Popular Socialist Party (Cuba)
The Popular Socialist Party was a communist party in Cuba. It was founded in 1925 as the Cuban Communist Party by José Miguel Pérez, Carlos Baliño, Alfonso Bernal del Riesgo, and Julio Antonio Mella. The party later merged with the Revolutionary Union to form the Communist Revolutionary Union on 13 August 1939. The party was renamed Popular Socialist Party on 22 January 1944, but with the Partido Auténtico' victory in the 1944 elections, the party went into decline.
The party published the daily newspaper Hoy until 1950.
History
The party was founded in 1925 with the help of Soviet officials. It immediately became the Cuban representative for the Comintern and would remain a member until its dissolution in 1943.The party supported the first presidency of Fulgencio Batista from 1940 to 1944, primarily due to his early advocacy of strengthening labour laws and labour unions, as well as his pro-Allies of [World War II|Allied] stance during World War II. As a result, two of the party's leaders, Juan Marinello Vidaurreta and Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, were successively appointed ministers without portfolio.
The party formed an alliance with the Orthodox Party in the 1944 general elections, but was defeated by the Auténticos-Republican alliance, winning only four seats in the House of Representatives. They went on to win five seats in the 1946 mid-term elections.
In the 1948 general election, the party proposed Juan Marinello as its presidential candidate. While he finished fourth, the party won five seats in the House elections. They later won four in the 1950 mid-term elections.
The Auténticos government under President Carlos Prío Socarrás banned the party's daily newspaper, Hoy, in 1950. Following Fulgencio Batista's 1952 coup d'état, the party was banned, but it continued publishing its newspaper.
The party was initially critical of Fidel Castro. In 1961, the party merged into the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations, the precursor to the current Communist Party of Cuba.