Communist Party of Cuba

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Communist Party of Cuba
Logo del Partido Comunista de Cuba.svg
Miguel Diaz Canel.jpg
First secretary Miguel Díaz-Canel
founding October 3, 1965
Place of establishment Havana
Headquarters Central Committee House,
Plaza de la Revolución ,
Havana (Cuba)
Youth organization Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas
newspaper Granma
Alignment Communism
Marxism Leninism
Colours) red
Number of members 670,000 (2016)
Proportion of women 30.1% (1997)
International connections Conferencia Permanente de Partidos Políticos de América Latina , Foro de São Paulo, International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties , International Communist Seminar
Website www.pcc.cu

The Communist Party of Cuba ( Spanish Partido Comunista de Cuba abbreviated PCC ) is founded first in 1925 and in its current form as a 1965 Unity Party formed Communist Party of Cuba , referring to the teachings of Marx , Engels , Lenin and the ideas of José Martí calls . The minimum entry age is 30 years. The PCC has over 670,000 members.

history

The Communist Party of Cuba before 1959

During the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado from 1925 to 1933, the communist groups in various places that had existed since 1923 founded the Communist Party of Cuba. Its most famous founders were Julio Antonio Mella and Carlos Baliño . Persecuted by the dictatorship from the start, it nevertheless gained great influence in the trade union movement.

Under the influence of the Communist Party of the USA , with the end of the Second World War saw also come the end of the struggle between socialism and capitalism ( convergence theory and Browderism ) and broke up, the named Communist Party of Cuba in 1944 in Socialist People's Party (Partido Socialista Popular , PSP).

For a long time, the PSP was opposed to the fight against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista , led by Fidel Castro since July 1953 . According to the understanding of the party leadership loyal to Moscow, the main actors of a revolution should not be bourgeois students but the urban working class. Castro's spectacular, but obviously insufficiently planned and self-sacrificing actions such as the storming of the Moncada barracks (July 1953) and the landing of the yacht Granma (December 1956) were condemned as irresponsible adventures. It was only in the course of 1958, when the US government in particular had canceled its support for Batista and, with popular support, the chances of success of the rebel army of the July 26th Movement steadily increased, did the communists also declare their entry into the Alliance against Batista. Among the leaders of the rebels, Raúl Castro was the only PSP member (since 1953), but had played no role in the party hierarchy. Together with the Argentinian Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who also openly represents communist convictions, Raúl Castro was a key supporter of the gradual rapprochement between PSP and M-26-7.

The PCC after the Cuban Revolution of 1959

Discussions on the VI. Party Congress (2011).

After the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the PSP was the only one of the previous political parties that was allowed to continue to operate openly and legally, even if initially neither its leaders nor the Communist comandantes Raúl Castro and Ernesto Guevara dominated official posts at Fidel Castro's Revolutionary government received. The question of open or creeping participation in government by PSP members and Fidel Castro's turn to communism was the main political issue in Cuba in 1959 and 1960 and among international observers of the country's development. In the spring of 1959 Castro distanced himself clearly from communism based on the Soviet model during his public appearances (including in the USA), but in the summer the revolutionary fighter of the M-26-7 and commander of the air force, Pedro Díaz Lanz , sat in first the United States to warn of a planned establishment of a communist state system by Castro. Shortly afterwards, Castro forced President Manuel Urrutia to resign and flee into exile following statements directed against the communists. The prominent Comandante Huber Matos justified his withdrawal from the armed forces in October 1959 with the strong influence of the PSP and the strong presence of its members in state institutions. In the cabinet, all liberal ministers lost their posts in several steps by the spring of 1960 and were replaced by supporters of the new course. The PSP held its 8th congress in August 1960. On that occasion, General Secretary Roca declared that it was desirable to merge all revolutionary movements into a single party.

In July 1961, the so-called Integrated Revolutionary Organizations of Cuba ( Organizaciones Revolucionarias Integradas , ORI) were established through the association of the July 26th Movement (led by Fidel Castro ) with the People's Socialist Party (led by Blas Roca ) and the Revolutionary Directory of the 13th Century. March (led by Faure Chomón ) founded. ORI was supposed to lay the foundation for building a party based on Marxist-Leninist principles. ORI general secretary was the PSP functionary Aníbal Escalante until he was dismissed at Castro's instigation in March 1962 on charges of "sectarianism" in favor of the PSP comrades within the alliance and then went to the Soviet Union until 1964. The ORI alliance was merged in February 1963 to form the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution ( Partido Unido de la Revolución Socialista de Cuba , PURSC), which now also recruited new members from outside the three original organizations and from which, after renaming on October 3, 1965, the Communist Cuban Party (PCC) emerged.

