The Mexican Communist Party was a communist party

Communist party

A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...

 in Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. It was founded in 1911 as the Socialist Workers' Party by Manabendra Nath Roy

Manabendra Nath Roy

Manabendra Nath Roy , born Narendra Nath Bhattacharya and popularly known as M. N. Roy, was an Indian nationalist revolutionary and an internationally known radical activist and political theorist. Roy was a founder of the Communist Parties in both Mexico and India and was a delegate to...

, a left-wing Indian intellectual. The PSO changed its name to the Mexican Communist Party in November 1919 following the Bolshevik Revolution

October Revolution

The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

 in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. It was outlawed in 1925 and remained illegal until 1935, during the presidency of the leftist Lázaro Cárdenas

Lázaro Cárdenas

Lázaro Cárdenas del Río was President of Mexico from 1934 to 1940.-Early life:Lázaro Cárdenas was born on May 21, 1895 in a lower-middle class family in the village of Jiquilpan, Michoacán. He supported his family from age 16 after the death of his father...

. The PCM later lost its registration in 1946 because it did not meet the new requirements of at least 30,000 registered members in at least 21 of Mexico's 31 states and the Federal District. It is not clear whether the party was unable to recruit enough members or if, fearing repression, it refused to turn membership rolls over to the Secretary of the Interior, then in charge of elections.

Over the next 30 years, the party had some minor influence in the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) and among the intelligentsia

Intelligentsia

The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...

 of Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

. In the mid 1960s the U.S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 50,000 (0.28% of the working age population of the country).

In 1976 the party nominated Valentín Campa

Valentín Campa

Valentín Campa Salazar was a Mexican railway union leader and presidential candidate. Along with Demetrio Vallejo, he was considered one of the leaders of the 1958 railway strikes...

 as its presidential candidate, competing (unofficially) against José López Portillo

José López Portillo

José López Portillo y Pacheco was the President of Mexico from 1976 to 1982.Born in Mexico City, López Portillo studied Law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico before beginning his political career with the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1959.He held several positions in the...

. Following the electoral reform of 1977 that lowered the barrier for parties to get on the ballot, the PCM regained temporary registration for the 1979 mid-term elections. After its poor showing and a two decade-long period of moderation during which it adopted a "Eurocommunist

Eurocommunism

Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...

" position, the PCM merged with three other far-left political parties

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 in November 1981 and became the Unified Socialist Party of Mexico

Unified Socialist Party of Mexico

The Unified Socialist Party of Mexico was a far-left political party in Mexico. It later became the Mexican Socialist Party in 1988...

 (PSUM). Most members of the PSUM then merged with somewhat more moderate left-wing groups to form the Mexican Socialist Party

Mexican Socialist Party

The Socialist Mexican Party was the former left-wing Mexican political party immediate antecedent of the present Party of the Democratic Revolution, it was the last effort of unification of the different Mexican parties of left and the last political party that the socialist word in its name was...

 (PMS) in 1987. The PMS never competed in national elections alone, having joined the National Democratic Front

National Democratic Front (Mexico)

The National Democratic Front was a coalition of left-wing Mexican political parties created in 1988 presidential elections, and that is the immediate antecedent of the Party of the Democratic Revolution. It was result of an agglutination of small political left and center-left forces with a...

 (FDN) to support the presidential bid of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano is a prominent Mexican politician. He was a former Head of Government of the Federal District and a founder of the Party of the Democratic Revolution .-Biography:...

 in 1988. What was the PMS was then absorbed into the newly formed Party of the Democratic Revolution

Party of the Democratic Revolution

The Party of the Democratic Revolution is a democratic socialist party in Mexico and one of 2 Mexican affiliates of the Socialist International...

 (PRD) in 1989. A Marxist-Leninist split is the Party of Mexican Communists

Party of Mexican Communists

The Party of Mexican Communists is a political party in Mexico. It is the radical continuation of the old Mexican Communist Party....

.

Secretaries General of the Mexican Communist Party

• 1959-1963 Collective Secretariat of the Mexican Communist Party
• 1963-1981 Arnoldo Martínez Verdugo
  Arnoldo Martínez Verdugo
  Arnoldo Martínez Verdugo is a Mexican socialist politician and democracy activist. A long-standing leader of the Mexican Communist Party and the Unified Socialist Party of Mexico , Martínez promoted political self-criticism, refused to support regional guerrilla movements, condemned the Soviet...
  
  

Further reading

• Barry Carr, Marxism & Communism in Twentieth-Century Mexico (University of Nebraska Press, 1992) ISBN 0-8032-1458-8
• Bruhn, Kathleen Taking on Goliath: The Emergence of a New Left Party and the Struggle for Democracy in Mexico (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997)