Communist Party of Uruguay

The Communist Party of Uruguay (PCU), known as Communist Party or simply PCU, is a Uruguayan political party, founded on 21 September 1920 as a faction of the Socialist Party of Uruguay, in adhesion to the Russian Revolution and the Leninist Third International. Its youth wing is the Communist Youth Union.

Since 1971 he has been part of the Frente Amplio, of which he is a founding member.

History

Origin

The PCU arises from the majority of the Socialist Party of Uruguay, in adherence to the Russian Revolution and the Leninist Third International.

The First Congress of the PSU was held in 1912.

At the outbreak of the First World War, in 1914, important leaders of the PSU, with Emilio Frugoni at the head, tried to approve a statement in favor of the allies, and aligned the PSU against what they called "the Germanic barbarism" when Germany increased its submarine warfare. The PS never commented on the issue. The predominant sector in the PSU was strongly influenced by the ideas of Karl Kautsky and the socialist left.

The Russian Revolution of October 1917 sharpened the struggle of tendencies within the PSU to the extreme. As soon as the news about the Bolshevik revolution reached Uruguay, there was a definition of positions: the majority would speak out in support of the revolution, with Eugenio Gómez and Celestino Mibelli at the head; while a group of leaders, predominant in the Executive Committee of the party and led by Frugoni, maintained that we had to wait for greater definitions of the Russian process. Finally, when the Communist International was founded, the Frugoni sector rejected the theses of the old Socialist International, did not agree with the positions of the CI on the world revolution and joined the Vienna Union, or "international. two and a half" who equally rejected parliamentarism and the reformism of social democracy but did not accept the theses of the Third International. On the contrary, he postulates the need to reunify the internationals into a single organization. However, the struggle in the PSU would not be defined until 1920.

Eugenio Gómez had founded the Maritime Workers Federation, of which he was its main leader, which meant a change in the correlation of forces within the PSU. The maritime and port strike of 1918 would allow Gómez to strengthen the positions of the revolutionary and internationalist wing of the PSU.

The founding of the Communist International precipitated the crisis in the PSU. The struggle over accession to the Communist International was open and was fought in all party centers, culminating in the VIII Congress, inaugurated on September 20, 1920. The victory of those in favor of accession to the Communist International was broad.: 1927 votes in favor of accession, 175 against and 257 abstentions.

On April 16, 1921, the Extraordinary Congress was inaugurated, which was to discuss the 21 conditions required to be able to enter the Third International. Congress was in favor of accepting the 21 conditions, by 1,007 votes in favor and 110 for accepting them with reservations. The dissenters were expelled and later reorganized the PSU. Gómez was reelected as a member of the Executive Committee by the greatest number of votes.

The majority sector of the PSU was renamed the Communist Party of Uruguay (PCU), as required by condition number 17 of the Communist International. But his initial radicalism made him conceive that they functioned within the "anarchist tactic" due to real ignorance of Bolshevik doctrine. In 1922 he joined the Comintern and the discipline began, which took shape in 1925 with the "bolshevization" of the PCU.

His theory of the n#34;Uruguayan Revolution#34;

In 1958 at the XVII Congress of the PCU the programmatic guidelines were established; synthesis of an effort to develop a theory of the Uruguayan revolution based on a study of the situation of social class struggle in the country in the middle of the century. This theory included the construction of the social force of the Uruguayan revolution: the Democratic National Liberation Front (FDLN); as well as the political tactic to be carried out based on three main objectives: the organization of all the country's workers in a single center in alliance with the widest possible spectrum of social sectors, the political unity of all the leftist and progressive forces coming from of all parties on a single front and at the same time the construction of a great party of cadres and masses capable of achieving the proposed goals.

The PCU on the left and in the pre-dictatorial stage

In 1962, the first attempt at unification of the left was made with the creation of FIDEL (Left Liberation Front), which was formed with the contribution of the PCU, independent sectors of the left and personalities and groups splintered from the Colorado Party and the National Party. In 1965, representatives of more than 300 Uruguayan social organizations gathered in the so-called 'People's Congress'. There the foundations were laid for the National Workers Convention (CNT) to be established in 1966.

