Communist Party of Chile explained

Country:Chile
Communist Party of Chile
Native Name:Partido Comunista de Chile
President:Lautaro Carmona Soto
Leader3 Title:Chief of Deputies
Leader3 Name:Boris Barrera
Membership Year:2023
Membership:46,031[1]
Position:Left-wing[2] to far-left[3] [4]
Headquarters:Vicuña Mackenna 31
Santiago
Youth Wing:Communist Youth of Chile
Newspaper:El Siglo
National:Chile Digno (since 2020)
Government Alliance (since 2022)
Regional:São Paulo Forum
International:
Seats1 Title:Chamber of Deputies
Seats2 Title:Senate

The Communist Party of Chile (Spanish; Castilian: Partido Comunista de Chile, Spanish; Castilian: PCCh|italics=no) is a communist party in Chile. It was founded in 1912 as the Socialist Workers' Party (Spanish; Castilian: Partido Obrero Socialista) and adopted its current name in 1922. The party established a youth wing, the Communist Youth of Chile (Spanish; Castilian: Juventudes Comunistas de Chile, JJ.CC), in 1932.

History

The PCCh was founded on 4 June 1912 by Luis Emilio Recabarren, after he left the Democrat Party.[6] The party was initially known as the Socialist Workers' Party, before adopting its current name on 2 January 1922.

It achieved congressional representation shortly thereafter and played a leading role in the development of the Chilean labor movement. Closely tied to the Soviet Union and the Third International, the PCCh participated in the Popular Front (Frente Popular) government of 1938, growing rapidly among the unionized working class in the 1940s. It then participated to the Popular Front's successor, the Democratic Alliance.

Concern over the PCCh's success at building a strong electoral base, combined with the onset of the Cold War, led to its being outlawed in 1948 by a Radical government, a status it had to endure for almost a decade until 1958 when it was again legalized. By the 1960s, the party had become a veritable political subculture, with its own symbols and organizations and the support of prominent artists and intellectuals such as Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize-winning poet, and Violeta Parra, the songwriter and folk artist.[7] At the time, the U.S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 27,500.[8]

It later came to power along with the Socialist Party in the Unidad Popular ("Popular Unity") coalition in 1970. Within the broad Unidad Popular alliance, the communists sided with Allende, a relative moderate from the Socialist Party, and other more moderate forces of that coalition, supporting more gradual reforms and urging to find a compromise with the Christian Democrats. This line was opposed by more radically leftist factions of the Socialist Party and smaller far-left groups. The party was outlawed after the 1973 coup d'état that deposed President Salvador Allende. Much of the Communist leadership went underground, and for a while the party's moderation continued even after the coup had taken place. Also, it has been argued by Mark Ensalaco that crushing the Communist Party was not a top priority for the military junta.[9] In its first statement after the coup, the party leadership still argued that the coup could succeed because the Unidad Popular was too isolated, due to actions of the 'far-left'. Around 1977, the party changed direction. The Communist Party set up a guerrilla organization, the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front. With the restoration of democracy and the election of a new president in 1990, the Communist Party of Chile was legalized again.

As part of the Popular Unity coalition the PCCh advocated a broad alliance; however, it swung sharply to the left after the 1973 coup, regretting the failure to issue arms to the working class and pursuing an armed struggle against Pinochet's regime. Since the restoration of democracy it has acted independently of its previous partners. Between 1983 and 1987 it was a member of the People's Democratic Movement.

In the 1999/2000 presidential elections the party supported Gladys Marín Millie for the national presidential elections. She won 3.2% of the vote in the first round.At the 2005 legislative election, 11 December 2005, the party won 5.1% of the popular vote, but as a result of Chile's binomial electoral rules, no seats. The small but significant support of the PCCh is believed to have aided in the electoral victories of former socialist president Ricardo Lagos in the 2000 elections, and in the more recent victory of Chile's first female president, the socialist Michelle Bachelet in January 2006, both of whom won in competitive second round runoffs.

From 2013 to 2018, the PCCh was a member of New Majority (Spanish; Castilian: Nueva Mayoría), a leftist coalition led by Michelle Bachelet.

