Partido Comunista de España

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Partido Comunista de España
logo
Secretary General José Luis Centella
founding November 14, 1921
Headquarters C / Olimpo, 35 28043 Madrid
Colours) red
Number of members 35,000
International connections International meeting of communist and workers' parties
European party Tbsp
EP Group GUE / NGL
Website www.pce.es

The Communist Party of Spain ( Spanish Partido Comunista de España , PCE ) is a Spanish communist party .

It is currently the third largest political party in Spain and the strongest force in the left-wing alliance Izquierda Unida (IU, United Left). Traditionally, but to a lesser extent, it is closely linked to the largest trade union in Spain, the Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO.) .

history

Origin and first years

Antonio García Quejido (1856–1927), first general secretary of the PCE from 1921 to 1925

At the beginning of the 1920s, the first communist parties emerged in Spain, including the Partido Comunista Español ("Spanish Communist Party"), which was constituted on April 15, 1920 and emerged from the Federación de Juventudes Socialistas (youth organization of the PSOE ). At the same time, some left-wing supporters of the socialist PSOE, known as the tercerista , had tried to persuade their party to join the Communist International . When this attempt failed and the leadership of the PSOE instead joined the International Working Group of Socialist Parties , the disappointed Tercerista founded the Partido Comunista Obrero Español on April 13, 1921 (German: "Spanish Communist Workers' Party").

The two young communist parties worked closely together and finally joined forces on November 14, 1921 to form the Partido Comunista de España (PCE) . The new party held its first congress in Seville in March 1922 and soon after became a member of the Communist International. The first general secretary of the PCE was Antonio García Quejido (1856–1927).

In the first years of its existence, the PCE was subject to constant repression by the military dictatorship of General Miguel Primo de Riveras (1923 to 1930). But also within the party there were conflicts about the future direction. At the end of the 1920s, a pro-Soviet orientation prevailed, which determined the party's policy over the long term. The first major crisis arose around 1930. In 1924, the communist Federació Comunista Catalano-Balear (FCCB, German "Catalan-Balearic Communist Federation") joined the PCE and then represented communist interests in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands . But the FCCB split off again in 1930. She joined the International Association of Communist Opposition (IVKO) and later formed the Bloque Obrero y Campesino ("Workers and Peasants Block"). When the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed in 1931, the PCE was in a desperate state. It was therefore not until December 3, 1933, when Cayetano Bolívar Escribano was elected to the Spanish Parliament for the first time as a member of the PCE. Cayetano Bolívar was detained at the time and had to be released in order to exercise his mandate.

After the elections of 1933, Prime Minister Alejandro Lerroux led a center-right coalition against which there were various uprisings by left groups as early as October 1934. Representatives of the PCE also took part in the largest survey in Asturias , where a “workers alliance ” made up of railroad workers and miners from the socialist union UGT and the syndicalist union FSL had formed. However, government forces under General Francisco Franco put down the uprising, killing more than 3,000 people. For the elections on February 16, 1936, the PCE joined forces with the other left-wing parties based on the French model to form the “Popular Front” ( Frente Popular ). This then also won the parliamentary majority. In the unstable situation after the narrow election victory, the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) finally broke out in July 1936 . At that time the PCE was still a small party with few members.

Civil War time

Only through the influence of the Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War did the number of PCE party members grow from 5,000 to 100,000 to 300,000 within one year. The PCE was mainly joined by Spaniards who were hostile to the social revolution. Above all, it won over members of the middle class and the petty bourgeoisie , who feared losing their privileges.

The PCE was in constant competition with the POUM ( Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista , "Workers' Party of Marxist Unity"), which was critical of the Soviet model and the Popular Front. The PCE therefore took action against the POUM with Soviet support. Under pressure from the Soviet Union, the POUM was refused membership in the Madrid Defense Junta. On December 17, 1936,  a new general staff was appointed in Catalonia under the leadership of the communist PCE sister party PSUC ( Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya - 'United Socialist Party of Catalonia') and with Soviet help to push the POUM representatives from the military leadership . Between January and April 1937 the military hospital and the radio station of the POUM in Madrid were confiscated, the militia newspaper of the POUM banned and their Rote Hilfe closed.

