Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia

The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (, PSUC) was a communist political party active in Catalonia between 1936 and 1997. It was the Catalan branch of the Communist Party of Spain and the only party not from a sovereign state to be a full member of the Third International. History The PSUC was formed on 23 July 1936 through the unification of four left-wing groups; the small Catalan Federation of Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), the Partit Comunista de Catalunya (Communist Party of Catalonia, the Catalan branch of the Communist Party of Spain, PCE), the Unió Socialista de Catalunya (Socialist Union of Catalonia) and the Partit Català Proletari (Proletarian Catalan Party. a Catalan separatist far left party). Burnett Bolloten estimates that at unification, the party numbered some 2,500 members. Nine months later, the party ranks had swollen to 50,000 members. The first leaders of the PSUC were Joan Comorera and Rafael Vidiella, both from the ranks of socialism. Comorera, a former USC leader, was elected general secretary of the new party, and Miquel Valdés, of the PCC, became secretary of the organization. Other leaders or prominent people of the PSUC came from the old PCC, as was the case of Víctor Colomer, Pere Ardiaca, José del Barrio Navarro, Antonio Sesé or Hilari Arlandis. Vidiella, Sesé or Del Barrio also came from the UGT workers union (del Barrio was secretary of the UGT in Catalonia) and a long time ago they had been members of the CNT.