Communist Party of Spain

For other uses, see Communist Party of Spain (disambiguation).
Communist Party of Spain
Partido Comunista de España
AbbreviationPCE
PresidentJosé Luis Centella[1]
General SecretaryEnrique Santiago
Honorary PresidentDolores Ibárruri
(eternal title)[2]
Founded14 November 1921; 103 years ago (1921-11-14)
Merger ofSpanish Communist Party
Spanish Communist Workers' Party
HeadquartersC/Olimpo, 35
28043 Madrid
NewspaperMundo Obrero
Nuestra Bandera
Youth wingCommunist Youth Union of Spain (UJCE) (Suspended)
Women's wingMovimiento Democrático de Mujeres (MDM)
Trade unionWorkers' Commissions (CCOO)
Membership (2022)7,713[3]
Ideology
Political positionLeft-wing[9][10][11] to far-left[12][13][14][15]
National affiliationPopular Front (1936–1939)
United Left (1986–present)
European affiliationParty of the European Left
International affiliationIMCWP
IPA
Colours  Red
Congress of Deputies
7 / 350
Inside Sumar
Senate
0 / 266
European Parliament
0 / 61
Website
www.pce.es Edit this at Wikidata

The Communist Party of Spain (Spanish: Partido Comunista de España; PCE) is a communist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is currently part of Sumar. Two of its politicians are Spanish government ministers: Yolanda Díaz (Minister of Labour and Social Economy) and Sira Rego (Minister of Youth and Children).

The PCE was founded by 1921, after a split in the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Spanish: Partido Socialista Obrero Español; PSOE). The PCE was founded by those who opposed the social democratic wing of the PSOE, because the social democrat wing did not support the PSOE's integration in the Communist International founded by Vladimir Lenin two years prior. The PCE was a merger of the Spanish Communist Party (Spanish: Partido Comunista Español) and the Spanish Communist Workers' Party (Spanish: Partido Comunista Obrero Español). The PCE was first legalized after the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in April 1931. The republic was the first democratic regime in the history of Spain. The PCE gained much support in the months before the Spanish coup of July 1936, which marked the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, and it was a major force during the war as well. The Republicans lost, and Franco established a military dictatorship, under which the PCE was one of the most heavily repressed parties, with specific laws banning communist parties,[16] among others.

Under the dictatorship, the PCE was the main opposition to the Francoist dictatorship. In the early years of the dictatorship, many PCE members joined the Spanish Maquis, a group of guerrillas who fought against the regime. Years later, the Maquis' power declined, and the PCE abandoned the military strategy. Instead, it chose to interfere in the only legal syndicate (which was part of the Francoist apparatus), the Vertical Syndicate.

Franco died on 20 November 1975, and two days later, Juan Carlos I was crowned. Juan Carlos I would lead the Spanish transition to democracy, a time when the PCE became also extremely relevant, due to Franco's anti-communist legacy. Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez legalized the PCE on 9 April 1977, a decision which was particularly controversial, but ended peacefully. The PCE largely contributed to the restoration of democracy in Spain during the lead of Secretary-General Santiago Carrillo.[17]

Since 1986, it is part of the United Left coalition. In its statutes, the PCE defines its goals as "democratically participate in a revolutionary transformation of society and its political structures, overcoming the capitalist system and constructing socialism in the Spanish State, as a contribution to the transition to socialism worldwide, with our goals set in the realization of the emancipating ideal of communism".[18] It defines itself as revolutionary, internationalist, solidarity, republican, feminist, and secularist,[18] specifically, of the laïcité variety.

The youth organization of PCE is the Communist Youth Union of Spain. PCE publishes Mundo Obrero (Workers World) monthly.

  1. ^ "Enrique Santiago, elegido nuevo secretario general del PCE". ElDiario.es (in Spanish). 8 April 2018. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  2. ^ "El Referente". elreferente.es. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  3. ^ "La militancia del PCE se reduce a 7.713 afiliados a las puertas del XXI Congreso". 6 June 2022.
  4. ^ a b Alba, Victor (1983). The Communist Party in Spain. Transaction Books. ISBN 9780878554645.
  5. ^ "El PCE recupera el leninismo al cumplirse el centenario de la Revolución de Octubre". cuartopoder. 3 December 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  6. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). pce.es. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 April 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ^ "Spanish communists demonstrate for a third republic on 90th anniversary of the second". morningstaronline.co.uk. Morning Star. April 2021.
  8. ^ "Julio Anguita llama a la refundación de Izquierda Unida". El País (in Spanish). El Pais. 22 April 2008.
  9. ^ Schofield, Norman J. (2008). Political Economy of Democracy and Tyranny. Walter de Gruyter GmbH. p. 215. ISBN 9783486588262. OCLC 440296586.
  10. ^ Radcliff, Pamela Beth (2017). Modern Spain: 1808 to the Present. John Wiley & Sons. p. 257. ISBN 9781405186797. OCLC 979230456.
  11. ^ Colomer, Joseph M. (2008). Comparative European Politics. Routledge. p. 184. ISBN 9781134073542. OCLC 246186751.
  12. ^ Teruel, Juan (2018). "From stability to change? The evolution of the party system in Spain". Academia. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  13. ^ Fischer, Ivan (13 May 2021). "Spain's delivers employee status to food delivery riders". Brussels Morning. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  14. ^ Gray, Caroline (21 May 2020). Territorial Politics and the Party System in Spain: Continuity and change since the financial crisis. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781000062588.
  15. ^ Lisi, Marco, ed. (6 August 2018). Party System Change, the European Crisis and the State of Democracy. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781351377645.
  16. ^ Ley de 1 de marzo de 1940, sobre represión de la masonería y del comunismo (PDF) (Articles 1 and 2) (in Spanish). 1 March 1940. p. 1. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  17. ^ "Santiago Carrillo, el alma de la transición española" (in Spanish). ABC. 18 September 2012.
  18. ^ a b Estatutos del Partido Comunista de España (PDF) (in Spanish), Communist Party of Spain, 30 January 2014, p. 1, archived from the original (PDF) on 28 April 2017, retrieved 16 January 2018