The Puerto Rican Communist Party (in Spanish: ''Partido Comunista Puertorriqueño,'' PCP) 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 Engels. A ...

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

founded on 23 September 1934''Las políticas poblacionales en Puerto Rico: Cinco Años de Dominación Colonial.''
Arnaldo Torres Degró. Ph.D. Thesis. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Filosofía. Madrid, Spain. 2004. p. 325. Accessed 3 May 2022
Archived.
/ref> following the sugar strikes on the island that same year. Relevant members include General Secretary Alberto E. Sánchez, president Juan Santos Rivera, and Jose A. Lanauze Rolón. The party emerged out of a turbulent political moment where faith in previous workers parties and organizations, such as the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

and the

Free Federation of Workers The Free Federation of Workers (, FLT) was a union federation in Puerto Rico. It was founded in 1899 and initially led by Santiago Iglesias Pantín. Its political arm became the Socialist Party, founded in 1915. It affiliated with the American ...

, was waning and the Puerto Rican economy was experiencing a downturn. While membership remained small, the PCP interacted and influenced the labor and political space of mid-20th century Puerto Rico as well as political spaces outside of the island. These interactions include those with the Popular Democratic Party, The Communist Party of the United States of America, and the

Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico The Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico ( es, Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico, PNPR) is a Puerto Rican political party founded on September 17, 1922, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Its primary goal is to work for Puerto Rico's independence. The P ...

Political context

The PCP emerges following various worker and student led general strikes in 1934 and 1935. In conjunction with the mid-1930s labor movements, the formation of the PCP was also internationally influenced. The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) was supportive of the PCP's founding with additional support from the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC). Indeed, there was a substantial interconnectedness between the CPUSA, Puerto Rican Communists in New York's Lower Manhattan, and the PCP.

Political agenda, strategies, and relations with other political groups

The PCP utilized their newspaper periodical ''Lucha Obrera'' (Worker's Struggle) in order to communicate their agendas and messages to the public. The paper was brief, however, it served to document the PCP's ongoing movements and objectives.

References

External links

''The case of Puerto Rico: memorandum to the United Nations''
by the Communist Party of Puerto Rico. Foster, William Z. 1881-1961 (intro) New York, New Century Publishers, 1953 * {{Portal bar, Puerto Rico, Politics 1934 establishments in Puerto Rico 1991 disestablishments in Puerto Rico Anti-imperialist organizations

Communist parties in Puerto Rico Political parties established in 1934 Political parties disestablished in 1991 Political parties in Puerto Rico