Controversies

The PCCh faced criticism from several parties in Chile after congratulating Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro on his party's victory in the 2020 parliamentary election. Prominent members of the Party for Democracy, Radical Party, and Socialist Party questioned the PCCh's praise of the election as "flawless", echoing criticisms from opposition parties in Venezuela that the election was neither free nor fair.[10] However, some of its leaders have also publicly condemned the human rights abuses that have taken place in Venezuela under the government of Nicolás Maduro.[11]

Leaders

General Secretary!scope="col"
PeriodPresidentPeriod
Ramón Sepúlveda Leal1922–1924align=center rowspan="9" colspan="2"Non-existent position
Luis A. González?–?
Galvarino Gil?–?
Maclovio Galdames?–?
José Santos Zavala?–?
Isaias Iriarte?–1929
Carlos Contreras Labarca1931–1946
Ricardo Fonseca1946–1948
align=left rowspan="2"Oyarzun Galo Gonzálezalign=center rowspan="2"1948–1958
align=left rowspan="2"Elías Laferttealign=center rowspan="2"1956–1961
align=left rowspan="2"Luis Corvalánalign=center rowspan="2"1958–1990
align=center rowspan="3" colspan="2"Non-existent position
Volodia Teitelboim1990–1994
Gladys Marín1994–2002
Guillermo Teillier2002–2005Gladys Marín2002–2005
Lautaro Carmona Soto2005–2023Guillermo Teillier2005–2023
2023–presentLautaro Carmona Soto2023–present

Electoral performance

Keys
ElectionChamber of DeputiesSenatePresidential
No. of votes% of votesSeatsNo. of votes% of votesSeatsYearNomineeNo. of votes% of votes
19181,5480.64%01920Luis Emilio Recabarren6810.41%
19214,8142.16%21925José Santos Salas74,09128.4%
19241,2120.49%01927None
192519,4466.72%91931Elías Lafertte2,4340.9%
19323,3501.0%11932Elías Lafertte4,1281.2%
19377,5435.1%17,5437.1%11938Pedro Aguirre Cerda (RP)222,72050.5%
194165,67114.4%1728,449 12.2%31942Juan Antonio Ríos (RP)260,03456.0%
194546,13310.3%1525,708 12.8%31946Gabriel González Videla (RP)192,20740.2%
1961157,57211.8%1675,123 12.2%31952Salvador Allende (SP)51,9755.5%
1965290,63512.7%1851958Salvador Allende (SP)356,49328.9%
1969383,04916.6%22181,488 18.0%91964Salvador Allende (SP)977,90238.9%
1973578,69516.2%2451970Salvador Allende (PUSP)1,070,33436.61%
1993336,0345.0%065,0733.5%01989Patricio Aylwin (PDC)3,850,57155.17%
1997398,5886.9%0357,8258.4%01993Eugenio Pizarro (Ind)327,4024.70%
2001320,6685.2%045,7352.6%01999Gladys Marín225,2243.19%
2005339,5475.14%0104,6872.19%02005Tomás Hirsch (HP)375,0485.40%
2009133,7182.02%32009Jorge Arrate433,1956.21%
2013255,242 4.11%66,4670.145%02013Michelle Bachelet (NMSP)3,466,35862.15%
2017275,0964.59%820,2091.21%02017Alejandro Guillier (NMInd)3,157,75045.42%
2021464,8857.35%12335,7097.21%22021Gabriel Boric (ADSC)4,620,89055.87%

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Total de afiliados a partidos políticos . Servicio Electoral de Chile . es . 9 February 2023.
  2. Web site: Historia Política . bcn.cl . 2020 .
  3. News: Sanders . Philip . Communist Contender Vaults Atop New Poll of Chile's Presidential Race . 20 July 2021 . Bloomberg News . 24 May 2021.
  4. https://www.pauta.cl/politica/cristobal-rovira-partido-republicano-chile-kast-no-extrema-derecha Cristóbal Rovira: "El Partido Republicano no es de extrema derecha; es derecha populista radical"
  5. Web site: Communist and Workers' Parties . SolidNet . en . 16 February 2019.
  6. Rubio, José Luis. Las internacionales obreras en América. Madrid: 1971. p. 61
  7. Web site: Chile – The Parties of the Left. countrystudies.us.
  8. Benjamin . Roger W. . Kautsky . John H. . Communism and Economic Development . . 62 . 1 . 1968 . 122 . 10.1017/S0003055400115679 . 1953329 .
  9. Book: Ensalaco, Mark . Chile Under Pinochet: Recovering the Truth . University of Pennsylvania Press . 2000 . 0-8122-3520-7 . 7 .
  10. News: Vargas . Felipe . Romero . Maria Cristina . Dirigentes políticos rechazan "congratulaciones" del PC a Maduro por elecciones legislativas en Venezuela . 10 October 2022 . . 10 December 2020 . es.
  11. News: Camila Vallejo: El informe de Bachelet sobre Venezuela es lapidario . 24 November 2023 . . 5 July 2019 . es.