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The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya, PSUC) was a
communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
political party active 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 no ...
between 1936 and 1997. It was the Catalan branch 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 a ...
and the only party not from a sovereign state to be a full member of the Third International.


History

The PSUC was formed on 23 July 1936 through the unification of four
left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
groups; the small
Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
Federation of
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...
(PSOE), the Partit Comunista de Catalunya (Communist Party of Catalonia, the Catalan branch 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 a ...
, PCE), the Unió Socialista de Catalunya (''Socialist Union of Catalonia'') and the Partit Català Proletari (''Proletarian Catalan Party.'' a Catalan separatist far left party). Burnett Bolloten estimates that at unification, the party numbered some 2,500 members. Nine months later, the party ranks had swollen to 50,000 members. The first leaders of the PSUC were Joan Comorera and Rafael Vidiella, both from the ranks of socialism. Comorera, a former USC leader, was elected general secretary of the new party, and Miquel Valdés, of the PCC, became secretary of the organization. Other leaders or prominent people of the PSUC came from the old PCC, as was the case of Víctor Colomer, Pere Ardiaca, José del Barrio Navarro, Antonio Sesé or Hilari Arlandis. Vidiella, Sesé or Del Barrio also came from the UGT workers union (del Barrio was secretary of the UGT in Catalonia) and a long time ago they had been members of the CNT. The PSUC played a major role during the days of the
Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 ...
and the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
, and was the only non-state party affiliated to 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 ...
. The PCE did not organize 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 no ...
, but saw PSUC as its Catalan referent. This setup has been replicated by other Catalan communist groups. The setup is somewhat similar to the relation between the
Christian Democratic Union of Germany The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (german: link=no, Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands ; CDU ) is a Christian democratic and liberal conservative political party in Germany. It is the major catch-all party of the centre-right i ...
and
Christian Social Union of Bavaria The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (German: , CSU) is a Christian-democratic and conservative political party in Germany. Having a regionalist identity, the CSU operates only in Bavaria while its larger counterpart, the Christian Democra ...
. The PSUC defended the self-determination of Catalonia in accordance with
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
's defense of the right of nations to self-determination, but not an explicit independentist position. During the war, the Party took part in the fight against fascism following the slogan of anti-fascist unity, and after the initial veto of the CNT, it participated in the government of the Generalitat de Catalunya with several ministries. It had a conflicting relationship with the large
National Confederation of Labour National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...
(CNT) and the small rival Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM). At the beginning of the war the PSUC came to organize the "Carles Marx" Column, formed by militants from both the party and the UGT union and under the leadership of Del Barrio and Trueba, who went to the Front of Aragon in the early days of the struggle. Later this militia would serve as a base for the formation of the 27.ª Division of the Republican Army, a unit that had a prominent intervention in several military operations. In the rear, the JSUC (youth branch) led by Lina Odena and Margarida Abril played an important role in carrying out numerous tasks for the war effort, or also in recruiting volunteers for the Republican Army. Allied with the government of Companys, of Catalan Republican Left (ERC), it faced the POUM and the initial dominion of the CNT, in a permanent political confrontation which ended with the facts of May 1937, that marked the end of the stage of greater anarcho-syndicalist dominion in Catalonia. PSUC members held positions of ''conseller'' (minister) in the governments of
Lluís Companys Lluís Companys i Jover (; 21 June 1882 – 15 October 1940) was a Catalan politician who served as president of Catalonia from 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War. Companys was a lawyer close to labour movement and one of the most prominent l ...