So far, a total of seven party congresses have been held. Although the party's statutes provide for a five-year cycle, the party congresses have so far only taken place at irregular intervals. The PCC did not hold its first congress until 1975. After 1997, the 5th Party Congress, no new one was convened for a long time. After Fidel Castro's health-related withdrawal from active politics and the takeover of government by his brother Raúl , the VI. The party conference was originally announced for the end of 2009 and then postponed indefinitely with reference to the economic crisis . It finally took place from April 16-19, 2011 and dealt with changes in the Cuban economic model. At this party congress, Raúl Castro also took over the highest office in the party as the successor to his brother Fidel.

In the past, party congress resolutions were rarely actually implemented. As at previous congresses, the VI. The party congress warned that this must now change. The population is accordingly skeptical and reacts to such promises with apathy or cynicism.

On 28/29 January 2012 the 1st National Party Conference of the PCC met in Havana. The basis of the conference was a draft from October 2011, which was discussed in over 65,000 meetings of party members. 78 of 96 points were modified and five new points were added to the document. In terms of content, the conference, which turned out to be a continuation of the policy of the VI. The party congress understood the future role of the PCC in Cuban society and its internal working style. The more than 800 delegates affirmed their adherence to the one-party system, but at the same time decided to expand internal democracy. It was decided that discrimination based on gender, skin color or religious belief should be combated. In addition, senior government posts are limited to two-by-five-year terms. Raúl Castro explicitly included himself here. In addition, party and government offices will be separated more strongly. The party should be the political, not the legal, leadership of the country. The media are to be provided with more information and the connection with young people is to be strengthened. In the next few years, 20% of the ZK members should make room for young talent. The fight was also announced against corruption, which is a much greater enemy for the revolution than acts of sabotage by the USA.

The VII Party Congress met in April 2016, this time as planned five years after the last. Agriculture should be the focus. In contrast to the previous party congress, this time there was no public debate about its goals. Raúl Castro criticized the partially bureaucratic backwardness of his party, but drew no visible consequences from it. The new leadership team is essentially the old one.

The 8th Party Congress from April 16-19, 2021 was the first of the PCC whose documents avoided any reference to Marxism-Leninism. For the first time, the images of Marx , Engels and Lenin were missing on the stage wall of the congress hall. It could be held with only 300 instead of the thousands otherwise present. On him, the previous party chairman Raúl Castro was replaced by the Cuban head of state Miguel Díaz-Canel at his own request.

Party structure and program

Seat of the Central Committee of the PCC on Revolution Square in Havana

The Communist Party of Cuba is not a mass party; there is no direct or indirect compulsion to membership in Cuba. On the contrary, the PCC sees itself as a revolutionary avant-garde on the way to communism, so that it only accepts members with a particularly impeccable curriculum vitae and a revolutionary conscience. Chapter I, Article 5 of the Cuban Constitution states:

“The Communist Party of Cuba, Martian (after José Martí) and Marxist-Leninist , vanguard of the Cuban nation, is the highest leading force of society and the state, which organizes the common efforts towards the high goal of socialism and progressing to the communist society and directs. "

At present, the highest organs of the PCC at the national level are the party congress, the Central Committee (ZK) and its Politburo . On the VI. Party Congress was Raul Castro as First Secretary and Jose Ramon Machado Ventura was elected Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.

The official national party organ of the PCC is the daily newspaper "Granma" . In addition, the PCC publishes a regional daily newspaper in each of the provinces.

Members of the Politburo

As of the 8th party congress, the Politburo has 14 members, three fewer than before than after the previous party congress. Five of them are new.

Members of the Central Committee of the PCC

At the 8th Party Congress, the following members were elected to the party secretariat:

First secretary

  • Miguel Díaz-Canel

Other members

  • Roberto Morales Ojeda
  • Rogelio Polanco Fuentes
  • Joel Queipo Ruiz
  • José Ramón Monteagudo Ruiz
  • Felix Duarte Ortega
  • Jorge Luis Broche Lorenzo

First party secretaries of the provincial committees

province First secretary
Artemisa José Antonio Valeriano Fariñas
Camaguey Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca
Ciego de Ávila Felix Duarte Ortega
Cienfuegos José Ramón Monteagudo Ruiz
Ciudad de la Habana Mercedes López Acea
Granma Luis Rafael Virelles Barreda
Guantánamo Denny Legrá Azahares
Holguín Luis Torres Iríbar
Las Tunas Ariel Santana Santiesteban
Matanzas Omar Ruiz Martín
Mayabeque Juan Miguel García Díaz
Pinar del Río Gladys Martínez Verdecia
Sancti Spiritus Miguel Acevo Cortiña
Santiago de Cuba Lázaro Expósito Canto
Villa Clara Julio Ramiro Lima Corzo
Isla de la Juventud * Ernesto Reynoso Piñera

* Special administrative area (municipio especial)

Party congresses

description date Delegates
I. Party Congress December 17-22, 1975 3.116
II. Party congress December 17-20, 1980 1,780
III. Party congress February 4-7, 1986 1,784
IV. Congress October 10-14, 1991 1,772
V. Party Congress October 8-10, 1997 1,500
VI. Party congress April 16-19, 2011 997
VII Party Congress April 16-19, 2016 995
VIII Party Congress April 16-19, 2021 300

