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Workers' Party of Ethiopia የኢትዮጵያ ሠራተኞች ፓርቲ
General Secretary	Mengistu Haile Mariam
Founded	10–12 September 1984
Dissolved	21 May 1991
Preceded by	COPWE
Headquarters	Addis Ababa
Newspaper	Serto Ader
Ideology	Communism Marxism–Leninism[1] Nationalism[2] Ethno-nationalism[3] Pan-Africanism[4]
Party flag
Politics of Ethiopia Political parties Elections

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TheWorkers' Party of Ethiopia (Amharic:የኢትዮጵያ ሠራተኞች ፓርቲ,romanized: Ye'Ityopia Serategnoch Parti,WPE) was aMarxist–Leninistcommunist party inEthiopia from 1984 to 1991 led by General SecretaryMengistu Haile Mariam.^[5] The Workers' Party of Ethiopia was founded in 1984 by theDerg, the rulingprovisional government of Ethiopia, as thevanguard party for a planned futuresocialist state. In 1987, the WPE became theruling party after the establishment of thePeople's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, and theonly legal political party until it was disbanded in 1991. A party was attempted to be formed with the same name in August 2022, but the application was rejected.^[6]

In 1974, theDerg, a committee of low-ranking officers and enlisted men in theEthiopian Army, overthrewEmperorHaile Selassie and the government of theEthiopian Empire during the mass discontent in the country at the time. Originally a non-ideological representative committee for the military, the Derg became thede facto government of Ethiopia in the form of amilitary junta, and the following year it formally abolished the monarchy and declared itselfsocialist. The Derg received backing from theSoviet Union, who soon afterwards began to pressure them to create acivilian-basedvanguard party, and styled themselves as aprovisional government under the name Provisional Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia.Mengistu Haile Mariam became Chairman of the Derg in 1977 and argued against such a party, stating that the revolution had succeeded without one and that there was no need. However, by the late 1970s, the Derg faced increasing armed opposition to their rule, and it became apparent that a civilian party would be required to gain any measure of control over the population.

In December 1979, Mengistu formed theCommission for Organizing the Party of the Working People of Ethiopia (COPWE), a temporary political organization that served as a vanguard party for Ethiopia until a permanent one was created.^[7] A number of other pre-partymass organisations were also established, such as theRevolutionary Ethiopia Youth Association, hoping that these organisations would help lead to a unified party that would eliminatesectarianism and be based on broad yet clearly definedclass interests. The organisations were also intended to act as a conduit forpolitical consciousness at a more personal level by representing Ethiopians atcongresses, in the workplace, and ateducational institutes, and membership in multiple of the mass organizations was encouraged. The COPWE held three congresses for the mass organisations it had set up, and despite the best efforts of the government to encourage diversity, more than one third of those present at the first congress in 1980 were either soldiers orAddis Ababa residents. The 1980 congress unveiled the membership of the COPWE'sCentral Committee andSecretariat. The Secretariat, which controlled the more day to day aspects of the Central Committee's business and was supervised by the top Derg leadership, was composed of mainly civilianideologues. Regional branches of the Secretariat coordinated by army officers helped complement the COPWE's central leadership. The organisation became more powerful in 1981 with the creation of separate offices for administrator and COPWE representatives in each region. By 1983, there were about 50,000 COPWE members and approximately 6,500 party cells.

Mengistu's earlier calls for ideological purity and "committed communists" soon became a simple façade for the Derg's efforts to eliminate its political opponents regardless of actual beliefs. Loyalty to the Derg was preferred over dedication toMarxism-Leninism or certain ideological ideals in considerations for party membership. By this time, the military andpolice had also become the majority in the membership of the Central Committee, with 79 of its 123 members being soldiers, twenty of whom were also Derg members.

The Workers' Party of Ethiopia (WPE) was finally established on 12 September 1984, to mark the tenth anniversary of the revolution in which the Derg came to power, replacing the COPWE which was dissolved. Mengistu became the party leader under the titlegeneral secretary. The WPE'sPolitburo replaced the COPWE'sexecutive committee as Ethiopia's chief decision-making body, featuring eleven members: seven of them were the surviving members of the Derg, while the other four were civilian ideologues andtechnocrats. The Central Committee was expanded to 183 members, with party congresses every five years. Generally, Mengistu's wishes prevailed over any opposition, and thenepotism involved in the selection of Politburo members meant that opposition was usually marginal anyway, leading the entire council to serve more as a mouthpiece for Mengistu's wishes than as a legitimate government body.^{[citation needed]} At a national level, membership of the WPE was heavily slanted towards soldiers and members of certainethnic groups that had, historically, endorsed the concept of a unified "Greater Ethiopia", such as theTigray andAmhara.^{[citation needed]} However, at regional and local levels, ethnicity and military service became less relevant, with large numbers of civilians and members of various ethnicities in positions of power.

The adoption of the1987 Constitution of Ethiopia established the WPE as the official ruling party of Ethiopia, dissolving the Derg and renamed the country thePeople's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. The WPE's position as "formulator of the country's development process and the leading force of the state and in society" was enshrined into law by the 1987 constitution, and as in most communist countries, the constitution gave the party more political power than the government itself, with local party leaders given almost free rein provided their policies did not conflict with the party's Central Committee.

By the time the WPE came to power in the late-1980s, Ethiopia had been ravaged bydroughts and the Derg's mismanagement of the country, and theworld's communist movement wasdeclining. By the turn of the 1990s, the WPE's power began to unravel amidst the end of Soviet support in 1990, a concurrent move towards multi-party politics across Africa, and increasing armed insurrection during theEthiopian Civil War. Mengistu then fled the country, fleeing one week before rebelsdefeated the government and took power in Ethiopia in 1991. The WPE was dissolved in May 1991, by the newTransitional Government of Ethiopia, and most of its leaders were imprisoned for alleged crimes they had committed in their positions during the party's rule.

• Blanquism

• Ethiopian Civil War
• Banned communist parties
• Communist parties in Ethiopia
• 20th century in Ethiopia
• Defunct political parties in Ethiopia
• Parties of one-party systems
• Formerly ruling communist parties
• Political parties established in 1984
• Political parties disestablished in 1991
• 1984 establishments in Ethiopia
• 1991 disestablishments in Ethiopia

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