between 1936 and 1939: Joan Comorera, as Minister of Public Services, Miquel Valdés as Minister of Labor, Rafael Vidiella as minister of Justice, Miquel Serra i Pàmies and Josep Miret i Musté ''conseller'' of supplies. Also a member of PSUC, Josep Moix i Regàs, was minister of Labor in Spanish republican government led by socialist Juan Negrin. However, as the war progressed, the Republican cause was increasingly confronted with defeat. After the fall of Catalonia in February 1939, most of its leaders fled to France, although many of its cadres remained in Spain and suffered the repression of the Franco dictatorship. In French exile they collaborated in the resistance against the Nazi occupation, and some of its members and leaders died in concentration camps, such as Josep Miret i Musté in Mauthausen in 1944. In
Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spani ...
, the PSUC was outlawed and remained active clandestinely in Catalonia and in exile, in France and Mexico. Inside, they carried out a strong clandestine task that provoked strong repression. In January 1940, the first PSUC leadership was arrested underground. Alejandro Matos was killed at the police station. Otilio Alba Polo and Tomás Pons were executed. In 1942, Jaume Girabau, Isidoro Diéguez Dueñas and Jesús Larrañaga were executed after illegally arriving from Mexico and arrested at the Portuguese border. Josep Serradell Román and Margarida Abril were more successful in 1943, while Joaquim Puig i Pidemunt republished Treball magazine and in 1944 Miquel Núñez González directed the guerrilla units of the Agrupació Guerrillera de Catalunya. In 1945, the March Resolution was agreed, the first political elaboration of the PSUC carried out in the interior where the impetus of the guerrilla struggle, the anti-fascist unity, and confidence in the victory of the allies would lead to the overthrow of the Franco's regime. But falls and repression were too frequent. Francesc Serrat Pujolar and Joan Arévalo Gallardo were executed in 1946, and in 1947 the so-called fall of the eighties took place. In 1948 Gregori López Raimundo arrived in Catalonia, and the party agreed to the dissolution of the guerrilla groups. In 1949, Joaquim Puig Puidemunt, Numen Mestre Ferrando, Angel Carrero Sancho and Pere Valverde were executed in Barcelona. At the same time, the relationship with the PCE, despite mutual recognition, often had frictions due to the PCE leadership's attempts to limit the organic sovereignty of the PSUC, as a result of these frictions Joan Comorera was expelled from the PSUC accused of '
titoism Titoism is a political philosophy most closely associated with Josip Broz Tito during the Cold War. It is characterized by a broad Yugoslav identity, workers' self-management, a political separation from the Soviet Union, and leadership in th ...
' and 'nationalist deviations' and entered Catalonia clandestinely in 1951, where he was arrested by the Francoist authorities in 1954 and sentenced to 30 years in prison, He died in the prison of Burgos in 1958. The leadership of the PSUC in exile would later be formed by Josep Moix, Rafael Vidiella, Wenceslau Colomer i Colomer, Josep Romeu, Margarida Abril and Pere Ardiaca. The direction inside takes strength. Gregori López Raimundo was arrested as a result of the 1951 tram strike. In 1956, the First Congress of the PSUC was held in France, where a new political and organizational starting point was proposed. 50 delegates from exile and the interior (university students and workers) take part. The policy of national reconciliation is approved. The Executive Committee is made up of: Josep Moix (Secretary General), Margarida Abril, Pere Ardiaca, Josep Bonifaci, Emilià Fàbregas, Gregori López Raimundo, Miquel Núñez, Carles Rebellón, Josep Serradell "Román", Antoni Senserrich and Rafael Vidiella. In the following years, Emili Fàbregas, Miquel Núñez González, Carles Rebellón in 1960, Vicente Cazcarra in 1961, Antoni Gutiérrez Díaz and Pere Ardiaca in 1962 were arrested and imprisoned. Josep Sendrós and Leonor Bornau are in charge of coordinating ''Treball'' and publishing a new magazine, ''Horitzons''. In 1965, the II Congress of the PSUC was held in France, with the participation of 90 delegates, who approved a line of impetus to the student and labor movement. Thus it collaborated in the formation of union Working Commissions (CCOO). The line proved to be successful, and laid the foundations for the growing hegemony of the party in the fight against the Franco regime in Catalonia. Its influence among intellectuals and Catalan culture also grew. PSUC continued in the 1960s decade organizing the neighborhood movement, workers commissions, the Democratic Student Union, and other mass experiences. In 1969 it participated in the Coordination of Political Forces of Catalonia and in 1971 in the Assembly of Catalonia (Assemblea de Catalunya), where his representative was Antoni Gutierrez Díaz. In 1973, the III Congress of the PSUC was held with the participation of 200 delegates. In 1975 he took part in the Council of Political Forces of Catalonia, sending Josep Solé i Barberà and Gregori López Raimundo as representatives. The PSUC was the largest opposition party in Catalonia and upon Spain's transformation into a democratic state and
constitutional monarchy A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...