Later in 1971 the PCU participated in the creation of the Frente Amplio that would acquire a double simultaneous condition of coalition of parties and movement, both expressed in the composition of all its base and leadership organizations.

In 1973 the armed forces issued communiqués 4 and 7 that marked one of the last milestones prior to the absolute institutional breakdown. Controversially, the PCU broadcast through "El Popular" an editorial supporting the army's statements. The degree of support and intentionality of the PCU towards this situation has been the subject of subsequent discussion.

The PCU during the military dictatorship 1973-1985

Starting with the coup d'état of June 27, 1973, the PCU began to operate clandestinely, supporting the General Strike that paralyzed the country for two weeks and was repressed by the Armed Forces. Throughout the 12 years of the dictatorship, thousands of PCU militants were detained, savagely tortured and imprisoned for periods of 3 to 10 years in barracks and the Political Prisoners Penitentiary located in the city of Libertad (Establishment Military Detention EMR No. 1) or in Punta de Rieles the women (EMR No. 2). However, the clandestine operation of the PCU did not stop. At the end of the dictatorship, with many dead, thousands of prisoners and many missing, the PCU emerged with its organization battered but fully operational, seeing itself nourished with young elements (the so-called generation of '83) and with union members who had kept alive the CNT union organization (which at the end of the dictatorship had to be called PIT (Intersindical Plenary of Workers), and after 1985 PIT-CNT.

Electoral alliances

In the 1984 elections, with the PCU and list number 1001 being banned, they presented the group Advanced Democracy and list 10001.

In the 1989 elections, the public image was that of a 1001 list stripped of communist content. In that vote it was the one that obtained the best vote in its entire history, 4 senators and 11 deputies.

For the 2019 internal elections, he presents Óscar Andrade as a presidential candidate, coming in third place in the Frente Amplio internal elections, behind Daniel Martínez and Carolina Cosse, but very close to her. For the October elections of that year, she made an alliance with Carolina Cosse and the various sectors that supported her presidential candidacy (except the MPP) under the sublem "Unity for changes." obtaining the second best vote in history, achieving two seats in the Senate.

Crisis of the 90s

As a result of the collapse of socialism and the disappearance of the Soviet Union, the PCU (like many other communist parties) experienced a serious crisis and with the departure of Jaime Pérez and numerous union leaders such as Thelman Borges, Félix Díaz, Óscar Groba, Enrique Pintado, Eduardo Platero, Juan Ángel Toledo, Andrés Toriani, Jorge Silvano, Rubén Villaverde, among others. In the 1990-1995 legislature there were numerous legislators elected by list 1001 who were left without a party, such as Gonzalo and Marcos Carámbula, León Lev, Andrés Toriani, Thelman Borges, Rafael Sanseviero.

Leaders

From its founding until 1955, the main leader of the PCU was Eugenio Gómez. In that same year, Gómez was expelled from the party by a group led by Rodney Arismendi, made up of, among others, José Luis Massera, another historical leader. From that year on, Arismendi held the general secretary of the Party until his exile.

Between 1973 and 1985 several General Secretaries succeeded one another, all clandestinely, due to the prohibition of the party by the dictatorship. After the recovery of democracy, Rodney Arismendi took over again as top leader, until his resignation in 1988. After this, he was succeeded by Jaime Pérez.

From 1992 and until 2006, the General Secretary was Marina Arismendi, daughter of Rodney Arismendi, who was elected in 2005 to occupy the newly created Ministry of Social Development. From 2006 to 2017, the position of Secretary General was occupied by Eduardo Lorier, who was also a senator of the Republic for much of that period. Victorio Casartelli held the position of President of the party for years, this position being merely representative and not involving the political leadership of the party, although it did often represent him before the Political Table of the Frente Amplio.^{[quote required]}

In 2017, Juan Castillo, who at that time held the National Directorate of Labor within the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, was unanimously elected Secretary General of the PCU, a position he left to assume the secretariat of his party. Castillo He was re-elected to his position in 2022.

