Ali Yata was a Moroccan communist leader. He was born in

Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capi ...

on 25 August 1920. Yata took part in the foundation of the

Moroccan Communist Party The Moroccan Communist Party was a political party in Morocco. The party was established in November 1943 on the basis of the individual communist groups that had been active in Morocco since 1920.Great Soviet EncyclopediaМарокканская � ...

(PCM) in 1943. After a few years he became the general secretary of the party, replacing the founding general secretary

Léon Sultan Léon Réne Sultan (; September 13, 1905 – June 23, 1945) was a French-Algerian lawyer and founder of the Communist Party of Morocco. Background He was born to an Algerian Jewish family—one of 8 children—in Constantine, Algeria in 1905. ...

who died in 194

In 1960 PCM was banned. Yata then founded the

Party of Liberation and Socialism The Party of Liberation and Socialism ( ar, حزب التحرر والاشتراكية; french: Parti de la libération et du socialisme, abbr. PLS) was a communist party in Morocco that existed from 1968 to 1974. Ali Yata was the general secreta ...

, which was banned in 1969. In 1974 he founded the

Party of Progress and Socialism The Party of Progress and Socialism ( ar, حزب التقدم والاشتراكية, translit=Hizb Al-Taqadoum Wal-Ishtirakiyeh; zgh, ⴰⴽⴰⴱⴰⵔ ⵏ ⵓⴼⴰⵔⴰ ⴷ ⵜⵏⵎⵍⴰ; french: Parti du Progrès et du Socialisme, PPS) ...

(PPS). He became increasingly moderate, and supported the claims of the Moroccan government on

Western Sahara Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the ...

. After the fall of the Socialist Bloc, his party distanced itself from communism. Ali Yata died on 12 August 1997, aged 76. He was replaced by Ismaïl Alaoui as the leader of PPS.

References

External links

Obituary in l'Humanité
1920 births 1997 deaths Yata Ali Party of Progress and Socialism politicians Moroccan Communist Party politicians Moroccan communists {{Morocco-politician-stub