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MPLA

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MPLA
LeaderJosé Eduardo dos Santos
PresidentJosé Eduardo dos Santos
FoundedDecember 1, 1956
HeadquartersLuanda, Angola
Youth wingYouth of MPLA
IdeologySocial democracy
(self-declared)[1]
1977-1991: Marxism-Leninism (official)[1]
International affiliationSocialist International
Seats in the National Assembly
191 / 220
Website
http://www.mpla-angola.org/

The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola - Labour Party (Template:Lang-pt) is a political party that has ruled Angola since the country's independence from Portugal in 1975. The MPLA fought against the Portuguese army in the Angolan War of Independence of 1961-74, and defeated UNITA and the FNLA in the decolonization conflict 1974-75 and the Angolan Civil War of 1975-2002.

Formation

On December 1, 1958, in Portuguese Angola (during the Estado Novo regime) the tiny underground Angolan Communist Party (PCA) merged with the Party of the United Struggle for Africans in Angola (PLUA) to form the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, with Viriato da Cruz, the President of the PCA, as Secretary General.[2][3] Later other groups merged into MPLA, such as Movement for the National Independence of Angola (MINA) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Angola (FDLA).[4]

The MPLA's core base includes the Mbundu ethnic group and the educated intelligentsia of the capital city, Luanda. The party formerly had links to European and Soviet Communist parties but is now a full-member of the Socialist International grouping of social democratic parties. The armed wing of MPLA was the Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA). The FAPLA later became the national armed forces of the country.

In 1960, the MPLA joined the PAIGC, its fraternal party in Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde, in direct combat against the Portuguese empire in Africa. The following year, the expanded umbrella group CONCP replaced FRAIN, adding fellow Marxist-Leninists FRELIMO of Mozambique and the CLSTP, forerunner of the MLSTP of São Tomé and Príncipe.

Independence and civil war

The Carnation Revolution in Lisbon, Portugal in 1974 established a military government that promptly ceased anti-independence fighting in Angola and agreed to hand over power to a coalition of three pro-independence Angolan movements. The coalition quickly broke down and the newly independent Angola broke into a state of civil war.

South Africa intervened militarily in favor of the conservative FNLA and UNITA, and Zaire and the United States also heavily aided the two groups. Cuba deployed thousands of troops in 1975 to aid the MPLA, with the Soviet Union aiding both Cuba and the MPLA government during the war. In November 1980, the MPLA had all but crushed UNITA, and the South African forces withdrew. The United States Congress barred further U.S. military involvement in the country, fearing another Vietnam-style quagmire.

MPLA poster. The slogan translates as "Victory is certain".

Maintaining control over Luanda and the lucrative oil fields of the Atlantic coastline, the MPLA declared Angola's independence on November 11, 1975, the day the Portuguese abandoned the capital. Poet and freedom fighter Agostinho Neto became the first president upon independence, and he was succeeded by José Eduardo dos Santos in 1979.

At its first congress, in 1977, the MPLA adopted Marxism-Leninism as the party ideology and added Partido do Trabalho (Labour Party) to its name.[1] After a violent internal conflict called Fractionism, it made it clear that it would follow the socialist, not the communist model. However, it maintained close ties with the Soviet Union and the Communist bloc, establishing socialist economic policies and a one-party state. Several thousand Cuban troops remained in the country to combat UNITA insurgents and bolster the regime's security.

This led to civil war with UNITA, which received varying degrees of support from the U.S. and South Africa in the 1980s. The war continued until 2002, when UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi was killed. The two parties promptly agreed to a ceasefire, and a plan was laid out for UNITA to demobilize and become a political party.

In 1990, when the cold war ended, MPLA abandoned its Marxist-Leninist ideology and on its third congress, in December, the party declared social democracy to be its official ideology.[1]

Electoral history

In the 1992 elections, MPLA-PT won 53.74% of the votes and 129 out of 227 seats in parliament; however, eight opposition parties rejected the 1992 elections as rigged.[5] In the next election, delayed until 2008 due to the civil war, the MPLA won 81.64% of the vote and 191 out of 220 parliamentary seats.[6]

