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Angola POPULAR MOVEMENT FOR THE LIBERATION OF ANGOLA-WORKERS' PARTY
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Figure 12. Structure of the MPLA-PT, 1988
Source: Based on information from Keith Somerville,
Angola Boulder, 1986, 88-89; and Popular Movement for the
Liberation of Angola-Workers' Party, Angola: Trabalho e luta,
Paris, 1985, 68.
Background
During the 1960s, the MPLA established its headquarters
at Kinshasa, Zaire, and then at Lusaka, Zambia, and
Brazzaville,
Congo. The MPLA's scattered bases and diverse constituent
groups
contributed to disunity and disorganization, problems that
were
exacerbated by personal and ideological differences among
party
leaders. The first serious split occurred in 1973, when
Daniel
Chipenda led a rebellion, sometimes termed the Eastern
Revolt, in
protest against the party's mestiço-dominated
leadership and
Soviet interference in Angolan affairs. Chipenda and his
followers
were expelled from the MPLA, and many joined the
northern-based
FNLA in 1975. Then in 1974, about seventy left-wing MPLA
supporters
based in Brazzaville broke with Agostinho Neto. This
opposition
movement became known as the Active Revolt. Shortly after
independence, a third split occurred within the party,
culminating
in the 1977 coup attempt by Nito Alves. Later in 1977, the
MPLA
transformed itself into a Marxist-Leninist vanguard party
and
launched a lengthy rectification campaign to unify its
membership,
impose party discipline, and streamline decision-making
processes.
In 1980 Angola was governed by a new head of state
under a
newly revised Constitution. The nation's first
legislature, the
People's Assembly, served as a symbol of people's power,
but state
organs were clearly subordinate to those of the party.
Within the
MPLA-PT, channels for political participation were being
narrowed.
Both government and party leaders established a hierarchy
of
organizations through which they hoped to mobilize rural
populations and broaden political support. At the same
time, MPLAPT leaders launched programs to impose party discipline on
the
party's cadres and indoctrinate all segments of society in
their
proper role in political development.
Overall goals were relatively easy to agree upon, but
poverty
and insecurity exacerbated disagreements over specific
strategies
for attaining these objectives. By the mid-1980s, the
party had
three major goals--incorporating the population into the
political
process, imposing party discipline on its cadres, and
reconciling
the diverse factions that arose to dispute these efforts.
Some
MPLA-PT officials sought to control political
participation by
regulating party membership and strengthening discipline,
while
others believed the MPLA-PT had wasted valuable resources
in the
self-perpetuating cycle of government repression and
popular
dissent. President dos Santos sought to resolve disputes
that did
not seem to threaten his office. However, much of the
MPLA-PT's
political agenda, already impeded by civil war and
regional
instability, was further obstructed by these intraparty
disputes.
Data as of February 1989
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