General Secretary

"First secretary" redirects here. For other uses, see First secretary (disambiguation).

The office of General Secretary (or First Secretary) is staffed by the chief officer (sometimes also the leader) of:

• Some political parties, especially Communist or Socialist Parties
• Some church organizations, such as the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches
• Some trades unions, especially in the United Kingdom
• Consumer organizations, such as the National Consumers League
• The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace, a government agency for the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace

Leaders of current Communist parties

The official title of the leader of most Communist and Socialist political parties is the "General Secretary of the Central Committee" or "First Secretary of the Central Committee". When a Communist party is in power, the General Secretary is usually the country's de facto leader (though sometimes this leader also holds state-level positions to monopolize power, such as a presidency or premiership in order to constitute de jure leadership of the state).

Official title	Incumbent	Term start	Other names
General Secretary of the Communist Party of China	Xi Jinping	15 November 2012	Chairman of the Communist Party of China (1922–25, 1943–82)
First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea	Kim Jong Un	17 December 2011	Chairman of the Worker's Party of Korea (1949–66) General Secretary of the Worker's Party of Korea (1966–2011) Title changed in 11 April 2012
First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba	Raúl Castro	19 April 2011
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam	Nguyễn Phú Trọng	8 January 2012	Chairman of the Workers' Party of Vietnam (1951–69) First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Vietnam (1951–76)
General Secretary of the Progressive Party of Working People	Andros Kyprianou	21 February 2009
General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party	Choummaly Sayasone	1st term: 21 March 2006 2nd term: 21 March 2011	Chairman of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (1991–2006)
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Britain	Robert Griffiths	January 1998
First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation	Gennady Zyuganov	14 February 1993
General Secretary of the Communist Party USA	Sam Webb	October 2000

Leaders of former Communist parties

Official title	Incumbent	Term start	Other names
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union	Office abolished (last: Mikhail Gorbachev)	Until 24 August 1991	Technical Secretary of the Bolshevik Party(1917–18) Chairman of the Secretariat of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (1918-19) Responsible Secretary of the RCP(b) (1919–22) First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1953–66)
General Secretary of the Albanian Party of Labour	Office abolished (last: Ramiz Alia)	Until 4 May 1991
General Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party	Office abolished (last: Mieczysław Rakowski)	Until January 29, 1990
General Secretary of the Bulgarian Communist Party	Office abolished (last: Petar Mladenov)	Until January 15, 1990
General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party	Office abolished (last: Nicolae Ceaușescu)	Until 22 December 1989
General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany	Office abolished (last: Egon Krenz)	Until 3 December 1989
General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party	Office abolished (last: Károly Grósz)	Until 7 October 1989
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea	Office abolished (last: Pol Pot)	Until 8 December 1981

See also

• Secretary-general