Communist Party of Cuba
Encyclopedia
The Communist Party of Cuba is the governing political party in Cuba
. It is a communist party of the Marxist-Leninist model. The Cuban constitution ascribes the role of the Party to be the "leading force of society and of the state". As of April 2011, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba
is Raúl Castro
, the President of Cuba, younger brother of the previous First Secretary and President of Cuba, Fidel Castro
, and the Second Secretary is José Ramón Machado Ventura
.
" Communist Party of Cuba was formed in the 1920s, which was later renamed the Popular Socialist Party
for electoral reasons. In July 1961, two years after the 1959 Revolution, the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI) was formed by the merger of Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement
, the Popular Socialist Party
led by Blas Roca and the Revolutionary Directory March 13 led by Faure Chomón. On March 26, 1962 the ORI became the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution (PURSC) which, in turn, became the Communist Party of Cuba on October 3, 1965. The Communist party remains the only recognized political party in Cuba. Other parties, though not illegal, are unable to campaign or conduct any activities on the island that could be deemed counter-revolutionary.
For the first fifteen years of its formal existence, the Communist Party was almost completely inactive outside of the Politburo
. The 100 person Central Committee
rarely met and it was ten years after its founding that the first regular Party Congress was held. In 1969, membership of the party was only 55,000 or 0.7% of the population, making the PCC the smallest ruling Communist party in the world. In the 1970s, the party's apparatus began to develop. By the time of the first Party Congress
in 1975 the party had grown to just over two hundred thousand members, the Central Committee was meeting regularly and provided the organizational apparatus giving the party the leading role in society that ruling Communist parties generally hold. By 1980 the party had grown to over 430,000 members and grew further to 520,000 by 1985. Apparatuses of the party had grown to ensure that its leading cadres were appointed to key government positions.
The crisis created by the dissolution of the Soviet Union
led to the Fourth Party Congress in 1991 being one of unprecedented openness and debate as the leadership tried to create a wide public consensus to respond to the "Special Period
". Three million people engaged in pre-Congress debate and discussions on issues such as political structure and economic policy. The 1991 Congress redefined the party as "the party of the Cuban nation" rather than the "party of the working class". The prohibition on religious believers joining the party was lifted. As well, José Martí
was added to Karl Marx
and Vladimir Lenin
as a heroic revolutionary figure to the Cuban Communists.
Much of the debate resulted from an internal struggle between advocates of a Cuban perestroika
, i.e. the use of market mechanisms and the liberalization of strictures on free speech and dissent and others who argued that speedy reforms would undercut the unity of the nation and the party's political dominance and possibly lead to the government's collapse as had happened to Communist state
s in Eastern Europe. The outcome was political reforms which fell far short of reform demands to permit candidates to campaign for office on competing programs. Economically, however, some modest market reforms were introduced, particularly in agriculture, in an effort to reverse the country's economic decline after the cessation of aid and trade subsidies from the USSR. Increased tensions between the US and Cuba also gave the hardliners the upper hand in the mid-1990s and the government responded to dissident groups.
By the time of the Fifth Party Congress in 1997, political liberalization was no longer on the agenda. The economic resolution debated at the conference called for the expansion of tourism in order to bring in more hard currency but did not call for economic reforms while the political resolution opposed any political liberalization and constituted a defense of the one-party system.
in 1975 and has had additional congresses in 1980, 1986, 1991 and 1997. It was announced in July 2009 that the Sixth Party Congress, originally scheduled for late 2009, has been postponed due to the economic crisis. It is now scheduled for April 2011, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion
. The country's economic and social policies will be the main focus of the event.
The leading bodies of the party were the Politburo
and the Secretariat until 1991 when the two bodies were merged into an expanded Politburo with over twenty members. The Secretariat, however, was re-introduced in 2002. There is also a Central Committee
which meets between party congresses. At the Fifth Party Congress the size of the Central Committee was reduced to 150 members from the previous membership of 225. Fidel Castro was the party's First Secretary (or leader) since its inception, while Raúl Castro
was the Second Secretary. Upon Fidel's 2008 resignation from the Party and Cuban government, Raúl became First Secretary.
Members of the Politburo: Fidel Castro Ruz, Raúl Castro Ruz, Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada
, Juan Almeida Bosque
, José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera
, Concepción Campa Huergo, Julio Casas Regueiro, Leopoldo Cintra Frías, Abelardo Colome Ibarra, Misael Enamorado Dáger, Ramón Espinosa Martín, Yadira García Vera, Esteban Lazo Hernández, José Ramón Machado Ventura, Ulises Rosales del Toro, Abel Prieto Jiménez, Pedro Ross Leal, Pedro Sáez Montejo, Miguel Mario Díaz Canel Bermúdez, Ramiro Valdéz Menendez, Jorge Luis Sierra Cruz, Alvaro López Miera, Salvador Valdés Mesa.
