| People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola - Labour Party Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola - Partido do Trabalho |
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| Leader | José Eduardo dos Santos |
| President | José Eduardo dos Santos |
| Founded | December 1, 1956 |
| Headquarters | Luanda, Angola |
| Youth wing | Youth of MPLA |
| Ideology | officially Social democracy (formerly Marxist-Leninist) |
| Political position | centre-left with neo-liberal tendencies [1] |
| International affiliation | Socialist International |
| Website | |
| http://www.mpla-angola.org/ | |
| Politics of Angola Political parties Elections |
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The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola - Labour Party (Portuguese: Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola - Partido do Trabalho) 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 1961-75, and ultimately defeated UNITA and the FNLA in the Angolan Civil War of 1975-2002.
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On December 1, 1956, in Portuguese Angola (during the Estado Novo regime) the 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 movements merged into MPLA, such as Movement for the National Independence of Angola (MINA) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Angola (FDLA).
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.
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.
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.
In 1977 the MPLA adopted Marxism-Leninism as the party ideology. 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 1983 the MPLA added Partido do Trabalho (Party of Labour) to its name.
In the 1992 elections, MPLA-PT won 53.74% of the votes and 129 out of 227 members of parliament. 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.[4]
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).
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,[5] Cape Verde Islands, Czechoslovakia,[6] the Congo, Cuba, Guinea-Bissau, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, North Korea, the People's Republic of China, Romania, São Tomé and Príncipe, Somalia, [7] the Soviet Union, Sudan,[6] Tanzania, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia. While China did briefly support the MPLA,[8] 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.[9][10]
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