Mass organizations

The following mass organizations are related to the KPK or shaped by their members:

See also

literature

  • Hans Magnus Enzensberger : Portrait of a party. Prehistory, structure and ideology of the PCC. in: Kursbuch 18: Cuba. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1969, pp. 192-216.
  • Blas Roca: Cuba consolidates its victory. Report of the National Committee to the Eighth Congress of the Socialist People's Party of Cuba. Dietz Verlag Berlin 1961.
  • Documents and materials relating to the cooperation between the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and the Communist Party of Cuba. 1971 to 1977. Dietz Verlag Berlin 1979.
  • Karin Stahl: Cuba - a new class society? (= Heidelberg Third World Studies , Volume 23), Heidelberger Verlags-Anstalt, Heidelberg 1987, OCLC 916630987 (Dissertation Heidelberg 1987, 431 pages, under the title: The institutionalization of the Cuban revolution ).
  • Frank Blum: The history of the Cuban Communist Party from 1925–1962. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1992. ISBN 978-3-631-45238-7 .
  • 1st Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. Materials. Dietz Verlag Berlin 1976.
  • Second Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. Materials. Dietz Verlag Berlin 1982.
  • III. Communist Party of Cuba Congress. Materials. Dietz Verlag Berlin 1986. ISBN 3-320-00799-8 .
  • Friendship Society BRD-Cuba (Ed.): IV. Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. Documents. Verlag Das Freie Buch, Munich 1991.
  • The first party congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. in: Heinz Langer: Tenderness of the peoples. The GDR and Cuba. Verlag Wiljo Heinen, Berlin 2010. ISBN 978-3-939828-48-8 .
  • Frank Priess: Cuba after the VI Party Congress: How far will the reforms take? in: KAS foreign information 7/2011. Berlin 2011, 109–126.
  • Karin Stahl: Cuba - a new class society? (= Heidelberg Third World Studies , Volume 23), Heidelberger Verlags-Anstalt, Heidelberg 1987, OCLC 916630987 (Dissertation Heidelberg 1987, 431 pages, under the title: The institutionalization of the Cuban revolution ).

Web links

Commons : Communist Party of Cuba  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Party and State in Cuba: Gender Equality in Political Decision Making (PDF; 460 kB)
  2. Archived copy ( Memento from October 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  3. Granma Internacional, 5/2016, special supplement, p. 1
  4. Bernd Wulffen: Cuba in transition: from Fidel to Raúl p. 74
  5. Lennox Campello: The Cuban Communist Party's Anti-Castro Activities 1987, accessed on October 14, 2011 (English)
  6. Enzensberger: Portrait of a Party, p. 203
  7. Enzensberger: Portrait of a Party, pp. 204-208
  8. Knut Henkel: Castro drummed up comrades , taz.de of November 9, 2010
  9. Cuba's renewal: the old are followed by the old , Spiegel Online from April 19, 2011
  10. Bert Hoffmann : How capable of reform is Cuba's socialism? (PDF; 218 kB) , Friedrich Ebert Foundation , May 2011, p. 3 f.
  11. ^ Raul Castro Chairs PCC National Conference , Prensa Latina, January 28, 2012.
  12. Government posts are limited in time , Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 30, 2012.
  13. Cuba's Communist Party is slowly reforming ( memento from January 24, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) , AFP, January 30, 2012
  14. Discurso de Raúl Castro: “El rumbo ya ha sido trazado” (+ audio) , Cubadebate, January 30, 2012.
  15. Comenzó última jornada de la Primera Conferencia Nacional del Partido , Cubadebate, January 29, 2012.
  16. Raul Castro: Promovamos la mayor democracia, dando el ejemplo desde el Partido (+ photos) , Cubadebate, January 29, 2012
  17. ^ Conference of the Communist Party of Cuba: A little more patience ( Memento of April 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) , Womblog, January 30, 2012.
  18. ^ Peter Gaupp: Communist Party Congress in Cuba: Cuba remains in the hedgehog position , NZZ.ch , April 17, 2016
  19. El marxismo desaparece del informe central en el congreso del Partido Comunista , April 19, 2021, accessed on April 19, 2021.
  20. The 8th party congress has begun (+ speech by Raúl). In: Cuba today. April 18, 2021, accessed on April 21, 2021 (German).
  21. ^ Cuba's Communist Party: President becomes party chairman . In: The daily newspaper . April 19, 2021 ( taz.de [accessed April 21, 2021]).
  22. Tomado de la edición digital del periódico Granma: Informe Central al 8.º Congreso del Partido Comunista de Cuba. Retrieved April 21, 2021 (European Spanish).
  23. ^ A b Elegido Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez como Primer Secretario del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba. In: Granma. April 19, 2021, accessed April 19, 2021 (Spanish).
  24. Presidente de Cuba expresa satisfacción por debate partidista. Agencia Informativa Latinoamericana Prensa Latina , April 19, 2021.