
- Rafael Alberti (El Puerto de Santa María, Cadiz, 1902). Poet and deputy.
- Rosario Sánchez Mora (Villarejo de Salvanés, 1919 - 2008) Apodada la Dinamite por haberdido una mano por un Cartucho de dinamita durante la Guerra Civil siendo militiana laboral. He survived the prison during the Franco regime.
- Enrique Líster (Ameneiro, La Coruña, 1907 - Madrid, 1994). Military and leader of the PCE.
- Juan Modesto (El Puerto de Santa María, Cadiz, 1906 - Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1969) Military and Commander of the Army of Ebro.
- Julián Grimau (Madrid, 1911 - 1963) PCE leader executed during Franco's dictatorship.
- Lina Odena (Barcelona, 1911 - Granada, 1936)
- Luis Cicuéndez Muñoz (La Villa de Don Fadrique, Toledo, 1897 - San Martín de Valdeiglesias, Madrid, 1936). First Communist Mayor of Spain during the Second Republic
- Santiago Álvarez Gómez (Villamartín de Valdeorras, Orense, 1913 - Madrid, 2002). Leader of the PCE.
- Fernando Claudín (Madrid, 1915 - 1990). Architect. Impulsor of euro-communism.
- Santiago Carrillo (Gijón, Asturias 1915 - Madrid, 2012). Secretary General of the PCE between 1960 and 1982, theorist of the euro-communism, and who highlighted for his role in the Spanish Transition.
- Simón Sánchez Montero (Nuño Gómez, Toledo, 1915). Leader of the JSU and the PCE.
- María Teresa León (Logroño, La Rioja, 1903 - Madrid, 1988) Essayist, playwright and novelist.
- Manuel Azcárate (Madrid, 1916 - 1998) Lawyer.
- Manuel Sacristán (Madrid, 1925 - Barcelona, 1985) Philosopher.
- Marcelino Camacho Abad (La Rasa, Soria, 1918 - Madrid, 2010) General Secretary of CC.OO. (1976-1987)
- Matilde Landa (Badajoz, 1904 - Palma, Balearic Islands, 1942) Pedagoga, feminist. He fought in the Civil War and died in jail for the Franco regime.
- Guillermo Ascanio (Vallehermoso, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1907 - Madrid, 1941). Engineer and military, commander of the 44th Joint Brigade and the 88th Division during the Civil War, and shot by the Francoists.
- Juana Doña (Madrid, 1918). Leader of the PCE.
- Jorge Semprún (Madrid, 1923). Leader of the PCE.
- Francisco García Salve (Farlete, Zaragoza, 1930). Worker, leader of the PCE and CC.OO.
- Gerardo Iglesias (Mieres, Asturias, 1945). Secretary-General (1982-1988).
- Julio Anguita (Fuengirola, Málaga, 1941). Secretary-General (1988-1998).
- Alberto Garzón (Logroño, La Rioja, 1985) Economista y Ministro de Consumo del gobierno de España (2020-actualidad).
- Francisco Fernández Buey (Palencia, 1943 - 2012) Philosopher.
- Javier Sauquillo (Ceuta, 1947). Militant of the PCE and CC.OOO killed in the 1977 Atocha Matanza.
- Jaime Ballesteros Pulido (Granada, 1932 - 2015) Deputy Secretary General of the PCE.
- Paco Rabal (Aguilas, Murcia Region, 1926 - 2011) Actor.
- Juan Antonio Bardem (Madrid,1922 - 2002) Film director.
- Manuel Gerena (Sevilla, 1945) Cantaor flamenco.
- Marcos Ana (Alconada, Salamanca, 1920 - Madrid, 2016) Poet and writer. He was the political prisoner who spent more years in the Francoist prisons.
- Vanesa Segura Gaitán (Almería, 1980 - 2017) Philologist and recognized feminist and Andalusian community militant.
- Juan Pinilla (Huétor Tájar, Granada, 1981) Flamenco singer.
- Javier Egea (Granada, 1952 - 1999) Poet.
- Lucía Sócam (Guillena, Seville, 1986) Cantautora, guitarist and flautist.
- Felipe Alcaraz (Granada, 1943) Novelist and poet.
- Yolanda Díaz (Fene, 1971) Attorney, Minister of Labour and Social Economy and Second Vice-President of the Spanish Government (2020-actualidad). He banned dismissals during the COVID-19 pandemic and was at the forefront of ERTE processing.
- Las Thirteen Rosas (Madrid) Group of 13 young women who were shot by the Franco regime after the end of the Civil War.
PSUC militants
Although the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia was a party with its own personality and clearly differentiated from the PCE, for many years it was represented in its leadership bodies.
- Joan Comorera i Soler (Cervera, Lérida, 1894). Secretary-General (1936-1949).
- Josep Moix (Sabadell, Barcelona, 1898). Secretary-General (1949-1965).
- Gregorio López Raimundo (Tauste, Barcelona 1914). Secretary-General (1965-1977).
- Antoni Gutiérrez Díaz (Premiá de Mar, Barcelona, 1921). Secretary-General (1977-1981 and 1982-1986).
- Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (Barcelona, 1939-2003) Writer.
- Miquel Martí i Pol (Barcelona, 1929-2003) Writer and poet.
Coalitions and leaders today
- Europe
- United We Can Change Europe
- María Eugenia Rodríguez Palop
- AndalusiaAndalusia
- By Andalusia
- Immaculate Nieto
- CataloniaCatalonia
- In Comú Podem
- Jéssica Albiach
- Community of MadridCommunity of Madrid
- United Nations
- Carolina Alonso
- Valencian CommunityValencian Community
- Unides Podem
- Héctor Illueca
- GaliciaGalicia
- Galicia In Common
- Ledicia Piñeiro
- Castilla y LeónCastilla y León
- United Nations
- Pablo Fernández Santos
- Basque CountryBasque Country
- Elkarrekin Podemos
- Look at Gorrotxategi
- Canary IslandsCanary Islands
- Yes Podemos Canarias-Izquierda Unida Canaria
- Mariela Rodríguez
- Castilla-La ManchaCastilla-La Mancha
- United Nations Podemos-Equo
- José García Molina
- Region of MurciaRegion of Murcia
- Podemos-Equo-Izquierda Unida-Verdes de la Región de Murcia
- José Luis Álvarez Castellanos
- AragonAragon
- We can-equo-Izquierda Unida de Aragón
- Alvaro Sanz
- Balearic IslandsBalearic Islands
- United Nations
- Juan Pedro Yllanes
- ExtremaduraExtremadura
- United by Extremadura
- Irene de Miguel
- Principality of AsturiasPrincipality of Asturias
- We can Asturies-United Left of Asturias-Asturian Left
- Ramón Argüelles Cordero
- Community of Navarre
- We can-left-Ezkerra
- José Miguel Nuin
- CantabriaCantabria
- Cantabria-Equo United Left
- Leticia Martínez
- La RiojaLa Rioja
- United Nations Podemos-Equo
- Diego Mendiola
- MelillaMelilla
- United Nations
- Gema Aguilar
- CeutaCeuta
- United Nations
- Ramón Rodríguez Casaubón