Communist Party of Spain
스페인 공산당
A communist party formed on 14 November 1921 by the merger of two communist parties that had split from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. It was a major force on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War and the main clandestine opposition under the Franco dictatorship. It was legalised on 9 April 1977 and has been part of the United Left (IU) since 1986.
In depth
The Communist Party of Spain arose on 14 November 1921, on the Comintern’s instructions, from the merger of the Spanish Communist Party (Partido Comunista Español), formed in April 1920 by part of the Socialist youth organisation, and the Spanish Communist Workers' Party, founded in April 1921 by members of the Socialist executive who supported joining the Comintern. Its first congress was held in March 1922, in Seville according to the English source and in Madrid according to the Spanish source. The party was repressed under the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera from 1923, and in 1930 the Catalan-Balearic Communist Federation led by Joaquín Maurín broke away after doctrinal disputes. The party was weak when the Second Republic was proclaimed in 1931; its first deputy, Cayetano Bolívar, was elected on 3 December 1933.
Led by José Díaz, secretary-general from 1932, and Dolores Ibárruri, the party grew rapidly after the Popular Front victory in February 1936 and the outbreak of the Civil War in July. Membership rose from 30,000 to 100,000 in five months, which the English source places in the first five months of the war and the Spanish source in the five months after the Popular Front victory. According to the Spanish source, membership was estimated at 301,000 at the end of June 1937. The party worked in a disciplined way for a Republican victory but was wary of a full-scale socialist revolution, which it judged would divide the Republic’s forces, and it clashed with anarchists in Barcelona during the May Days of 1937. In 1936 its Catalan branch merged with other socialists to form the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC).
After the Republican defeat in 1939 the party was persecuted by the Franco regime but remained the best-organised opposition party inside Spain. It waged guerrilla warfare (the Maquis) in the early years; many members went into exile, and some fought in the Soviet Red Army. Ibárruri succeeded Díaz as secretary-general in 1944 and served until 1960, followed by Santiago Carrillo from 1960 to 1982. The party abandoned armed struggle and organised the Workers' Commissions (CC.OO.) inside the official trade union apparatus, condemned the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and moved towards Eurocommunism under Carrillo.
The party was legalised on 9 April 1977, after the Atocha massacre of January 1977, and won 9% of the vote in the 1977 election and 11% in 1979, but fell to 4% in 1982. Carrillo was removed as secretary-general and expelled in 1985. The party formed the United Left (IU) in 1986, explicitly re-embraced Marxism–Leninism at its 20th Congress in 2017, and has taken part in the Sumar alliance since 2023.