Two generations fused in a dream for the future

Jorge Ernesto Angulo Leiva, Granma, August 16, 2024 — 

On August 16, 1925, the first Communist Party of Cuba was founded

That summer day, two generations of Cubans came together in an embrace that was utopia, a demand for justice and a dream for the future. The first Communist Party on the island was born 99 years ago, led by the “Old Oak” Carlos Baliño, and by Julio Antonio Mella, a new pine tree standing tall in the concrete jungle of the neocolony.

The house number 81 of Calzada Street, in Vedado, where today culture smiles in the Hubert de Blanck theater hall, hosted, on August 16 and 17, 1925, the constituent congress of the vanguard political organization, in the midst of the obligatory clandestinity before the asphyxiating climate imposed by President Gerardo Machado.

Less than 20 delegates and invited participants elected José Miguel Pérez as the first general secretary, and agreed to follow the Third International, defender of proletarian internationalism.

At the same time, they distanced themselves from the Socialist Grouping of Havana, aligned with the Second International, whose leaders supported their respective bourgeoisies in the First World War.

Together with the most progressive ideas of the planet, the first Communist Party deepened in the national independence roots, which were rooted in the heritage of the Apostle. Baliño met him in person and collaborated in the Cuban Revolutionary Party, while Mella tried to rediscover him for the youth of his time, through works such as Glosas al pensamiento de José Martí (Glosses on the thought of José Martí).

In the Lucha de clases (Class Struggle) Newspaper, the organization demonstrated a willingness to balance between its own emancipatory traditions and those of the world: “With Lenin’s teaching, we will make Martí’s postulate a reality, adapted to the historical moment: With all and for the good of all.”

The Party elaborated a program for the study of Marxism-Leninism and the use of the workers’ press, while initiating the battle for the proletarian and peasant demands, and the rights of women and youth. Despite the small attendance at that inaugural meeting, it was enough to sow the seed that was one of the antecedents of the current Communist Party of Cuba, vanguard of the Revolution.