Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia

Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia
Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya
Founded 23 July 1936 (1936-07-23)
Dissolved 1997 (1997)
Merger of Catalan Federation of the PSOE
Communist Party of Catalonia
Socialist Union of Catalonia
Proletarian Catalan Party
Merged into Initiative for Catalonia
Succeeded by Living Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia
Youth wing Unified Socialist Youth of Catalonia (1936-1970)
Communist Youth of Catalonia (1971-1992)
Ideology Communism
Catalanism
Republicanism
Political position Far left
International affiliation Comintern (1936-1943)
Trade union affiliation Workers' Commissions (CCOO)

The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (Catalan: Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya, PSUC), was a communist political party active in Catalonia between 1936 and 1997. It was the Catalan referent of the Communist Party of Spain and the only party not from a sovereign state to be a full member of the Third International.

History

The PSUC was formed on 23 July 1936 through the unification of four left-wing groups; the Catalan Federation of Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), the Partit Comunista de Catalunya (Communist Party of Catalonia, the Catalan branch of the Communist Party of Spain, PCE), the Unió Socialista de Catalunya (Socialist Union of Catalonia) and the Partit Català Proletari (Proletarian Catalan Party). Burnett Bolloten estimates that at unification, the party numbered some 2,500 members.[1] Nine months later, the party ranks had swollen to 50,000 members.[2]

PSUC foundation poster
PSUC Civil War poster

The PSUC played a major role during the days of the Second Spanish Republic and the Spanish Civil War, and was the only regional party affiliated to the Comintern. The PCE did not organize in Catalonia, but saw PSUC as its Catalan referent. This setup has been replicated by other Catalan communist groups. The setup is somewhat similar to the relation between the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and Christian Social Union of Bavaria.

The PSUC became the major defender of the Catalan middle classes against land seizures advocated by the rival National Confederation of Labour and Workers' Party of Marxist Unification, organizing 18,000 tradesmen and artisans into the Catalan Federation of Small Businessmen and Manufacturers (GEPCI).[3]

During the Francisco Franco regime (see Spain under Franco), the PSUC was outlawed and remained active clandestinely and in exile. The PSUC was the largest opposition party in Catalonia and upon the fall of the regime it became a mass party.

In 1977, during the Spanish transition to democracy, the PSUC was legalized. Gradually, the PCE and the PSUC started going in separate directions: PSUC became involved in Iniciativa per Catalunya (IC), and gradually ceased functioning as a separate party. When PSUC was completely submerged into IC in 1997, a splinter group refounded the party as PSUC viu (Living PSUC). PSUC viu became the new referent of PCE in Catalonia.

Electoral performance

Cortes Generales

Election Leader Votes % # Seats[4] Outcome Notes
Congress Senate
1977 Antoni Gutiérrez Díaz 558,132 18.31 #2
8 / 47
0 / 16
 UCD minority
1979 Antoni Gutiérrez Díaz 512,792 17.38 #3
8 / 47
0 / 16
 UCD minority
1982 Francisco Frutos 158.553 4.61 #4
1 / 47
0 / 16
 PSOE majority
1986 Antoni Gutiérrez Díaz 123,912 3.91 #4
1 / 47
0 / 16
 PSOE majority Within Union of the Catalan Left (UEC)

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bolloten, Burnett (1991). The Spanish Civil war: Revolution and counterrrevolution. University of North Carolina Press. p. 397.
  2. ↑ Bolloten 1991, p. 399
  3. ↑ Bolloten 1991, p. 396
  4. ↑ Catalan seats only.
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