The Living Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia ( ca, PSUC viu, lit="Living PSUC") is a
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
in
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. PSUC viu emerged from factional fighting within the
Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia
The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya, PSUC) was a communist political party active in Catalonia between 1936 and 1997. It was the Catalan branch of the Communist Party of Spain and the only party n ...
(PSUC) in the mid-1990s. Since 1936, PSUC has been the Catalan referent of the
Communist Party of Spain
The Communist Party of Spain ( es, Partido Comunista de España; PCE) is a Marxist-Leninist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is part of Unidas Podemos. It currently has two of its politicians serving as ...
(PCE). PSUC and PCE exist as parallel parties, and PCE does not organize any branch of its own in Catalonia.
History
In the 1980s, PCE and PSUC developed in different ways. Just as PCE took part in setting up the
United Left (IU) coalition, PSUC had launched the coalition
Initiative for Catalonia
Initiative for Catalonia Greens ( ca, Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds, ICV; ) was an eco-socialist political party in Catalonia. It was formed as a merger of Iniciativa per Catalunya and Els Verds. IC had been an alliance led by Partit Socialis ...
(IC). But whereas PCE maintained its character as an independent party, PSUC gradually became a dormant structure within IC. The party leadership of PSUC worked towards converting IC into a political party and dissolving PSUC into it. In January 1990, a national conference of PSUC was held, which decided that the political action of PSUC would be carried out within the framework of IC. Likewise a decision was taken on a Central Committee meeting of PSUC on 22 March 1991 that all PSUC members automatically would be members of IC. The 8th congress of PSUC was supposed to have been held in 1992, but was never convoked.
In 1995, the tradition of holding the ''Festa de Treball'', an annual public event of the PSUC organ ''Treball'', was cancelled by IC, allegedly on grounds of lack of finances. At the 4th national conference of IC, held in November 1996, the internal opposition within PSUC raised their voice. The group around 'Manifesto for PSUC' was organized as the Red, Green and Violet Collective (''Col·lectiu Roig, Verd i Violeta''). The opposition grouped around the Manifesto wanted to maintain PSUC as a separate communist party and was IC as a strategic front of the party. The opposition launched, for the first time, their own alternative candidate for the presidency of IC, Ramon Luque.
The 8th congress of PSUC was finally convoked for 10 May 1997. At the congress, the group around the Manifesto was defeated, and PSUC ceased to function as an independent party. The minority then left PSUC and IC, and by June the same year they had reorganized themselves as PSUC viu. Quickly PCE recognized PSUC viu as their new Catalan referent. Parallel to this, the other main communist party in Catalonia, the
Party of the Communists of Catalonia
Party of the Communists of Catalonia ( ca, Partit dels i les Comunistes de Catalunya) was a communist party in Catalonia that existed from 1982 to 2014. The main organ of PCC was ''Avant'' and the theoretical organ was ''Realitat''. Every year the ...
(PCC, which had formed part of IC but left it), called for unity amongst the Catalan communists.
In 1998, a new coalition was constructed by PSUC viu and PCC, the
United and Alternative Left
United and Alternative Left ( ca, Esquerra Unida i Alternativa, EUiA) is a political party in Catalonia, Spain. EUiA has 4000 members, and it is the Catalan correspondent of the Spain-wide United Left (IU).
It was formed in 1998 as a schism ...
(EUiA). EUiA became the new Catalan referent of IU. However, the founding of EUiA was by no means uncomplicated as the founders of PSUC viu had belonged to opposing factions in the intense inner-party conflicts in PSUC in the early 1980s. At that time, the founders of PSUC viu had been aligned with the
Eurocommunist
Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rele ...
majority. That conflict ended with the departure of the pro-
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, ...
faction and their creation of PCC.
Although PSUC viu is an independent party, it takes part in PCE congresses as a PCE regional federation. Members of PCE who move to Catalonia become members of PSUC viu and, likewise, members of PSUC viu who settle anywhere else in Spain become members of PCE.
The central organ of PSUC viu is ''Nou Treball''. The youth wing of the party was the
Young Communists (JC), although following its 2014 dissolution it was again reconstituted in 2015 as JSUC (Joventut Socialista Unificada de Catalunya).
PSUC viu works for the establishment of a democratic and federal
republic
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
in Spain, in which different nationalities were given the right to self-determination. In its 2017 congress, PSUC viu elected Eduard Navarro as general secretary, and the party included again Marxism–Leninism as its core identity.
External links
*
Nou Treball
{{Authority control
Communist parties in Catalonia
Communist Party of Spain
Political parties established in 1997
1997 establishments in Spain
2014 disestablishments in Spain