General Secretaries

Founder: Ramon Benutti

N.o	Secretary		Mandate
			Home	Fin
1		Eugenio Gómez	21 September 1920	1955
2		Rodney Arismendi	1955	1973
3		Jaime Pérez (Clandestine during the dictatorship)	1973	1974
4		José Luis Massera (Clandestine during the dictatorship)	1974	1975
5		Gerardo Cuesta (Clandestine during the dictatorship)	1975	1976
6		Leon Lev (Clandestine during the dictatorship)	1976	1979
7		José Pacella (Clandestine during the dictatorship)	1979	1981
8		Ramón Cabrera (Clandestine during the dictatorship)	1981	1985
9		Rodney Arismendi	1985	1988
10		Jaime Pérez	1988	1992
11		Marina Arismendi	1992	2006
12		Eduardo Lorier	2006	2017
13		Juan Castillo	2017	News

Presidents

National Congresses

• I Congress - held in 1912
• II Congress - held in
• III Congress - held in
• IV Congress - held in
• V Congress - held in
• VI Congress - held in
• VII Congress - held
• VIII Congress - held in
• IX Congress - held at
• X Congress - held in
• XI Congress - held in
• XII Congress - held in
• XIII Congress - held in
• XIV Congress - held in
• XVI Congress - held in September 1955
• XVII Congress - held in August 1958
• XVIII Congress - held in July 1962
• XIX Congress - held in August 1966
• XX Congress - held in December 1970
• XXI Congress - held in December 1988
• XXII Congress - held in October 1990
• XXIII Congress - held at
• XXIV Congress - held in June 1996
• XXV Congress - held in November 1998
• XXVI Congress - held in December 2001
• XXVII Congress - held at
• XXVIII Congress - held in October 2008
• XXIX Congress - held in December 2010
• XXX Congress - held in December 2013
• XXXI Congress - held in June 2017
• XXXII Congress - held in May 2022

Elections

Presidential elections

N.o	Secretary		Mandate
			Home	Fin
1		Victorio Casartelli	?	2019

Election	Candidates	First round		Second round		Outcome	Note
		Votes	%	Votes	%
1938
1942	Eugenio Gómez	14,330	2.5 %			No. electorate	Without partnerships
1946	Eugenio Gómez	32.680	5,03 %			No. electorate	Without partnerships
1950	Eugenio Gómez	19,026	2 %			No. electorate	Without partnerships
1954	Eugenio Gómez	19,541	2.22 %			No. electorate	Without partnerships
1958	Francisco R. Pintos	27,080	2.69 %			No. electorate	Without partnerships
1962	Aguirre González Pastorino	40,886	3.49 %			No. electorate	Left Front of Liberation
1966	Aguirre González Pastorino	69.750	5.66 %			No. electorate	Left Front of Liberation
1971	Liber Seregni	304,275	18.28%			No. electorate	Front Amplio
1984	Juan José Crottogini	401,104	21.26 %			No. electorate	Front Amplio
1989	Liber Seregni	418,403	21.23 %			No. electorate	Front Amplio
1994	Tabaré Vázquez	621,226	30.61 %			No. electorate	Front Amplio
1999	Tabaré Vázquez	861,202	40.10 %	982.049	45.87 %	No. electorate	Front Amplio
2004	Tabaré Vázquez	1,124,761	50.45 %			Yes. electorate	Front Amplio
2009	José Mujica	1,105,262	47.96 %	1,197.638	54.63 %	Yes. electorate	Front Amplio
2014	Tabaré Vázquez	1,134,187	47.81 %	1,226,105	56.62 %	Yes. electorate	Front Amplio
2019	Daniel Martínez	949 376	39.02 %	1.152.271	49.21 %	No. electorate	Front Amplio

Legislative elections