First communist party in Cuba turns 97

Havana, Aug 16 (Prensa Latina) Cuba on Tuesday is commemorating the 97th anniversary of the founding of its first Communist Party, emerged to defend the interests of the working class and the popular sectors.

The organization was founded on August 16, 1925, and it is considered the successor of the Cuban Revolutionary Party (PRC), founded by José Martí, and precedes the current Communist Party of Cuba.

PRC founder and socialist fighter Carlos Baliño and student leader Julio Antonio Mella, along with others, participated in its foundation, an example of the conjunction of ideals that gave rise to the emergence of the first Marxist party of Cuba.

This marked the profoundly pro-independence and anti-imperialist vocation of that Party, which among its objectives was to join the Third International, founded by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in 1919.

Since its foundation, the communist organization faced fierce repression, for which reason it went underground only 15 days after its foundation and until 1938.

After the revolutionary triumph of January 1, 1959, the process of unity led by Fidel Castro brought about the merger in 1961, of the leftist political groups with the 26th of July Movement and the Revolutionary Directorate, in the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations.