The Popular Socialist Party ( es, Partido Socialista Popular, PSP) was a

communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

. It was founded in 1925 as the Cuban Communist Party () by

Blas Roca Calderio Blas Roca Calderio (24 July 1908 – 25 April 1987) was a Cuban politician and Marxist theorist who served as President of the National Assembly of People's Power in Cuba from 1976 to 1981. He was also head of the pre-1959 revolution Communist ...

Anibal Escalante Anibal Escalante Dellunde (1909–11 August 1977) was a Cuban communist and political organizer. An early leader within the Popular Socialist Party (PSP), he briefly held national office in Cuba following the Cuban revolution but was purged due, ...

, Fabio Grobart, Alfonso Bernal del Riesgo, and

Julio Antonio Mella Julio Antonio Mella McPartland (25 March 1903 – 10 January 1929) was a Cuban political activist and one of the founders of the original Communist Party of Cuba. Mella studied law at the University of Havana but was expelled in 1925. He was wor ...

. Mella acted as the party's leader until his assassination in Mexico in 1929. It was later renamed the Communist Revolutionary Union () in 1939. After the electoral victory of the in the 1944 elections, the party went into decline and eventually adopted the name "Popular Socialist Party" to appeal to the electorate. The party published the

daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...

' ("Today") until 1950.

History

The party was founded in 1925 with the help of

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

officials. It immediately became the Cuban representative for the

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...

and would remain a member until the Comintern's dissolution in 1943. The party supported the first presidency of

Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (; ; born Rubén Zaldívar, January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed military dictator ...

from 1940 to 1944, primarily due to his early advocacy of strengthening

labour laws Labour laws (also known as labor laws or employment laws) are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, ...

and

labour unions A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

, as well as his pro-

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

stance during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. As a result, two of the party's leaders, Juan Marinello Vidaurreta and

Carlos Rafael Rodríguez Carlos Rafael Rodríguez Rodríguez (May 23, 1913 – December 8, 1997) was a Cuban Communist politician and economist, who served in the cabinets of presidents Fulgencio Batista and Fidel Castro. Born in Cienfuegos, he became mayor of the ci ...

, were successively appointed ministers without portfolio.''Hoy'', 13 July 1940. The party formed an alliance with the

Orthodox Party The Party of the Cuban People – Orthodox ( es, Partido del Pueblo Cubano – Ortodoxos, PPC-O), commonly shortened to the Orthodox Party ( es, Partido Ortodoxo), was a Cuban populist political party. It was founded in 1947 by Eduardo Chibás i ...

in the 1944 general elections, but was defeated by the Auténticos-Republican alliance, winning only four seats in the House of Representatives. They went on to win five seats in the 1946 mid-term elections. In the 1948 general election, the party put forward Juan Marinello as its presidential candidate. While he finished fourth, the party won five seats in the House elections. They later won four in the 1950 mid-term elections. The government under President

Carlos Prío Socarrás Carlos Manuel Prío Socarrás (July 14, 1903 – April 5, 1977) was a Cuban politician. He served as the President of Cuba from 1948 until he was deposed by a military coup led by Fulgencio Batista on March 10, 1952, three months before new e ...

banned the party's daily newspaper, ', in 1950. Following Fulgencio Batista's 1952 coup d'état, the party itself was banned, but it managed to continue publishing its newspaper. The party was initially critical of

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 20 ...

. In 1961, the party merged into the

Integrated Revolutionary Organizations The Communist Party of Cuba ( es, Partido Comunista de Cuba, PCC) is the sole ruling party of Cuba. It was founded on 3 October 1965 as the successor to the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, which was in turn made up of the 26 ...

History

References

Citations

Sources

Books

Journal articles