Who is MPLA?

While there is much controversy as to which group s the oldest, MPLA or FNLA there is little argument when it comes to which group is the better known, a fact attributable to the sophistication and experience of MPLA's propaganda and information section.

Recently, the North American-based left organizations, such as Liberation Support Movement and the folks around the Guardian newsweekly, with their promotion of MPLA have brought additional supporters in to the ranks.

MPLA evolved out of the combined efforts of a small number of mestizo-led radical organizations and the PCA (The Angolan Communist Party), which in large part accounts for the erroneous charges today that MPLA is a Marxist organization. This is obviously the origin of its ties to the Soviet Union.

Since 1956, it has been the strategy of this urban-based organization to confine its operations to the port cities, with Luanda as the key possession. This, again, coincides perfectly with the Soviets' need for a naval base to correspond with their eastern facility in Berbera, Somalia.

As a result of its earlier development, MPLA carried the brunt of the struggle against the Portuguese in the 1960's. But there is some contention on this point, for several historians feel that it was FNLA that was most instrumental in the early phases of the armed struggle against the Portuguese.

Nonetheless, owing to the fact that MPLA's struggle was limited ostensibly to the urban areas, it failed to gain much of a following among the peasants of Angola's vast countryside.

From a tribal standpoint, MPLA is composed primarily of Mbundu, who are about one and a half million in number.

The defection of Daniel Chipenda, formerly one of the chief commanders (now with FNLA), was a serious setback to the organization's multi-ethnic design. Chipenda is an Ovimbundu.

Ideologically, MPLA claims first to be anti-imperialist, but refuses to be designated socialist. President Neto, in all his speeches, is careful to state that he is neither communist nor socialist but first of all "a patriot."

MPLA is said to have some 20,000 troops, with the best of arms the Soviet bloc can supply - including more than 200 T-54 tanks and armored cars, SAM-7 missiles, 122mm ground-to-ground rockets, recoilless rifles, and at least two squadrons of MIG-21s, ad nauseaum.

Though the bloody Katangese mercenaries, the killers of Lumumba, have long been affiliated with MPLA, it is the growing number of Cubans who are leading the way in the major battles in the north and the central portions of Angola. By the end of this month. there should be close to 15,000 Cubans off in Angola.

- H.B.