People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola
Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola |
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Abbreviation | MPLA |
Chairman | José Eduardo dos Santos |
Secretary-General | Paulo Kassoma |
Founder | Agostinho Neto, Viriato da Cruz |
Founded | 10 December 1956 |
Merger of | PLUA, MINE and PCA |
Headquarters | Luanda, Angola |
Newspaper | Jornal de Angola |
Youth wing | Youth of MPLA |
Women's wing | Angolan Women's Organization |
Paramilitary wing | FAPLA (integrated into Angolan Armed Forces) |
Ideology |
Democratic Socialism (official) 1977 to 1991: Communism Marxism–Leninism |
Political position | Centre-left (official) |
International affiliation |
Progressive Alliance, Socialist International |
African affiliation | Former Liberation Movements of SA |
Slogan | Peace, Work and Liberty |
National Assembly |
175 / 220
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SADC PF |
0 / 5
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Pan-African Parliament |
0 / 5
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Party flag | |
Website | |
www |
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The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, for some years called 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 1961–74, and defeated the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA), two other anti-colonial movements, in the decolonization conflict of 1974–75 and the Angolan Civil War of 1975–2002.
On December 10, 1956, in Estado Novo-ruled Portuguese Angola, 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. 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).
The MPLA's core base includes the Ambundu 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 People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA). The FAPLA later became the national armed forces of the country.