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Chilean Communist Party

Partido Comunista de Chile

Last modified: 2019-02-10 by randy young
Keywords: partido comunista de chile | hammer and sickle (white) | wreath | juventudes comunistas | flower: copihue | copihue | head | jjcc | jj | cc | chile |
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[Chilen Communist Party flag]
image by Uriel González Urquiza, 16 July 2006

See also:

About the flag

In a background Red, a circle with halves blue and red for the colors of the motherland with a hammer and sickle communist symbols between two branches that represent the victory of the party in the social struggles of the XXth century.
Uriel González Urquiza, 16 July 2006

The flag of PCCh, as presented in the FOTW website is erroneous: the color fields in the emblems are swapped (compare with the emblem of the youth branch, the star is missing and the spikes are excessively schematic.

The flag of the PCCh is red with the party's emblem, which is composed of a disc horizontally divided light blue-red and charged with a white hammer and sickle, the whole surmounted by a white star and surrounded by two yellow wheat spikes.1

The flag is often used with the party's name written in white capital letters above the emblem and a faceted star.2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
Ivan Sache 10 February 2019
Photos:
1: https://vivimoslanoticia.cl/noticias/politica/2016/06/16/militantes-de-las-juventudes-comunistas-se-reinscribieron-ante-el-servel/
2: http://www.pcchile.cl/2017/04/15/partido-comunista-de-chile-termina-proceso-de-legalizacion-entregando-mas-de-9-000-nuevas-afiliaciones/
3: http://www.psuv.org.ve/temas/noticias/partido-comunista-chile-rechaza-injerencia-extranjera-venezuela/
4: https://www.cronicadigital.cl/2018/05/16/partido-comunista-organizacion-politica-mas-numerosa-en-chile/
5: http://www.t13.cl/noticia/politica/el-giro-lucha-social-prepara-partido-comunista
6: https://www.soychile.cl/Chillan/Sociedad/2017/01/17/441669/Partido-Comunista-de-Chillan-lanzo-su-tradicional-Fiesta-de-los-Abrazos.aspx
7: http://www.latribuna.cl/noticia.php?id=MTcyOTk=
8: https://www.fortinmapocho.cl/2017/10/24/partido-comunista-de-chile-pide-desalojar-terreno-de-su-propiedad-ocupado-por-pobladores-en-el-arrayan/
9: https://www.ilustrado.cl/2017/11/30/frente-amplio-y-partido-comunista-realizan-accion-conjunta-para-realizar-grave-denuncia-contra-pinera/


Background

It is the oldest party of the country with 94 years of existence, founded by Luis E. Recabarren is a Marxist-Leninist traditional party.
Uriel González Urquiza, 16 July 2006

The Partido Comunista de Chile (PCCh - Communist Party of Chile) was established on 4 June 1912 in Iquique, as the Partido Obrero Socialista (POS - Workers' Socialist Party), the meeting was held in the office of the newspaper El Despertar de los Trabajadores, who published the names of the 27 founders and of "various other friends." The founding president of the party was Luis Emilio Recabarren (1876-1924), a typographer and journalist; elected in 1906 Representative of Antofagasta, Recabarren was sentenced to 541 days in jail for the publication of the workers' newspaper El Trabajo and exiled to Argentina. Back to Chile in late 1908, he founded on 15 January 1912 El Despertar de los Trabajadores, calling for the emergence of a revolutionary party.

The 1st Congress of the POS was held on 1 and 2 May 1915 in Vin~a del Mar, ratifying the Statutes adopted in 1912; the party condemned the World War as imperialist and the position of the Second International. During the 2nd Congress, held on 1 and 2 June 1920, the POS appointed Recabarren, then in jail, as candidate at the presidential election. The party was renamed to Partido Comunista de Chile (PCCh) during its 3rd Congress, held on 25 and 26 December 1920 in Valparaiso, and joined the Communist International. Luis Emilio Recabarren and Luis ViŽctor Cruz (1892-1947) were elected Representatives in 1921. Attacked by members of the party and suffering from depression, Recabarren committed suicide in 1924.

The party was "bolchevized", following Lenin's principles, during its 8the Congress, held on 1 and 2 January 1927 in Santiago. General Carlos IbaŽn~ez (1877-1960) established from 1927 to 1931 a dictatorship, repressing the PCCH and the workers' union. In 1932, the PCCh organized a workers' Soviet in the Universidad de Chile. In July 1933, the National Conference of the PCCh changed its doctrine to the so-called Democratic-bourgeois Revolution. Pedro Aguirre Cerda (1879-1941), supported by the leftist coalition Frente Popular (People's Front), was elected President of the Republic on 25 October 1938. Three Communist ministers were appointed in the government formed on 3 November 1946 by Gabriel GonzaŽlez Videla (1898-1980). After the municipal elections held on 5 April 1947, the PCCh became the 3rd most important party of the country. On 3 September 1948, the Law of Defense of Democracy outlawed the PCCh, dropped 40,000 citizens from the election list and sacked Communists working as professors, railways employees and other civil servants.

The Frente del Pueblos (Front of the People) was set up on 13 November 1951 by the PCCh, the Partido Socialista de Chile (Socialist Party of Chile - PSCH) and other smaller groups. Salvador Allende (1908-1973) was appointed candidate at the presidential elections. The alliance was increased, as the Frente de AccioŽn Popular (Front of People's Action - FRAP), composed of six leftist parties. The FRAP secured 26 Representatives in the gneral elections organized on 3 March 1957. The Law of Defense of Democracy was eventually abolished on 31 July 1958.

Salvador Allende was elected President of the Republic on 4 September 1970 with 36.3% of the votes, and established a people's government with the support of the PCCh. Diplomatic relations with Cuba were re-established on 13 November 1970. Allende as overthrown and killed on 11 September 1973 during the coup led by General Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006). The dictatorial regime banned the political parties and workers' unions and subsituted a military government to the Congress. The communists were violently repressed.

The first mass protest against the dictatorship was organized on 25 September 1973 during the funeral of the poet Pablo Neruda (1905-1973; Nobel Prize in Literature 1971). Strikes and protests were set up in the subsequent years. The party called its supporters to vote "no" in the plebiscite that would eventually be the first step to the return to democracy, and supported the candidacy of Patricio Aylwin (1918-2016), who was elected President on 11 March 1990.

In the aftermath of the fall of the breakdown of Soviet Union, the PCCh experienced a heavy erosion in membership and an internal crisis. The reconstructed party obtained 5% of the votes at the municipal election held on 28 June 1992, which was considered as a "resurrection." The 20th Congress of the party, held netween the 11 and 15 August 1994, adopted a new party's program, the first since 1956, with the Democratic Revolution as its main objective.1

In the 2013 presidential election the PCCh supported Michelle Bachelet (b. 1941), which allowed the return of Communbist ministers to the government. The party obtained eight sets at the Congress in the general elections held in 2018.
Ivan Sache, 10 February 2019
Sources:
1: Reseña historica del Partido Comunista de Chile, Centro Estudios "Miguel Enríquez"


Communist Youths
JJCC - Juventudes Comunistas

[JJCC flag]
image by Uriel González Urquiza, 16 July 2006

Youth organization of the Communist Party of Chile, known popularly as la jota (the "j").
Uriel González Urquiza, 16 July 2006

Banner with a young men and a young woman looking at the left side with a copihue (national flower of Chile) among two spikes of wheat with the abbreviation "JJCC."
Uriel González Urquiza, 16 July 2006