A billboard inHavana that reads "Socialist revolution from the poor by the poor to the poor"
Cuba had a number ofcommunist andsocialist organizations from the early period of theRepublic (founded in 1902). The original "internationalised" Communist Party of Cuba formed in the 1920s. In 1944, it renamed itself as thePopular Socialist Party for electoral reasons. In July 1961, two years after the successful overthrow ofFulgencio Batista and the creation of a revolutionary government, theIntegrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI) was formed from the merger of:
On 26 March 1962, the ORI became theUnited Party of the Socialist Revolution of Cuba (PURSC), which in turn became the Communist Party of Cuba on 3 October 1965. In Article 5 of the Cuban constitution of 1976, the Communist Party is recognized as "the superior guiding force of society and of the State, that organizes and orients common efforts toward the high goals of the construction of socialism and the advancement toward communist society".[3][4] All parties, including the Communist Party, are prohibited from publicly advertising their organizations.[citation needed]
For the first fifteen years of its formal existence, the Communist Party was almost completely inactive outside of thePolitburo. The 100 person Central Committee rarely met and it was ten years after its founding that the first regularparty Congress was held. In 1969, membership of the party was only 55,000 or 0.7% of the population, making the PCC the smallest ruling communist party in the world. In the 1970s, the party's apparatus began to develop. By the time of the first party Congress in 1975, the party had grown to just over two hundred thousand members, the Central Committee was meeting regularly and provided the organizational apparatus giving the party theleading role in society that ruling Communist parties generally hold. By 1980, the party had grown to over 430,000 members and it grew further to 520,000 by 1985. Apparatuses of the party had grown to ensure that its leading cadres were appointed to key government positions.[citation needed]
The Communist Party of Cuba holds congresses every five years, normally in years ending in -6 and -1 (e.g. 2016 and 2021). Exceptions to this pattern are the First Congress (1975), Second Congress (1980) and Fifth Congress (1997). There was also an unusual 14-year gap between the Fifth Congress and Sixth Congress (2011).
The leading bodies of the party were thePolitburo and theSecretariat until 1991, when the two bodies were merged into an expanded Politburo with over twenty members. However, the Secretariat was re-introduced in 2002. There is also a Central Committee which meets between party congresses. At the Fifth Congress, the size of the Central Committee was reduced to 150 members from the previous membership of 225. Fidel Castro was the party'sFirst Secretary (or leader) since its inception whileRaúl Castro was the Second Secretary. Upon Fidel Castro's 2008 resignation from the party andCuban government, Raúl Castro became First Secretary.
After theCuban Revolution, the Partynationalized nearly all private enterprises, establishing astate socialistcommand economy.[21] Historically, the party has more reluctant in engaging inmarket reforms than communist parties leading otherMarxist–Leninist states, but it has been pressured to accept some market measures since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the resultant loss of economic subsidies.
Raúl Castro, after becoming the leader of the party, campaigned to "renew" Cuba's socialist economy through the establishment of amixed economy based on an expansion ofworker-owned cooperatives andsmall privately-owned businesses, and partialdevolution of economic planning to local governments.[21][22][23][24] Some state enterprises have beendenationalized and converted into worker co-ops in this process, wherein "[b]usinesses that since 1968 had been run by the government are now being turned over to their former state employees, to be managed by the worker-owners of these businesses."[24][25]
Medical diplomacy has also been a prominent feature of the Party's foreign policy. The partymaintains a policy of sending thousands of Cuban doctors, agricultural technicians, and other professionals to other countries throughout the developing world. The party also supportsLatin American integration.[31]
^Riff, Michael A. (1990)."Communism since 1917".Dictionary of Modern Political Ideologies. Manchester University Press.ISBN9780719032899. Retrieved14 August 2015.
^Domínguez, Jorge (1989).To Make a World Safe for Revolution: Cuba's Foreign Policy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. pp. 114–120,168–169.ISBN978-0674893252.
Barry Carr. Tim Rees and Andrew Thorpe (eds.). "From Caribbean Backwater to Revolutionary Opportunity: Cuba's Evolving Relationship with the Comintern, 1925-34".International Communism and the Communist International, 1919-43. Manchester. Manchester University Press. 1998.