The development reached its climax with the so-called “ May events ” from May 3rd to 8th 1937 in Barcelona. A few days later, the PCE took part in the overthrow of Prime Minister Francisco Largo Caballero (1869–1946), who had refused to take massive action against the POUM. His successor Juan Negrín (1891-1956), himself a supporter of the moderate, "right" wing of the Socialist Party, was closer to the communists and supported the PCE. On June 16 and 17, the POUM leadership was arrested. Its leaders, such as Andreu Nin (1892–1937) and other political opposition members, were interrogated and murdered in torture cellars, so-called " Checas ". Between October 11 and 22, 1938, a show trial of the rest of the POUM leadership (Gorkin, Arquer, Andrade and Gironella and two others) was carried out in Barcelona, ​​which resulted in long prison terms.

Resistance and reorganization

General Secretaries of the PCE

After the defeat of the Republicans in April 1939, the PCE was persecuted under the Franco dictatorship. During the first years of the regime, the party organized armed resistance in some parts of the country. A large part of the PCE members went into exile. While some went to the Soviet Union to volunteer in the Red Army during the Second World War , others went to France. There they rebuilt the party organization. From the beginning of the 1960s onwards, the PCE organized trade union workers' commissions ( Comisiones Obreras - CC.OO.), which, alongside the student movement and the Catholic workers' priests' movement, formed the main resistance against the Franco regime. Under General Secretary Santiago Carrillo , the PCE changed its direction between 1960 and 1982. She distanced herself from the Soviet model and now turned to Eurocommunism . During the phase of the Transición from 1975 onwards, it made concessions, such as agreeing to the introduction of a constitutional monarchy . The party declared itself ready to fight for the realization of its goals in a multi-party system and a parliamentary democracy . On April 9, 1977, the party was officially legalized again. Just a few weeks later, it again had around 200,000 registered members.

Change and democratization

Carrillo was criticized by "orthodox" communists for his concessions. As early as 1973, a wing under the legendary commander from the civil war Enrique Líster split from the PCE and formed a new party under the name Partido Comunista Obrero Español (PCOE, 'Communist Workers Party of Spain'). Another split came about in 1977 with the Partido Comunista de los Trabajadores (also the 'Communist Workers Party'). In the first elections in which the PCE participated in 1977, it received 10% of the vote. After a similar success in 1979, the 1982 election results collapsed. As a result, Carrillo was ousted as general secretary and even expelled from the party three years later.

Strong forces in the PSUC, the Catalan sister party of the PCE, stuck to their eurocommunist course after 1982 and increasingly alienated themselves from the Spanish headquarters. The Partit Comunista de Catalunya ('Communist Party of Catalonia', PCC) split off from the PSUC and joined the Iniciativa per Catalunya ('Initiative for Catalonia'), which in turn formed an alliance with the Catalan Greens ( Els Verds ) under the name ICV ( Iniciativa per Catalunya-Verds ). Only about 43% of the former PSUC members remained in the party now called PSUC viu ('Living PSUC'), which continues to function as the Catalan branch of the PCE. PSUC viu plays the leading role in the independent Catalan offshoot of Izquierda Unida , Esquerra Unida i Alternativa (EUiA). General elections are usually held by the ICV and EUiA with a common list under the name ICV-EUiA.

organization

The youth organization of the PCE is the Unión de Juventudes Comunistas de España ("Association of Communist Youth Associations of Spain"). The party publishes the monthly magazine Mundo Obrero ("Workers World").

See also

literature

  • Fritz René Allemann : Spain's left - back from the underground . In: Dieter Oberndörfer (Ed.): Socialist and Communist Parties in Western Europe. Publication of the social science research institute of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung . Volume 1: Südländer (= Uni-Taschenbücher . Volume 761). Leske + Budrich (UTB), Opladen 1978, ISBN 3-8100-0240-2 , pp. 195-265.
  • David Wingeate Pike : In the Service of Stalin. The Spanish Communists in Exile, 1939-1945 . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article in the Spanish language Wikipedia
  2. ↑ 1936 Civil War in Spain Anarchists Communists [1] , youtube, sequence 6:06, accessed on October 24, 2012.