Democratic Communist Party (Gylias)
Democratic Communist Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 1946 |
| Newspaper | The New World |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Far-left |
| National affiliation | Progressive Alliance |
| Colours | Red |
| Website | |
| http://www.dcp.gls/ | |
The Democratic Communist Party (French reformed: Parti communiste democratique), abbreviated DCP (PCD), is a Gylian political party, part of the Progressive Alliance bloc.
Established in 1946, it has been a leading anarchist organisation in Gylian politics, and one of the most successful far-left parties.
History
The Democratic Communist Party was founded in 1946, in the Free Territories. It was established as a political arm of the anarchist movement, separate from the Anarchist Federation, intended to better coordinate work in the General Council and regional congresses.
The first central committee of the party was formed by the Freeman sisters, whose 30-year tenure had a great impact on the party's development and its internal culture. They brought an element of platformism, and cultivated close ties with social movements. This element would be realised in full by Julie Legrand, who amassed enormous power within the party. She imposed a level of platformism and party discipline that chafed anarchists but made it a powerful organisation and rallying point during the Golden Revolution.
After the Darnan Cyras government left office, Julie remained a Deputy until her retirement in 2008, making her the last parliamentarian to have been first elected to the Popular Assembly. She maintained her power and influence within the DCP until her retirement, cementing her position as the party's "establishment", and sought to suppress the party's factional battles and moderate its image.
The DCP won a plurality in the 1958 federal election, with 20,1% of the vote. It formed an alignment with the Socialist Party and Social Democratic Party, which became the Progressive Alliance.
During the Golden Revolution, the party enjoyed an outsize influence that contrasted with its very small pluralities of first preference votes in 1962 and 1969. It possessed great prestige as the party of the Liberation War and a colourful reputation, aided by ministers like Aliska Géza, Julie Legrand, and Birgit Eckstein.
Becoming known as the party's "chief ideologue", Julie used her influence to heavily promote her vision of left-wing politics, dubbed "Julieism", which became a dominant influence on the DCP and the party's "establishment" or "mainstream" stance.
The loss of expected successor Aliska Géza before the 1976 federal election threw the PA into disarray, and it tied the Revolutionary Rally for first place. Participating in a coalition with the RR was a highly controversial topic, and the DCP spent the wretched decade torn by factional battles between "coalitionists" and "oppositionists", damaging its credibility. Julie's faction, the most powerful in the DCP, sided firmly with the "oppositionists".
It joined Filomena Pinheiro's grand coalition cabinet after the Ossorian war crisis of 1986.
During the 1990s, the DCP took an ambiguous stance towards Mathilde Vieira's "plural coalition" — formally outside it, but with two cabinet members from the party.
Ideology
The DCP represents the anarcho-communist and left communist formation of the PA, whose platform emphasises workers' self-management, decentralised planning, common ownership of the means of production, and direct democracy.
During the second phase of the Liberation War, the party moved to a withering away of the state position, provoking lasting controversy in the anarchist camp.
Symbols
The DCP uses the colour red as its official colour, and a mixture of anarchist symbolism and the hammer and sickle as its electoral symbol.