The party had a membership of over 780,000 when the Fifth Party Congress was held in 1997. 32.1% of the membership are classified as workers while 13.8% are professionals and technicians, 8.2% teachers and professors and 7.5% are "service workers."
The Communist Party of Cuba has a youth wing, the Young Communist League (Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas, UJC) modelled on the Soviet
Komsomol
. It also has a children's group, the José Martí Pioneer Organization
.
List of national party congresses (below):
, the Communist Party of China
and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party
, the Communist Party of Cuba retains a stricter adherence to the tradition of Marxism-Leninism and the traditional Soviet model
.
The Cuban party is more deeply committed to the concept of socialism
than other ruling parties and has been more reluctant in engaging in market reforms though it has been forced to accept some market measures in its economy due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the resultant loss of economic subsidies. The Communist Party of Cuba has favored supporting revolutions abroad and was active in assisting the ELN
in Colombia
, the FMLN in El Salvador
, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua
and Maurice Bishop
's New Jewel Movement
in Grenada
. Their most significant international role was in Angola where the Cuban direction of a joint Angolan/Soviet/Cuban force that was involved in the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale
. This led to the withdrawal of intervening forces and, in the following peace agreement, the independence of Namibia from South African rule.
It has largely been forced to retreat from this policy due to a lack of funds resulting from the halt of material aid from the Soviet Union. However, the party maintains a policy of sending thousands of Cuban doctors, agricultural technicians, and other professionals to other countries throughout the developing world. More recently the party has sought to support left wing leaders such as Hugo Chávez
in Venezuela
, and Evo Morales
in Bolivia
.
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. It is a communist party of the Marxist-Leninist model. The Cuban constitution ascribes the role of the Party to be the "leading force of society and of the state". As of April 2011, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba
Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba
The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba is the office of the leader of the Communist Party of Cuba, Cuba's ruling party since 1965...
is Raúl Castro
Raúl Castro
Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz is a Cuban politician and revolutionary who has been President of the Council of State of Cuba and the President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba since 2008; he previously exercised presidential powers in an acting capacity from 2006 to 2008...
, the President of Cuba, younger brother of the previous First Secretary and President of Cuba, Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
, and the Second Secretary is José Ramón Machado Ventura
José Ramón Machado Ventura
José Ramón Machado Ventura, M.D. is the First Vice-President of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers in Cuba...
.
History
Cuba had a number of communist and anarchist organizations since the early period of the Republic. The original "internationalisedComintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
" Communist Party of Cuba was formed in the 1920s, which was later renamed the Popular Socialist Party
Popular Socialist Party (Cuba)
The Popular Socialist Party was a communist party in Cuba. Originally called the Communist Party of Cuba , it was formed in the 1925 by a group including Blas Roca, Anibal Escalante, Fabio Grobart and Julio Antonio Mella, who acted as its leader until his assassination in Mexico in 1929. It was...
for electoral reasons. In July 1961, two years after the 1959 Revolution, the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI) was formed by the merger of Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement
26th of July Movement
The 26th of July Movement was the revolutionary organization planned and led by Fidel Castro that in 1959 overthrew the Fulgencio Batista government in Cuba...
, the Popular Socialist Party
Popular Socialist Party (Cuba)
The Popular Socialist Party was a communist party in Cuba. Originally called the Communist Party of Cuba , it was formed in the 1925 by a group including Blas Roca, Anibal Escalante, Fabio Grobart and Julio Antonio Mella, who acted as its leader until his assassination in Mexico in 1929. It was...
led by Blas Roca and the Revolutionary Directory March 13 led by Faure Chomón. On March 26, 1962 the ORI became the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution (PURSC) which, in turn, became the Communist Party of Cuba on October 3, 1965. The Communist party remains the only recognized political party in Cuba. Other parties, though not illegal, are unable to campaign or conduct any activities on the island that could be deemed counter-revolutionary.
For the first fifteen years of its formal existence, the Communist Party was almost completely inactive outside of the Politburo
Politburo
Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...
. The 100 person Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
rarely met and it was ten years after its founding that the first regular Party Congress was held. In 1969, membership of the party was only 55,000 or 0.7% of the population, making the PCC the smallest ruling Communist party in the world. In the 1970s, the party's apparatus began to develop. By the time of the first Party Congress
Party Congress
A party congress is a general conference of a political party. The congress is attended by delegates who represent the party membership. In most parties the party congress is the highest decision making body of the organisation and elects the party's leadership bodies such as the National Executive...
in 1975 the party had grown to just over two hundred thousand members, the Central Committee was meeting regularly and provided the organizational apparatus giving the party the leading role in society that ruling Communist parties generally hold. By 1980 the party had grown to over 430,000 members and grew further to 520,000 by 1985. Apparatuses of the party had grown to ensure that its leading cadres were appointed to key government positions.
The crisis created by the dissolution of the Soviet Union
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...
led to the Fourth Party Congress in 1991 being one of unprecedented openness and debate as the leadership tried to create a wide public consensus to respond to the "Special Period
Special Period
The Special Period in Time of Peace in Cuba was an extended period of economic crisis that began in 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and, by extension, the Comecon. The economic depression of the Special Period was at its most severe in the early-to-mid 1990s before slightly declining...
". Three million people engaged in pre-Congress debate and discussions on issues such as political structure and economic policy. The 1991 Congress redefined the party as "the party of the Cuban nation" rather than the "party of the working class". The prohibition on religious believers joining the party was lifted. As well, José Martí
José Martí
José Julián Martí Pérez was a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin American literature. In his short life he was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a professor, a publisher, and a political theorist. He was also a part of the Cuban...
was added to Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
and Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
as a heroic revolutionary figure to the Cuban Communists.
Much of the debate resulted from an internal struggle between advocates of a Cuban perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
, i.e. the use of market mechanisms and the liberalization of strictures on free speech and dissent and others who argued that speedy reforms would undercut the unity of the nation and the party's political dominance and possibly lead to the government's collapse as had happened to Communist state
Communist state
A communist state is a state with a form of government characterized by single-party rule or dominant-party rule of a communist party and a professed allegiance to a Leninist or Marxist-Leninist communist ideology as the guiding principle of the state...
s in Eastern Europe. The outcome was political reforms which fell far short of reform demands to permit candidates to campaign for office on competing programs. Economically, however, some modest market reforms were introduced, particularly in agriculture, in an effort to reverse the country's economic decline after the cessation of aid and trade subsidies from the USSR. Increased tensions between the US and Cuba also gave the hardliners the upper hand in the mid-1990s and the government responded to dissident groups.
By the time of the Fifth Party Congress in 1997, political liberalization was no longer on the agenda. The economic resolution debated at the conference called for the expansion of tourism in order to bring in more hard currency but did not call for economic reforms while the political resolution opposed any political liberalization and constituted a defense of the one-party system.
Structure
The Communist Party of Cuba held its first Party CongressParty Congress
A party congress is a general conference of a political party. The congress is attended by delegates who represent the party membership. In most parties the party congress is the highest decision making body of the organisation and elects the party's leadership bodies such as the National Executive...
in 1975 and has had additional congresses in 1980, 1986, 1991 and 1997. It was announced in July 2009 that the Sixth Party Congress, originally scheduled for late 2009, has been postponed due to the economic crisis. It is now scheduled for April 2011, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months...
. The country's economic and social policies will be the main focus of the event.
The leading bodies of the party were the Politburo
Politburo
Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...
and the Secretariat until 1991 when the two bodies were merged into an expanded Politburo with over twenty members. The Secretariat, however, was re-introduced in 2002. There is also a Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
which meets between party congresses. At the Fifth Party Congress the size of the Central Committee was reduced to 150 members from the previous membership of 225. Fidel Castro was the party's First Secretary (or leader) since its inception, while Raúl Castro
Raúl Castro
Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz is a Cuban politician and revolutionary who has been President of the Council of State of Cuba and the President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba since 2008; he previously exercised presidential powers in an acting capacity from 2006 to 2008...
was the Second Secretary. Upon Fidel's 2008 resignation from the Party and Cuban government, Raúl became First Secretary.
Members of the Politburo: Fidel Castro Ruz, Raúl Castro Ruz, Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada
Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada
Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada is a Cuban statesman. He served as Cuba's Permanent Representative to the United Nations for nearly 30 years and later served as the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs, from 1992 to 1993...
, Juan Almeida Bosque
Juan Almeida Bosque
Juan Almeida Bosque was a Cuban politician and one of the original commanders of the Cuban Revolution. After the 1959 revolution, he was a prominent figure in the Communist Party of Cuba; at the time of his death in 2009, he was a Vice-President of the Cuban Council of State and was its third...
, José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera
José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera
José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera was the Minister for Health in Cuba until July 2010.. He is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba and a member of the Council of State of Cuba...
