| Living Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya viu |
|
|---|---|
| Leader | Collective leadership (Central Committee) |
| General Secretary | Alfredo Clemente |
| Founded | June 1997 |
| Headquarters | Barcelona, Catalonia |
| Newspaper | Nou Treball |
| Youth wing | Young Communists |
| Ideology | Communism, Far left |
| National affiliation | United and Alternative Left, Communist Party of Spain |
| International affiliation | None |
| European affiliation | None |
| Official colours | Red |
| Website | |
| http://www.psuc.org/ | |
| Politics of Catalonia Political parties Elections |
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PSUC viu (Catalan for 'Living PSUC') is a political party in Catalonia, Spain. PSUC viu emerged out of factional fighting within the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) in the mid-1990s. Since 1936 PSUC had been the Catalan referent of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE). PSUC and PCE existed as parallel parties, and PCE did not organize any branch of its own in Catalonia.
In the 1980s PCE and PSUC developed in different ways. Just as PCE took part in setting up the United Left (IU) coalition, PSUC had launched the coalition Initiative for Catalonia (IC). But whereas PCE maintained its character as an independent party, PSUC gradually became a dormant structure within IC. The party leadership of PSUC worked towards converting IC into a political party and dissolving PSUC into it. In January 1990 a national conference of PSUC was held, which decided that the political action of PSUC would be carried out within the framework of IC. Likewise a decision was taken on a Central Committee meeting of PSUC on 22 March 1991 that all PSUC members automatically would be members of IC. The 8th congress of PSUC was supposed to have been held in 1992, but was never convoked.
In 1995 the tradition of holding the Festa de Treball, a of the PSUC organ Treball, was cancelled by IC, allegedly on grounds of lack of finances. At the 4th national conference of IC, held in November 1996, the internal opposition within PSUC raised their voice. The group around 'Manifesto for PSUC' was organized as the Red, Green and Violet Collective (Col·lectiu Roig, Verd i Violeta). The opposition grouped around the Manifesto wanted to maintain PSUC as a separate communist party and was IC as a strategic front of the party. The opposition launched, for the first time, their own alternative candidate for the presidency of IC, Ramon Luque.
The 8th congress of PSUC was finally convoked for 10 May 1997. At the congress the group around the Manifesto was defeated, and PSUC ceased to function as an independent party. The minority then left PSUC and IC, and by June the same year they had reorganized themselves as PSUC viu. Quickly PCE recognized PSUC viu as their new Catalan referent. Parallel to this, the other main communist party in Catalonia, the Party of the Communists of Catalonia (PCC, which had formed part of IC but left it), called for unity amongst the Catalan communists.
In 1998 a new coalition was constructed by PSUC viu and PCC, the United and Alternative Left (EUiA). EUiA became the new Catalan referent of IU. However the founding of EUiA was by no means uncomplicated as the founders of PSUC viu had belonged to opposing factions in the intense inner-party conflicts in PSUC in the early 1980s. At that time the founders of PSUC viu had been aligned with the Eurocommunist majority. That conflict ended with the departure of the pro-Soviet faction and their creation of PCC.
The current general secretary of PSUC viu is Alfredo Clemente. The leading body of the party, between two congresses is the Central Committee. A congress is held every three years. The Central Committee elects an Executive Committee. The day-to-day affairs are run by a Political Secretariat.
Although PSUC viu is an independent party, it takes part in PCE congresses as a PCE regional federation. Members of PCE who move to Catalonia become members of PSUC viu and likewise members of PSUC viu who settle anywhere else in Spain become members of PCE.
The central organ of PSUC viu is Nou Treball. The youth wing of the party is the Young Communists (JC).
Today PSUC viu is the second largest grouping within EUiA (after PCC). The conflict with IC-V (new name of IC) is no longer as dramatic as during the end of the 1990s, and now IC-V and EUiA contests elections jointly.
PSUC viu works for the establishment of a democratic and federal republic in Spain, in which different nationalities are given the right to self-determination.