Jean-Michel Bokamba-Yangouma

Jean-Michel Bokamba-Yangouma is a Congolese politician. He was a prominent political figure from the 1970s to the 1990s, heading the Congolese Trade Union Confederation (Confédération syndicale congolaise, CSC). He is currently the President of the General Movement for the Construction of Congo (Mouvement général pour la construction du Congo, MGCC), a political party.

Bokamba-Yangouma is from Cuvette Region in northern Congo-Brazzaville. He was the Secretary-General of the CSC from 1974 to 1997. During the single party rule of the Congolese Labour Party (PCT), he also became a member of the PCT Political Bureau in 1979 and was assigned responsibility for party organization. In addition, he was Secretary of the Central Committee in charge of the coordination of the party and the activities of mass organizations from 1984 to 1990. In 1989, he was assigned responsibility for the coordination of the activities of mass organizations in the Political Bureau; for Bokamba-Yangouma, who had been the regime's third-ranking figure, the occasion marked a decline in influence, which was related to the CSC's active opposition to applications of the Structural Arrangement Programme. He remained on the Political Bureau until 1991.

Seeking greater political reform and the establishment of multiparty politics, the CSC unsuccessfully sought its independence from the PCT in 1990. It led a general strike and protests in September–October 1990, causing the PCT regime to allow the creation of other political parties. Bokamba-Yangouma joined the opposition shortly before the February–June 1991 National Conference, playing a key role in ending the PCT regime. He was the First Vice-President of the Higher Council of the Republic during the 1991–92 transitional period leading to multiparty elections. Following the 1992 local elections, which were organized by the government of Prime Minister André Milongo and were widely criticized, Bokamba-Yangouma successfully worked to have Milongo's government deprived of its responsibility for organizing the subsequent parliamentary and presidential elections. Leading a political party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), he was then elected to the National Assembly and became the First Vice-President of the National Assembly. Bokamba-Yangouma, who was allied with President Pascal Lissouba, served as President of the Economic and Social Council until Lissouba was ousted at the end of the June–October 1997 civil war. Bokamba-Yangouma fled into exile at the end of the war.

...
Wikipedia