Communist Party, Cuba

Communist Party, Cuba (Partido Comunista Cubano, PCC) Established in 1925 as the Popular Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Popular), its influence grew quickly, particularly within the emerging trade unions. Following Batistá's accession to power in 1933 it came to a subsequently embarrassing arrangement with the dictator whereby the PCC would support him, e.g. during the 1940 presidential elections, in return for being allowed to enter the realm of electoral politics. In 1965 the party assumed its current name after being taken over by Castro's revolutionary movement (1958). Despite the establishment of a Communist dictatorship in 1959, compared to other Communist regimes the PCC remained unusually weak. This was partly the result of weak and undeveloped membership, which was only around 50,000 in 1965, 58 per cent of whom were members of the military. In addition, its ideology and structure remained highly focused on its leader, Castro, while its organization and its role in the Cuban state were left undefined until its first party congress in 1975. From then, as membership increased and Castro's position became more difficult because of economic stagnation from the 1980s, its importance grew substantially as a body of discussion and consultation.