Communist Party of Chile
Partido Comunista de Chile |
|
---|---|
Leader | Guillermo Teillier |
Founded | January 2, 1922 |
Headquarters | Vicuña Mackenna 31 Santiago |
Newspaper | El Siglo |
Youth wing | Juventudes Comunistas de Chile (JJCC) |
Coalition | New Majority |
Membership (2009) | 46,792 (8th) |
Ideology | Communism |
National affiliation |
Popular Unity (1969–1981) People's Democratic Movement (1983–1987) |
International affiliation | Sao Paulo Forum |
Colours | Red and Yellow |
Chamber of Deputies |
6 / 120
|
Senate |
0 / 38
|
Party flag | |
Website | |
http://www.pcchile.cl/ | |
The Communist Party of Chile (Spanish: Partido Comunista de Chile) is a Chilean political party inspired by the thoughts of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. It was founded in 1922, as the continuation of the Socialist Workers Party, and in 1932 it established its youth wing, the Communist Youth of Chile (Juventudes Comunistas de Chile [abbr:JJ.CC]).
In the 2013 legislative elections the party won as part of the New Majority list 6 out of 120 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
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. At the time, the U.S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 27,500.