Communist Party of Cuba

Communist Party of Cuba, Cuban communist party organized by Fidel Castro and others in 1965 but historically dating from communist activity begun in Cuba in 1923. Under the constitution of 1976 it became the only party permitted to function in Cuba, and in the revised constitution of 1992 it was defined as the “organized vanguard of the Cuban nation.”

The Cuban Communist Party (Partido Comunista Cubano) was founded in 1925 by Moscow-trained members of the Third International (Comintern). For three decades it adhered to the Stalinist line but, nevertheless, opportunistically collaborated with the regime of Fulgencio Batista in the 1940s and early ’50s, its members even being rewarded with posts in government and labour. From 1954 to 1959, however, the communists were a target of government suppression.

In 1944 the party had been renamed the People’s Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Popular; PSP); it retained this name until 1961, when, after Castro’s overthrow of Batista and the victory of the revolution, the party was merged with Castro’s 26th of July Movement (Movimiento 26 de Julio) and Revolutionary Directorate (Directorio Revolucionario) to form the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (Organizaciones Revolucionarias Integradas; ORI). The next year, after a widespread purge of members, the ORI was reorganized into the United Party of the Socialist Revolution (Partido Unificado de la Revolución Socialista). This in turn was dissolved on October 5, 1965, and replaced by the Communist Party of Cuba, organized along more orthodox Soviet lines.

The PCC’s first congress was held in Havana in 1975, when members approved a new constitution (ratified in a national referendum the following year) that established it as the sole legal political entity in the country. At its 1991 congress the PCC reaffirmed its single-party rule—at a time when communism was collapsing in the Soviet Union and elsewhere in Europe—but it allowed limited foreign investment and economic reform (reaffirmed in 1997). In addition, the party congress officially removed a rule requiring party members to be atheist.

Since its founding the PCC has been dominated by Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl Castro. The PCC’s leading institution is the Politburo, whose 25 members are drawn from the 150-member Central Committee selected by the party congress. The Politburo sets policy for the party and the state. At the 1997 party congress, Raúl was anointed by Fidel as his future successor to head the party and the country and to ensure that the Cuban Revolution “never can be corrupted by anybody [and]…never be destroyed by ourselves.” In 2011 Raúl—who had succeeded Fidel as president of Cuba in 2008—became party leader.