Communist Party of Cuba

For the Communist Party of Cuba founded in 1925, see Popular Socialist Party (Cuba).

Communist Party of Cuba Partido Comunista de Cuba
First Secretary	Miguel Díaz-Canel
Second Secretary	José Ramón Machado
Founder	Fidel Castro
Founded	3 October 1965 (1965-10-03)
Preceded by	26th of July Movement Popular Socialist Party
Headquarters	Ciudad de La Habana
Newspaper	Granma
Youth wing	Young Communist League
Pioneer wing	José Martí Pioneer Organization
Membership	1,454,138
Ideology	Communism Marxism–Leninism Revolutionary socialism Anti-capitalism Castroism Guevarism Socialism of the 21st century
Political position	Far-left
International affiliation	International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties
Regional affiliation	COPPPAL Foro de São Paulo
Colors	Red   Blue
Slogan	¡Hasta la victoria siempre!
Website
www.pcc.cu

The Communist Party of Cuba is the ruling political party in Cuba. It is a Marxist–Leninist communist party. The Cuban constitution describes the role of the party to be the "leading force of society and of the state". Since April 2021, the First Secretary of the Central Committee has been Miguel Díaz-Canel. The Second Secretary has been José Ramón Machado Ventura.

History

Cuba had a number of communist and anarchist organizations from the early period of the Republic. The original "internationalised" Communist Party of Cuba formed in the 1920s. In 1944, it was renamed as the Popular Socialist Party for electoral reasons. In July 1961, two years after the successful overthrow of Fulgencio Batista and the creation of a revolutionary government, the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI) was formed. It was a merger of:

• Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement
• The Popular Socialist Party led by Blas Roca
• The student-based Revolutionary Directory led by Faure Chomón

On 26 March 1962, the ORI became the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution (PURSC), which 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". All parties, including the Communist Party, are prohibited from advertizing their organizations.

For the first fifteen years of its existence, the Communist Party was almost completely inactive outside of the Politburo. The 100 person Central Committee rarely met and the first regular party Congress was held ten years after its founding. In 1969, membership of the party was only 55,000 (0.7% of the population), making the PCC the smallest ruling communist party in the world. By the time of the first party Congress in 1975, the party had grown to just over two hundred thousand members. By 1980, the party had grown to over 430,000 members and it grew further to 520,000 by 1985.

Central Committee

Party headquarters

The leading bodies of the party were the Politburo and the Secretariat until 1991. In 1991 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's First Secretary (or leader) since its creation while Raúl Castro was the Second Secretary. Upon Fidel Castro's 2008 resignation from the party and Cuban government, Raúl Castro became First Secretary.

Politburo

Further information: Politburo of the Communist Party of Cuba

The 8th Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba was elected by the Central Committee following the 8mth Congress.

Rank	Name	7th POL	Birth	Gender
1	Miguel Díaz-Canel	Old	1961	Male
2	Juan Esteban Lazo Hernández	Old	1944	Male
3	Salvador Antonio Valdés Mesa	Old	1945	Male
4	Roberto Morales Ojeda	Old	1967	Male
5	Álvaro López Miera	Old	1943	Male
6	Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez Parrilla	Old	1958	Male
7	Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento	Old	1964	Male
8	Marta Ayala Ávila	Old	1966	Female
9	Manuel Marrero Cruz	New	1963	Male
10	Teresa María Amarelle Boué	Old	1963	Female
11	José Amado Ricardo Guerra	New	1965	Male
12	Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja	New	1961	Male
13	Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas	New	1963	Male
14	Gladys Martínez Verdecia	New	19??	Female
References:

Youth

The Communist Party of Cuba has a youth wing, the Young Communist League (Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas, UJC) which is a member organization of the World Federation of Democratic Youth. It also has a children's group, the José Martí Pioneer Organization.

Ideology

Compared with other ruling Communist Parties, the Communist Party of Cuba retains a stricter adherence to the tradition of Marxism–Leninism and the traditional Soviet model.

Electoral History

National Assembly of People's Power

Election year	Number of votes		Percentage of votes	Number of seats
1976	Elected by the members of the Municipal Assemblies			489 / 489
1981	Elected by the members of the Municipal Assemblies			499 / 499
1993	Full list	6,939,894	95.1%	589 / 589
	Selective vote	360,735	4.9%
1998	Full list	7,533,222	100%	601 / 601
	Selective vote
2008	Full list	7,125,752	91%	614 / 614
	Selective vote	713,606	9%
2013	Full list	6,031,215	81.30%	612 / 612
	Selective vote	1,387,307	18.70%
2018	Full list	5,620,713	80.44%	605 / 605
	Selective vote	1,366,328	19.56%

Other websites

• Official website (in Spanish)