, Communist Party of Chile leader and founder (1912–1924) , Secretary-General of the PCCh (1958–1990) The PCCh was founded on 4 June 1912 by
Luis Emilio Recabarren, after he left the
Democrat Party. The party was initially known as the Socialist Workers' Party, before adopting its current name on 2 January 1922. It achieved congressional representation shortly thereafter and played a leading role in the development of the Chilean labor movement. The party was founded as Chile began to
industrialize. In the 1920s, the
nitrate industry was booming, and many of its workers were among the first communists. The movement then gained momentum within the coal, textile, and port unions. Closely tied to the
Soviet Union and the
Third International, the PCCh participated in the
Popular Front (
Frente Popular) government of 1938, growing rapidly among the unionized working class in the 1940s. It then participated to the Popular Front's successor, the
Democratic Alliance. Concern over the PCCh's success at building a strong electoral base, combined with the onset of the
Cold War, led to its being outlawed in 1948 by a
Radical government, a status it had to endure for almost a decade until 1958 when it was again legalized. By the 1960s, the party had become a veritable political subculture, with its own symbols and organizations and the support of prominent artists and intellectuals such as
Pablo Neruda, the
Nobel Prize-winning poet, and
Violeta Parra, the songwriter and folk artist. At the time, the
U.S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 27,500. It later came to power along with the
Socialist Party in the
Unidad Popular ("Popular Unity") coalition in 1970. Within the broad Unidad Popular alliance, the communists sided with Allende, a relative moderate from the Socialist Party, and other more moderate forces of that coalition, supporting more gradual reforms and urging to find a compromise with the Christian Democrats. This line was opposed by more radically leftist factions of the Socialist Party and smaller far-left groups. The party was outlawed after the 1973
coup d'état that deposed
President Salvador Allende. Much of the Communist leadership went underground, and for a while the party's moderation continued even after the coup had taken place. Also, it has been argued by
Mark Ensalaco that crushing the Communist Party was not a top priority for the military junta. In its first statement after the coup, the party leadership still argued that the coup could succeed because the Unidad Popular was too isolated, due to actions of the 'far-left'. Around 1977, the party changed direction. The Communist Party set up a
guerrilla organization, the
Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front. With the restoration of democracy and the election of a new president in 1990, the Communist Party of Chile was legalized again. As part of the Popular Unity coalition the PCCh advocated a broad alliance; however, it swung sharply to the left after the 1973 coup, regretting the failure to issue arms to the working class and pursuing an armed struggle against Pinochet's regime. Since the restoration of democracy it has acted independently of its previous partners. Between 1983 and 1987 it was a member of the
People's Democratic Movement. Under Pinochet's regime, around 500 of its members were murdered. In the 1999/2000 presidential elections, the party announced
Gladys Marín as their presidential candidate, becoming Marin as
the first female candidate to contest the first round of a presidential election in Chile, alongside
Sara Larraín. Marín won 3.2% of the vote in the first round. At the
2005 legislative election, 11 December 2005, the party won 5.1% of the popular vote, but as a result of Chile's
binomial electoral rules, no seats. The small but significant support of the PCCh is believed to have aided in the electoral victories of former socialist president
Ricardo Lagos in the 2000 elections, and in the more recent victory of Chile's first female president, the socialist
Michelle Bachelet in January 2006, both of whom won in competitive second round runoffs. From 2013 to 2018, the PCCh was a member of
New Majority (), a leftist coalition led by
Michelle Bachelet. == Political positioning ==