Guadeloupe Communist Party

(GCP; Parti communiste Guadeloupéen). As an independent party, the GCP was created at its first congress, held in Capesterre in 1958. (From April 1944 until 1958 a communist federation existed in Guadeloupe, which was included in the structure of the French Communist Party.)

The GCP, working for peace, democracy, and socialism, is one of the most authoritative parties in Guadeloupe. In the 1968 elections to the French National Assembly, the GCP received 37.3 percent of the vote; one of the three deputies elected from Guadeloupe in the French Parliament was a Communist. In 1971 the GCP occupied a significant role in ten of the 34 municipalities of Guadeloupe; it headed eight of them. The GCP influences the Guadeloupe General Labor Federation, the leading labor union, and the Union of Guadeloupe Women. The Union of Communist Youth was created on the initiative of the GCP in late 1967.

The Second Congress of the GCP (1961) defined the basic problem facing the GCP—that is, uniting all workers in the struggle for the internal autonomy of Guadeloupe within the framework of the French Republic. The third congress (1964) established a political, economic, and social program to achieve autonomy (establishment of local legislative assemblies and executive organs, the carrying out of agrarian reforms, and the development of cooperation). In 1965 an antiparty group formed in the leadership of the GCP, and their fractional activities drove the party to the brink of a split. In 1966 and 1967 this group was exposed and expelled from the party. The Fourth Congress (1968) affirmed the basic political undertaking of the party, and took steps to further strengthen its organization and ideology. Delegations from the GCP participated in the International Conferences of Communist and Workers’ parties in 1960 and 1969, and the GCP endorsed the documents adopted at these conferences.

The GCP’s organizing principle is democratic centralism. Its organizational structure consists of cells on the lowest level, sections on the middle level, and the congress on the highest level. Between congresses, the GCP is headed by the Central Committee and the Politburo of the Central Committee. The first secretary is Guy Daninthe. The central organ is the weekly Etincelle. In 1971 the GCP had 1,500 members.