Laredo Bru`s government enacted a series of reforms. Under a
three-year plan, he pushed through passage of the Law of Sugar
Coordination in 1937, which organized small farmers into cooperatives and unionized agricultural workers. In 1938 Laredo Bru created a powerful national union, the Confederation of Cuban Workers (Confederación de Trabajadores de Cuba-CTC).
He also outlawed debt peonage and guaranteed tenant farmers a share of their crops and protection against seizure of their lands. Later on, social security benefits were extended to rural workers, and state lands were divided among small growers. Political groups opposing the United States, from fascist to communist, were allowed to operate in Cuba. A Constitutional Assembly was elected in 1939, and it met for the first time in February 1940, with Grau as its chairman. At the end of 1939 Batista resigned his post as commander of the armed forces and ran for the presidency, under a coalition supported by the Communist Party of Cuba (Partido Comunista de Cuba-PCC) and the Revolutionary Union Party (Partido Union Revolucionario-PUR); the two were merged to form the Communist Revolutionary Union (Union Revolucionario Communista-URC).
In 1944 the party`s name was changed to the Popular Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Popular-PSP). Batista then defeated Grau, who ran as the candidate of the Cuban Revolutionary Party (commonly known as the Autenticos), in the 1940 elections.