The PCE(m-l) party was formed by communists dissatisfied that the Communist Party of Spain, under the leadership of Santiago Carrillo, had abandoned the armed struggle in 1964. It remained small throughout its existence and in 1968 it shrunk further when a sector of its militants abandoned the party to join the Organisation of Marxist–Leninists of Spain.[4]
The party was legalized in 1981.[3] That year, a split surged in the party, with a dissident group forming a parallel PCE(m-l) and publishing its own version of Vanguardia obrera.
The sixth and last congress of PCE(m-l) was held in 1992, voting to dissolve the party. An agreement was made to form a new group, the Partido Comunista Democratico, but that was never carried out. The main leader of PCE(m-l), Raúl Marco, had broken away in 1991 to form the Colectivo Octubre, which evolved into Organización Comunista Octubre.
The Organización Comunista Octubre merged with a number of other regional splits from the PCE (m-l) to form the Comité Estatal de Organizaciones Comunistas (CEOC).
The CEOC with four other communist organizations merged in 2007 to form the re-founded PCE(m-l).[6] The new PCE (m-l) continues the Hoxhaist line of the old PCE (m-l) and is an active member of the ICMLPO, an international grouping of Hoxhaist communist parties.
^Consuelo Laíz (1994). La lucha final, los partidos de la izquierda radical durante la Transición española. S.L. CYAN. PROYECTOS Y PRODUCCIONES EDITORIALES, Madrid. ISBN9788481980646