, Concepción Campa Huergo, Julio Casas Regueiro, Leopoldo Cintra Frías, Abelardo Colome Ibarra, Misael Enamorado Dáger, Ramón Espinosa Martín, Yadira García Vera, Esteban Lazo Hernández, José Ramón Machado Ventura, Ulises Rosales del Toro, Abel Prieto Jiménez, Pedro Ross Leal, Pedro Sáez Montejo, Miguel Mario Díaz Canel Bermúdez, Ramiro Valdéz Menendez, Jorge Luis Sierra Cruz, Alvaro López Miera, Salvador Valdés Mesa.
The party had a membership of over 780,000 when the Fifth Party Congress was held in 1997. 32.1% of the membership are classified as workers while 13.8% are professionals and technicians, 8.2% teachers and professors and 7.5% are "service workers."
The Communist Party of Cuba has a youth wing, the Young Communist League (Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas, UJC) modelled on the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
Komsomol
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
. It also has a children's group, the José Martí Pioneer Organization
José Martí Pioneer Organization
Cuba's José Martí Pioneer Organization was established in 1961, created as a replacement for the banned Asociación de Scouts de Cuba.The organization gets its name from Cuban writer and nationalist hero José Martí....
.
List of national party congresses (below):
- 1st Congress (December 1975)
- 2nd Congress (December 1980)
- 3rd Congress (February 1986)
- 4th Congress (October 1991)
- 5th Congress (October 1997)
- 6th CongressSixth Congress of the Communist Party of CubaThe Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, the governing political party of Cuba, took place on April 16 – 19, 2011. The main focus of the congress was to introduce economic, social, and political reforms in order to modernize the country's socialist system...
(April 16 – 19, 2011)
Ideology
Compared with other ruling Communist Parties, such as the Communist Party of VietnamCommunist Party of Vietnam
The Communist Party of Vietnam , formally established in 1930, is the governing party of the nation of Vietnam. It is today the only legal political party in that country. Describing itself as Marxist-Leninist, the CPV is the directing component of a broader group of organizations known as the...
, the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party
Lao People's Revolutionary Party
The Lao People's Revolutionary Party is a communist political party that has governed Laos since 1975. The policy-making organs are the politburo and the central committee. A party congress, which elects members to the politburo and central committee, is held every five years...
, the Communist Party of Cuba retains a stricter adherence to the tradition of Marxism-Leninism and the traditional Soviet model
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
.
The Cuban party is more deeply committed to the concept of socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
than other ruling parties and has been more reluctant in engaging in market reforms though it has been forced to accept some market measures in its economy due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the resultant loss of economic subsidies. The Communist Party of Cuba has favored supporting revolutions abroad and was active in assisting the ELN
National Liberation Army (Colombia)
National Liberation Army is a revolutionary, avowed Marxist guerrilla group that has been operating in several regions of Colombia since 1964....
in Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, the FMLN in El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
and Maurice Bishop
Maurice Bishop
Maurice Rupert Bishop was a Grenadian politician and revolutionary who seized power in a coup in 1979 from Eric Gairy and served as Prime Minister of the People's Revolutionary Government of Grenada until 1983, when he was overthrown in another coup by Bernard Coard, a member of his own...
's New Jewel Movement
New Jewel Movement
The New Joint Endeavor for Welfare, Education, and Liberation, or New JEWEL Movement, was a Marxist-Leninist vanguard party in the Caribbean island nation of Grenada...
in Grenada
Grenada
Grenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...
. Their most significant international role was in Angola where the Cuban direction of a joint Angolan/Soviet/Cuban force that was involved in the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale
Battle of Cuito Cuanavale
The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale in 1987/88 was an important episode in the Angolan Civil War . Between 9 September and 7 October 1987, the Angolan Army , in an attempt to finally subdue the Angolan insurgent movement UNITA in south-eastern Angola, was decisively repelled in a series of battles at the...
. This led to the withdrawal of intervening forces and, in the following peace agreement, the independence of Namibia from South African rule.
It has largely been forced to retreat from this policy due to a lack of funds resulting from the halt of material aid from the Soviet Union. However, the party maintains a policy of sending thousands of Cuban doctors, agricultural technicians, and other professionals to other countries throughout the developing world. More recently the party has sought to support left wing leaders such as Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
in Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, and Evo Morales
Evo Morales
Juan Evo Morales Ayma , popularly known as Evo , is a Bolivian politician and activist, currently serving as the 80th President of Bolivia, a position that he has held since 2006. He is also the leader of both the Movement for Socialism party and the cocalero trade union...
in Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
.