Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T20:14:02.694Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Communist Party of Cuba Since the First Congress*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

William M. Leogrande
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The main concern of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) in recent years has been to lead and supervise the implementation of the resolutions adopted at its First Congress in 1975. Those resolutions cover a broad range of political, social, and economic issues, so that a full account of the Party's work over the past 5 years would require a complete survey of Cuba's domestic and foreign policies during that period.1 The very breadth of the PCC's work agenda in the latter half of the 1970s indicates how much the role of the Party in Cuba has evolved over the past decade;2 such responsibilities demonstrate a continuation of the process of strengthening the Party begun in the early 1970s.

Type
Artilces
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , November 1980 , pp. 397 - 419
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 The key documents of The First Congress include: Tesis y Resoluciones: Primer Con greso del Partido Communista de Cuba (La Habana, Departamento de Orienta ción Revolucionaria, 1976);Google ScholarPlataforma Programática del Partido Comunista de Cuba (La Habana, Departamento de Orientación Revolucionaria, 1976); Estatutos del Partido Comunista de Cuba (La Habana, Departamento de Orientación Revolucionaria, 1976).Google Scholar

2 ‘Resolución del VIII Pleno del Comité Central,’ Bohemia, May 25, 1979, pp. 58Z–65.Google Scholar

3 Domínguez, Jorge I., Cuba: Order and Revolution (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1978), pp. 330–1.Google Scholar

4 ‘Opening Speech by Raúl Castro’ in First Congress of The Communist Party of Cuba (Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1976), pp. 5–15.Google Scholar

5 See, for example, Simon, Herbert, Administrative Behavior (New York, Free Press, 1976), Chap. 8;Google ScholarHalperin, Morton, Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy (Washington, D.C., Brookings, 1974), pp. 239–42.Google Scholar

6 For a summary of events at the Congress, see ‘Crónica Abreviada del Primer Congreso,’ Verde Olivo, No. 2 (1976), pp. 28–33.Google Scholar

7 On institutional conflicts between the PCC and the Revolutionary Armed Forces, see LeoGrande, William M., ‘A Bureaucratic Approach Civil-Military Relations in Communist Systems: The Case of Cuba,’ in Herspring, Dale R. and Volgyes, Ivan (eds.), Civil Military Relations in Communist Systems (Boulder, Westview, 1978), pp. 201–18.Google Scholar

8 Hart, Armando, ‘The Process of Building and Developing the Party has Tremendous Importance,’ Granma Weekly Review, 5 05 1969, pp. 3–4.Google Scholar

9 Castro, Fidel, ‘Report of The Central Committee of The Communist Party of Cuba to The First Congress,’ in First Congress of The Communist Party of Cuba, p. 234.Google Scholar

10 LeoGrande, William M., The Development of the Party System in Revolutionary Cuba (Erie, PA, Northwestern Pennsylvania Institute for Latin American Studies Monograph Series, 1978).Google Scholar

11 ‘Sobre la vida interna del Partido,’ in Tesis y Resoluciones, pp. 13–54.Google Scholar

12 ‘Resolución del VIII Pleno del Comité Central,’ pp. 63–4.Google Scholar

13 LeoGrande, The Development of The Party System in Revolutionary Cuba, p. 13.Google Scholar

14 ‘Sobre la vida interna del Partido,’ pp. 17–28.Google Scholar

15 Ibid.

16 ‘Central Committee of Cuba Holds 5th Plenary Meeting,’ Granma Weekly Review, December 25, 1977, p. 1;Google Scholar‘Central Committee of Communist Party of Cuba Holds 7th Plenum,’ Granma Weekly Review, 31 December 1978, p. 1.Google Scholar

17 ‘Resolución del VII Pleno del Comité Central,’ pp. 63–4.Google Scholar

18 ‘Sobre la vida interna del Partido,’ p. 28–9.Google Scholar

19 See the First Congress thesis and resolution Sobre el pleno ejcrcicio de la igualdad de la mujer (La Habana, Departamento de Orientación Revolucionaria, 1976).Google Scholar

20 Castro, Fidel, op. cit., p. 236.Google Scholar

21 ‘Sobre la vida interna del Partido,’ pp. 28–9.Google Scholar

22 Fidel Castro, ‘El PURS, espina dorsal de la Revolución,’ Cuba Socialista, No. 19 (March 1963), pp. 1–32.Google Scholar

23 ‘Sobre la vida interna del Partido,’ pp. 33–8.Google Scholar

24 Hart, Armando, ‘Debemos elevar la organización del Partido a la altura de nuestra Revolución,’ Granma, 19 September 1966, pp. 2–3;Google ScholarHart, Armando, ‘Production's First Need is Technical and Cultural Improvement… of Party Cadres and Members,’ Granma Weekly Review, 20 07 1969, pp. 10–11;Google ScholarMachado, José, ‘In Face of all Difficulties We Will Not Forget the Fundamental Factor,’ Granma Weekly Review, 29 06 1969, p.5;Google ScholarLeoGrande, op. Cit., pp. 13–16.Google Scholar

25 ‘Sobre la vida interna del Partido.’Google Scholar

26 ‘Central Committee of Cuba Holds 5th Plenary Meeting,’ p.1.Google Scholar

27 ‘Resolución del VII Pleno del Comité Central.’Google Scholar

28 ‘Integración del Secretariado y de Comisiones de la Dirección Nacional de las ORI,’ Cuba Socialista, No.8 (April 1962), pp. 136–7.Google Scholar

29 Machado, José, ‘The Party Leadership has Confidence in The Work you will be Doing,’ Granma Weekly Review, 8 10 1978, p. 4.Google Scholar

30 For a more detailed discussion of the evolution of the Cuban political elite, see LeoGrande, William M., ‘Continuity and Change in The Cuban Political Elite,’ Cuban Studies 8, No. 2 (07 1978), pp. 1–31.Google Scholar

31 Like my earlier article, the following analysis rests upon the assumption characteristic of elite studies of communist political systems: viz., that the Central Committee is a ‘representative elite’ composed of members drawn from key functional and institutional groups. Thus its composition reflects the relative influence of these groups in the political system.Google Scholar

32 LeoGrande, ‘Continuity and Change in the Cuban Political Elite,’Google Scholar

33 For further elaboration on this point, see LeoGrande, William M., ‘Civil-Military Relations in Cuba,’ Studies in Comparative Communism 2, No.3 (Autumn 1978), pp. 278–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 Castro, Raúl, ‘Speech to the Delegates to People's Power in Matanzas,’ Granma Weekly Review, 8 09 1974, pp. 2–5.Google Scholar

35 Sobre los Organos dcl Poder Popular (La Habana, Departamento de Orientación Revolucionaria, 1976).Google Scholar

36 Raúl Castro, op. cit.Google Scholar

37 Castro, Fidel, ‘The Baragua Protest Took Place 100 Years Ago,’ Granma Weekly Review, 03 16, 1978, pp. 1–5.Google Scholar

38 ‘Central Committee of Cuba Holds 5th Plenary Meeting’; ‘Central Committee of the Communist Party Holds 7th Plenum,’ op. cit.Google Scholar

39 ‘First Regular Session of the National Assembly of People's Power,’ Granma Weekly Review, 24 07 1977, pp.1, 9.Google Scholar