, it became a mass party with more than 40.000 active members. In 1977, during the
Spanish transition to democracy Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries ** Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...
, the PSUC was legalized after the PCE. He participated in the negotiations for the restoration of the Autonomy of Catalonia and the Statute. In the first elections to the
Parliament of Catalonia The Parliament of Catalonia ( ca, Parlament de Catalunya, ; es, Parlamento de Cataluña; oc, Parlament de Catalonha) is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 m ...
(1980) it was the third political force, with nearly 600,000 votes and 25 elected MPs. PSUC aligned itself with the
Eurocommunism 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 rel ...
of the Italian, Spanish and French Communist parties, but the rejection of much of the grassroots and some leaders led to the withdrawal of this term in the V Congress, in 1981. The party experienced a severe crisis and division. Tensions continued between the three factions, so-called Eurocommunists led by Antoni Gutierrez and Lopez Raimundo, the 'Leninists' led by Paco Frutos and the 'Historic' leftist prosovietic faction led by Pere Ardiaca. Under pressure from Santiago Carrillo (General Secretary of PCE) Eurocommunists and 'leninists' joined forces to expel prosoviet faction, led by Pere Ardiaca who would found the PCC (Communists Party of Catalonia) in 1982 claiming legitimacy of V Congress. After the split, the election results fell sharply, with only 160,000 votes for the PSUC and 71,000 for the PCC in the 1984 Catalan parliamentary election. From 1986 onwards, the strong mobilizations against Spain's accession to NATO alliance, and the NATO referendum in which Catalonia won the NO, led to a process of political convergence within the Catalan left. Antoni Gutiérrez resigned as general secretary in 1986 and the central committee elected
Rafael Ribó Rafael Ribó Massó (born 10 May 1945 in Barcelona, Catalonia) is a Catalan politician. Education He has degrees in economics and law from the University of Barcelona, and also holds a PhD in political, economic and business science from t ...
as his successor. The PSUC ran in coalition with the Entesa dels Nacionalistes d'Esquerra (Catalan left nationalist party) in the 1986 Spanish general election, but won only one seat. The collaboration between the PSUC and ENE was extended by the municipal elections of 1987 with the incorporation of the Partit dels Comunistes de Catalunya PCC into a federation of political parties that adopted the name of Iniciativa per Catalunya, which would be set up in 1989. As PSUC became later involved in Iniciativa per Catalunya (IC) first, and Iniciativa per Catalunya-Els Verds, with the merger of some green and ecologist movements, it ceased acting as a separate party. When PSUC was finally submerged into ICV in 1997, a
splinter group A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...
refounded the party as '' PSUC-viu'' (Living PSUC). PSUC-Viu became the new referent of PCE in Catalonia.The PSUC Viu would later form the United Left and Alternative coalition together with the PCC, and would later ally with the other heirs of the PSUC in the ICV-EUiA coalition. They have been running together since 2003 in the elections to the Parliament of Catalonia, ICV-EUiA were part of the government of Catalonia between 2003 and 2010 in coalition with the PSC and ERC. In the Catalan governments led by presidents
Pasqual Maragall Pasqual Maragall i Mira (; born 13 January 1941) is a Spanish politician and former President of Generalitat de Catalunya. He had previously been Mayor of Barcelona, from 1982 to 1997, and helped run the city's successful Olympic bid. Early l ...
and later by Josep Montilla, three former PSUC militants held the position of ministers: Francesc Baltasar, Salvador Milà and Joan Saura. in 2015 ICV and EUIA formed a broader coalition with Podemos and Equo to form Catalunya En Comú Podem to contest the elections to the Parliament of Catalonia and En Comú Podem (ECP) to the Spanish Parliament. In the 2015 Spanish election ECP was placed as the first force in Catalonia, with 12 seats and 927,940 votes. In the Catalan elections of 2017 the coalition obtained 8 deputies and 7.46% of votes. In the November 2019 Spanish election It fell to 4th position, with 14.2% and 7 deputies.


Electoral performance


Parliament of Catalonia The Parliament of Catalonia ( ca, Parlament de Catalunya, ; es, Parlamento de Cataluña; oc, Parlament de Catalonha) is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. The Parliament is currently made up of 135 m ...

* * Within Initiative for Catalonia. * ** Within Initiative for Catalonia
The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' *Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina *Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *Gree ...
.


Cortes Generales The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate (the upper house). The Congress of Deputies m ...


See also

* List of political parties in Catalonia


References

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