Human rights record

The MPLA government of Angola has been accused of human rights violations such as arbitrary arrest and detention and torture[7] by international organisations, including Amnesty International[8] and Human Rights Watch.[9] Rudolph Rummel, an analyst of political killings, estimated that between 100,000 and 200,000 Angolans died in the MPLA's democide between 1975 and 1987.[10] After Nito Alves's attempted coup in 1977, Agostinho Neto ordered the killing of suspected followers and sympathisers of "orthodox communism" inside and outside the party. Thousands of people were estimated to have been killed by Cuban and MPLA troops in the aftermath over a period that lasted up to two years, with some estimates claiming as high as 70,000 dead.[11][12][13][14] Other incidences of human rights violations include the Halloween Massacre, where tens of thousands of UNITA and FNLA sympathizers were killed nationwide by MPLA forces following the Angolan general election of 1992.[5]

Party organizations

At present, major mass organizations of the MPLA-PT include the Organização da Mulher Angolana (Angolan Women's Organization), União Nacional dos Trabalhadores Angolanos (National Union of Angolan Workers), Organização dos Pioneiros de Agostinho Neto (Organization of Pioneers of Agostinho Neto), and the Juventude do MPLA (Youth of MPLA).

Foreign support

During both the Portuguese Colonial War and the Angolan Civil War, the MPLA received military and humanitarian support primarily from the governments of Algeria, Bulgaria, East Germany,[15] Cape Verde Islands, Czechoslovakia,[16] the Congo, Cuba, Guinea-Bissau, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, North Korea, the People's Republic of China, Romania, São Tomé and Príncipe, Somalia,[17] the Soviet Union, Sudan,[16] Tanzania, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia. While China did briefly support the MPLA,[18] it actively supported the MPLA's enemies, the FNLA and later UNITA, during the war for independence and the civil war. The switch was the result of tensions between China and the Soviet Union for dominance of the communist bloc, which almost led to war.[19][20]

See also

Literature

  • Inge Brinkmann, War, Witches and Traitors: Cases from the MPLA's Eastern Front in Angola (1966-1975), Journal of African History, 44, 2003, pp. 303–325
  • Mario Albano, Angola:una rivoluzione in marcia, Jaca Book, Milano 1972

References

  1. ^ a b c d Santos, Hélia (2008), "MPLA (Angola)", A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures - Continental Europe and its Empires, Edinburgh University Press, p. 480
  2. ^ Africa Year Book and Who's who. 1977. p. 238.
  3. ^ Tvedten, Inge (1997). Angola: Struggle for Peace and Reconstruction. p. 29.
  4. ^ John Marcum, The Angolan Revolution, vol. I, The Anatomy of an Explosion (1950-1962), Cambridge/Mass. & London, MIT Pres, 1969
  5. ^ a b National Society for Human Rights, Ending the Angolan Conflict, Windhoek, Namibia, July 3, 2000 (opposition parties, massacres); John Matthew, Letters, The Times, UK, November 6, 1992 (election observer); NSHR, Press Releases, September 12, 2000, May 16, 2001 (MPLA atrocities).
  6. ^ "Angolan ruling party gains about 82% of votes in legislative race", Xinhua, September 17, 2008.
  7. ^ "UN reports Angola 'torture' abuse". BBC News. 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-09-28.
  8. ^ Angola. Amnesty USA.
  9. ^ Angola. Human Rights Watch.
  10. ^ Power Kills. Hawaii.edu.
  11. ^ Sulc, Lawrence. "Communists coming clean about their past atrocities." HUMAN EVENTS, (October 13, 1990): 12.
  12. ^ Ramaer, J. C. SOVIET COMMUNISM: THE ESSENTIALS. Second Edition. Translated by G. E. Luton. Stichting Vrijheid, Vrede, Verdediging (Belgium), 1986.
  13. ^ Georges A. Fauriol and Eva Loser. Cuba: The International Dimension, 1990. Page 164.
  14. ^ Domínguez, Jorge I. To Make a World Safe for Revolution: Cuba's Foreign Policy, 1989. Page 158.
  15. ^ Howe, Herbert M (2004). Ambiguous Order: Military Forces In African States. p. 81.
  16. ^ a b Wright, George (1997). The Destruction of a Nation: United States Policy Towards Angola Since 1945. pp. 9–10.
  17. ^ Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges (1986). The Crisis in Zaire. pp. 193–194. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ China Study Centre (India) (1964). China Report. p. 25.
  19. ^ Walker, John Frederick (2004). A Certain Curve of Horn: The Hundred-Year Quest for the Giant Sable Antelope of Angola. p. 146.
  20. ^ Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges (1986). The Crisis in Zaire. p. 194. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
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