Blas Roca Calderio
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| Blas Roca Calderio | |
|---|---|
 |
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| President of the National Assembly of People's Power | |
| In office 2 December 1976 – 1981 |
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| Vice President | Raúl Roa García |
| Preceded by | None |
| Succeeded by | Flavio Bravo Pardo |
| General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Popular Socialist Party | |
| In office December 1933 – 24 June 1961 |
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| Preceded by | Jorge Vivo |
| Succeeded by | Fidel Castro |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 24 July 1908 Manzanillo, Cuba |
| Died | 25 April 1987 (aged 78) |
| Political party | Popular Socialist Party, Communist Party of Cuba |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Blas Roca Calderio (24 July 1908 – 25 April 1987) was a Cuban politician who served as President of the National Assembly of People's Power in Cuba from 1976 to 1981. He was also head of the Communist Party of Cuba and editor of the communist newspaper Hoy.
Political life
Blas Roca, a leading theoretician of the Cuban Revolution who led Cuba's prerevolutionary Communist Party, left school at the age of 11 and began shining shoes to help support his poor family. He changed his name to Roca, meaning 'rock', after he joined the Communist Party in 1929.[1]
In 1929, he was elected Secretary General of the Union of Shoemakers of Manzanillo. In August 1931 he was co-opted to the Central Committee of the Communist Party and head of his organization in the East. During this stage displayed a wide journalistic activity in the labor press and led the popular protests that culminated in the historic general strike of August 1933, which overthrew the Machado dictatorship.[2]
Blas had grown remarkably in a few years as result of their own ability and intensive blanks in the struggles workers' and popular and was called to the capital at the times that the party needed a strong and guiding direction, more so when the leader of the moment Ruben Martinez Villena, would make his last public appearance in September 1933, at Mella fire's remains, to never recover their lamentable condition. Thus, at 26 years of age, Blas had become the leader of the Communists Cubans.
Under his leadership, the party met their duty in exemplary internationalist with the Spanish Republic, with a formidable campaign that included not only moral and material assistance but also sending about a thousand combatants to the International Brigades.
In 1938, also as a result of heavy fighting, an appropriate tactics and a favorable international situation, the Communist Party agrees to the legality and the name of Blas Roca is inserted permanently in the national political developments. That was more hated than ever by the bourgeoisie and the imperialism. The reactionary press has intensified his attacks on the Communist leader, accusing him of unpatriotism and anti-nationalism.
However, the workers mobilized conducted in legality, unit with progressive sectors of national life and the revolutionary propaganda, to force a call to Free and sovereign Constituent Assembly for which they were Communists elected delegates, including Blas Roca, and approval of the 1940 Constitution, which are embodied many progressive provisions.
Since the legality of the party maintained a full-Bias support to the unity of the working class and all national sectors struggle for genuine economic and political independence of the country. Along with Lazaro Pena and Jesus Menendez, prominent leaders workers they helped form, built a central union which united all the streams of the working class and the designed with a revolutionary sense of class.
With the coup of 10 March 1952, which is opposed from the Initially, and on 26 July 1953, which starts a new stage of struggle in the history of Cuba, the Communist Party returns underground, not removed until 1959.
Roca also served from 1976 through 1981 as president of the National Assembly of Popular Power.
Books
Roca published numerous books, articles and pamphlets before and after the revolution, including The Fundamentals of Socialism in Cuba.
