Popular Socialist Party

The Popular Socialist Party (, PSP) was a communist party in Cuba. It was founded in 1925 as the Cuban Communist Party by Blas Roca Calderio, Anibal Escalante, Fabio Grobart, Alfonso Bernal del Riesgo, and Julio Antonio Mella. Mella acted as the party's leader until his assassination in Mexico in 1929. It was later renamed the Communist Revolutionary Union in 1939. After the electoral victory of the in the 1944 elections, the party went into decline and eventually adopted the name "Popular Socialist Party" to appeal to the electorate. The party published the daily newspaper ("Today") 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 the Comintern's 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-American 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.