Mozambique Liberation Front
Frente de Libertação de Moçambique |
|
---|---|
Abbreviation | FRELIMO |
Leader | Filipe Nyusi |
Secretary-General | Eliseu Machava |
Founder |
Eduardo Mondlane Samora Machel |
Founded | 25 June 1962 |
Merger of | MANU, UDENAMO and UNAMI |
Headquarters |
Dar es Salaam (1962–75) Maputo (1975–present) |
Youth wing | Mozambican Youth Organisation |
Women's wing | Mozambican Women Organisation |
Veteran's League | Association of Combatants of the National Liberation Struggle |
Ideology |
Democratic socialism Marxism–Leninism (1977–89) |
Political position | Centre-left to Left-wing |
International affiliation | Socialist International |
African affiliation | Former Liberation Movements of Southern Africa |
Colours | Red |
Slogan | Unity, Criticism, Unity |
Assembly of the Republic |
144 / 250
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SADC PF |
0 / 5
|
Pan-African Parliament |
0 / 5
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Election symbol | |
Drum and an ear of corn | |
Party flag | |
Website | |
www |
The Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) (Portuguese pronunciation: [fɾeˈlimu]), from the Portuguese Frente de Libertação de Moçambique is the dominant political party in Mozambique. Founded in 1962, FRELIMO began as a nationalist movement fighting for the independence of the Portuguese Overseas Province of Mozambique. Independence was achieved in June 1975 after the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon the previous year. At the party's 3rd Congress in February 1977, it became an officially Marxist–Leninist political party. It identified as the Frelimo Party (Partido Frelimo).
The Frelimo Party has ruled Mozambique since then, first as a one-party state. It struggled through a long civil war (1976-1992) against an anti-Communist faction known as Mozambican National Resistance or RENAMO. The insurgents from RENAMO received support from the then white-minority governments of Rhodesia and South Africa. The Frelimo Party approved a new constitution in 1990, which established a multi-party system. Since democratic elections in 1994 and subsequent cycles, Frelimo has been elected as the majority party in the parliament of Mozambique.
After World War II, while many European nations were granting independence to their colonies, Portugal, under the Estado Novo regime, maintained that Mozambique and other Portuguese possessions were overseas territories of the metropole (mother country). Emigration to the colonies soared. Calls for Mozambican independence developed rapidly, and in 1962 several anti-colonial political groups formed FRELIMO. In September 1964, it initiated an armed campaign against Portuguese colonial rule. Portugal had ruled Mozambique for more than four hundred years; not all Mozambicans desired independence, and fewer still sought change through armed revolution.