Socialist Party

The first guilds and associations with Marxist orientations appeared in Uruguay at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1901, with some support from progressive Masons, they ran in municipal elections and were defeated. In 1904, Emilio Frugoni attempted to organize the Socialists in support of Batllismo and electoral collaboration, but this plan failed. The Socialist Party was formed on 12 December 1910 with the intention of participating in elections, and a seat was finally won.

Uruguayan socialism arose as a radical response to Batllist social reform. This is in part why the majority of the PS formed the Communist Party in 1921. With this split, the Socialists lost their parliamentary representation until 1928, and they developed a more Western and reformist stance under the direction of Frugoni. In the mid-1950s a new generation of militants encouraged an ideological redefinition that radicalized the PS into a revolutionary and anti-imperialist body. In 1962, with factions that had split from the National Party, the Socialists ran in elections as part of the Popular Union, but the attempt failed roundly. Frugoni distanced himself from the party permanently. At the same time, young militants began to develop a clandestine armed wing, which, after its separation from the party, gave rise to the National Liberation Movement, or Tupamaros.

The Socialist Party was outlawed in 1967, then legalized again in 1971, when it became a founding member of the Frente Amplio and won a parliamentary seat. In 1972 it assumed a Marxist-Leninist ideological stance, which it renounced in 1985. The party was outlawed along with the rest of the Left following the 1973 coup d'état, and it remained so until 1984, when it was formally incorporated into the negotiations for the movement toward democracy. In 1989, the successful Frente Amplio candidate for mayor of Montevideo was the Socialist Tabaré Vázquez. The Socialist Party has continued its relationship with the Frente Amplio. In 2004 the alliance won the presidential campaign, and the leader of the party, Reinaldo Gargano, became minister of foreign relations.

See alsoBatllismo; Frugoni, Emilio; Masonic Orders; Uruguay, National Liberation Movement (MLN-T).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carlos Real De Azúa, "Política, poder y partidos en el Uruguay de Hoy," in Luis Benvenuto et al., Uruguay Hoy (1971).

Gerardo Caetano et al., De la tradición a la crisis: Pasado y presente de nuestro sistema de partidos (1985).

Fernando López D'alessandro, Historia de la Izquierda Uruguaya, 3 vols. (1988–1992).

Additional Bibliography

Caetano, Gerardo, Javier Gallardo, and José Pedro Rilla. La izquierda uruguaya: Tradición, innovación y política. Montevideo: Trilce, 1995.

Crespo Martínez, Ismael. Tres décadas de política uruguaya: Crisis, restauración y transformación del sistema de partidos. Madrid: Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, Siglo Veintinuo de España, 2002.

Sosnowski, Saúl, and Louise B. Popkin, eds. Repression, Exile, and Democracy: Uruguayan Culture. Translated by Louise B. Popkin. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993.

Vescovi, Rodrigo. Ecos revolucionarios: Luchadores sociales, Uruguay, 1969–1973. Barcelona: Nóos Editorial, 2003.

                           Fernando LÓpez D'Alessandro