Communist Unification of Spain (in Spanish: Unificación Comunista de España, in Basque: Komunisten Batasuna) is a political party in Spain. The group emerged around the publication Tribuna Obrera in 1968. It was constituted as UCE in 1973. Its ideological line is Marxist-Leninist and Mao Zedong Thought. Some organizations define it as a cult.
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During the Spanish transition to democracy UCE was active in a process of unity with the Communist Movement of Spain (MCE). That relation however broke down. At the first congress of UCE in 1979, the party decided to put all efforts into building their own party. In the 1977 elections UCE supported the Democratic Left Front (FDI). From 1979 to 1986 and from 2003 to 2004 they called the vote for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), from 1989 to 2000 they called the vote for United Left (IU), and then for Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD) in 2008. In the Spanish local and regional elections, 2011 they ran for elections in 34 municipalities and 7 Autonomous regions obtaining a total of 8,925 votes.
UCE publishes and sells a variety of newspapers which it uses to fund its political campaigns:
The UCE defines itself as a proletarian class party, guided by the ideology of Mao. As a Communist Party, their ultimate goals are to end the exploitation of man by man and to end the division of social classes.
Originating in Tribuna Obrera (1968), a political organization with a Mao Zedong Thought it was born in the fight against the Francoist dictatorship, the heat of the revolutionary wave of the sixties, the liberation struggles in the Third World and the spirit of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Its main criticism was denouncing what they called Soviet "social fascism", "social imperialism" and "revisionism". This framework determined its political actions, their foundation being discipline and factual analysis: not resorting to inflammatory verbalism (typical of demagogic left-wing discourse) whilst refraining from idealism without falling victim to the demands of pragmatists.
The party follows the 1937 text Combat Liberalism rejects ideas that only serve to destroy the unity of the working class and weakens the struggle against exploitation.
In politics, UCE analyses the global situation and Spanish society, wherein it sees Spain as a relatively weak partner; as a dependent ally of the superpowers United States and England (the 'natural' enemy of Spain and the European Union) and more recently a reunified Germany. According to UCE, the Anglo-German project supports independentist tendencies in order to weaken states such as Spain and exercise greater control over them using the Divide and Conquer strategy as espoused by prominent geostrategists like Zbigniew Brzezinski in The Grand Chessboard. It is thereby unifying and is strongly criticized by Catalan, Basque and Aragonese independentists.
UCE is an independent party, not relying on external financing or government subsidies in accordance with the popular saying "he who pays the piper calls the tune". They therefore rely solely on their membership fees. Despite this apparent isolation they are true to their principle of uniting the working class and ending exploitation, having embarked on several political initiatives, together with other associations.
Significant elements of its political action are:
UCE has sporadically run for elections since the 1980s, with results oscillating between 3.000 and 50.000 votes. It has never managed to obtain parliamentary or council representation.
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Spanish general election, 1979 (in coalition with Organización Comunista de España-Bandera Roja) |
47.937 | 0,27 |
Spanish general election, 1982 | 24.044 | 0,11 |
Spanish general election, 1986 | 42.451 | 0,21 |
European Parliament elections, 1987 | 21.482 | 0,11 |
Spanish Municipal Elections 1987 | 3.380 | 0,02 |
European Parliament elections 2009 | 3.483 | 0,02 |
Spanish local and regional elections, 2011 | 5.218 | 0,14 |
2011 Elections for the Congress of Deputies | 16.148 | 0,06 |
2011 Elections for the Spanish Senate | 32.861 | 0,12 |
In the last municipal elections UCE ran for 35 town halls in May 2011. They obtained a total of 5,218 votes, the closest being in Vera de Moncayo (1,88%)
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Torredelcampo | Jaén | 80 | 0,90 |
Alaquàs | València | 133 | 0,83 |
Fuenlabrada | Madrid | 681 | 0,71 |
Vilanova i la Geltrú | Barcelona | 154 | 0,63 |
Esplugues de Llobregat | Barcelona | 110 | 0,61 |
Barakaldo | Bizkaia | 270 | 0,60 |
Alfafar | València | 59 | 0,59 |
Leganés | Madrid | 495 | 0,53 |
Alcoi | Alicante | 132 | 0,41 |
Getafe | Madrid | 269 | 0,32 |
Hospitalet de Llobregat | Barcelona | 180 | 0,21 |
Vitoria | Álava | 214 | 0,19 |
Bilbao | Bizkaia | 178 | 0,11 |
Vigo | Pontevedra | 166 | 0,11 |
Murcia | Murcia | 173 | 0,09 |
València | València | 295 | 0,07 |
Madrid | Madrid | 526 | 0,05 |
Barcelona | Barcelona | 217 | 0,04 |
Málaga | Málaga | 102 | 0,04 |
In the autonomic elections of May 2011, they were present in 7 communities, obtaining their best result in the Province of Soria multiplying by 31.2 with respect to the 2009 European elections (0,37%) with a total of 3,707 votes.
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Canaries | 120 | 0,36 |
Balearics | 64 | 0,17 |
Castile and León | 492 | 0,14 |
Murcia | 713 | 0,11 |
Aragon | 592 | 0,08 |
Valencia | 1716 | 0,08 |
Asturias | 10 | 0,02 |
In the general elections of November 2011, they obtained their best result in the Province of Lugo multiplying by 32.7 with respect to the 2009 European elections (0,27%) with a total of 588 votes.
Province | Congress | Senate | |||
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Congress Votes | % | +/- | Senate Votes | % | |
Lugo | 588 | 0.27 | 570 | 760 | 0.35 |
Álava | 290 | 0.17 | 251 | 533 | 0.32 |
Soria | 72 | 0.14 | 65 | 193 | 0.39 |
Barcelona | 3,355 | 0.12 | 2,921 | 8,677 | 0.34 |
Murcia | 464 | 0.06 | 364 | 2,466 | 0.34 |
Teruel | 91 | 0.11 | 87 | 220 | 0.29 |
Segovia | 113 | 0.12 | 107 | 206 | 0.23 |
Alicante | 893 | 0.10 | 672 | 1,594 | 0.18 |
Jaén | 404 | 0.10 | 347 | 753 | 0.19 |
Guipúzcoa | 397 | 0.10 | 346 | 671 | 0.18 |
Vizcaya | 544 | 0.08 | 444 | 1,124 | 0.17 |
Huesca | 105 | 0.08 | 93 | 363 | 0.31 |
Tarragona | 265 | 0.07 | 218 | 658 | 0.20 |
Badajoz | - | 0.00 | 37 | - | 0.00 |
TOTAL | 16,148 | 0.06 | 12,665 | 32,861 | 0.12 |
Source: Ministerio del Interior - Elecciones Generales 2011
AIS, a non-profit cult-watch organisation based in Barcelona which is a member of FECRIS in Spain, considers this political party to be in actual fact a front for a destructive cult, in other words, a sect.