The Malian Party of Labour ( French: ''Parti malien du travail'', PMT) is a Marxist-Leninist

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

and a member of the coalition supporting the Alliance for Democracy in Mali of president

Amadou Toumani Touré Amadou Toumani Touré (4 November 19489 November 2020), also popularly known in Mali by his initials ATT (), was a Malian politician. He supervised Mali's first multiparty elections as chairman of the transitional government (1991–1992), and la ...

. Founded in 1965, it was prominent in the student resistance to the 1968-1991 military regime of General

Moussa Traoré Moussa Traoré (25 September 1936 – 15 September 2020) was a Malian military officer, politician, and dictator who served as the second President of Mali from 1968 to 1991. As a lieutenant, he led the military ousting of President Modibo Ke� ...

. It continues as an extra-parliamentary

Hoxhaist Hoxhaism ( , ) is a variant of Marxism–Leninism developed in the late 1970s as a result of a schism in the anti-revisionist movement, namely between the Chinese Communist Party and the Party of Labour of Albania. The ideological dispute bet ...

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

faction within the

Social-Democratic Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, socia ...

ADEMA-PASJ coalition, supporters of the Alliance for Democracy and Progress.

Formation

The PMT was a Marxist-Leninist outgrowth of the , founded in 1958, itself collaborating with the US-RDA of Modibo Keita. The PMT formed a separate entity in 1965, and was even during the RDA period a semi-clandestine organisation.

Under military rule

The group began to gain prominence only after the 1968 coup by General Moussa Traoré. From 1968, the PMT was one of the most active of underground opposition to the Military regime, and especially drew from student groups. The PMT was one group that had been involved in the leftist '' Union Nationale des Élèves et Étudiants du Mali'' (UNEEM), which the regime of Moussa Traoré replaced with a state controlled organisation, the '' Union Nationale des Jeunes du Mali'' (UNJM). The PMT and other elements of the UNEEM—those who had prodded the RDA government from the left like the PMT, and those that had been part of the ruling RD, became the basis for much internal resistance to the military. This mostly took place in the form of labour struggles, propaganda, and the printing and distribution of illicit newspapers and pasting of anti-government placards in the streets of Mali's cities.

Underground activism

Prominent PMT activists in the 1960s and 1970s included (A PAI founder), Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga,. Adama Dramé. bamanet.net (2008) and Cheick Moctary Diarra, who at the same time was a prominent government journalist.Thierry Perret
Le temps des journalistes: l'invention de la presse en Afrique francophone
KARTHALA Editions, (2005) pp.126-129. The last two were both graduates of the Senegalese university program, a breeding ground for resistants to the government while outside Mali. Other prominent activists included Yaya Maïga, Aly Sankaré, Hamidou Ongoïba, Aboubacar Oumar Maïa, and . Some elements of the PMT entered the government as clandestine Communists, including Dr. NGolo Traoré and the future Prime Minister of Mali, Alpha Oumar Konaré, who joined the Military government as Labour Minister from 1978 to 1980.

Coalitions

On 20 January 1986 at Thiaroye,

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

, the PMT joined a coalition with the underground former youth wing of the RDA, the Malian Party for Revolution and Democracy (le Parti Malien pour la Révolution et la Démocratie, PMRD) and the French-based Democratic People's Front of Mali (Front Démocratique et Populaire Malien, FDPM). This new group was called the . They were joined by other clandestine groups, including the Groupe Tiémoko Garan Kouyaté. In 1990, the remnants of the RDA also joined, forming the Alliance for Democracy in Mali (ADEMA-PASJ), the political coalition that penned a famous 7 August 1990 open letter demanding General Traoré step down and was heavily involved in the 1991 popular unrest overthrew of his regime.Mamadou Fofana
History page at ADEMA-PASJ website
.

Post 1991

The PMT continued as a Hoxhaist-Communist faction within the ADEMA-PASJ coalition. In 2007, former PMT leader, 2002 presidential candidate and then ADEMA vice-president Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga openly opposed their support of the ruling Alliance for Democracy and Progress of president Amadou Toumani Touré. On 24–25 February 2007 ADEMA-PASJ delegates voted to expel Boubèye Maïga, along with former PMT members Issa Diarra, Ibrahima Kantao, Binta Yattassaye and Oumar Ag El Méhidi."Soumeylou Boubèye Maiga exclu de l’ADEMA"
Panapress ('' Jeuneafrique.com''), February 26, 2007 .

References

*Abderhamane Baba Touré and Kadari Bamba. La Contribution du Parti malien du travail (PMT) à l’instauration de la démocratie au Mali. Bamako, Editions Jamana (2001) {{DEFAULTSORT:Malian Party Of Labour 1965 establishments in Mali Communist parties in Mali Hoxhaist parties Labour parties Political parties established in 1965 Political parties in Mali