Ali Yata

1920 - 1997

Moroccan journalist and left-wing politician.

Ali Yata was the first Muslim secretary-general of the Moroccan Communist Party. He served until it was banned in 1959. Later he established the party of Liberty and Socialism (1968) and the party of Progress and Socialism (1974, as its secretary-general). He also founded the newspaper al-Bayane. Yata was elected deputy in the 1977 elections saying that democratic progress had begun, but he demanded annulment of the 1983 local elections alleging fraud. He participated in the 1984 legislative elections. Yata supported Moroccan claims to the Sahara in the 1960s and to the Western Sahara in the 1970s and 1980s.

— C. R. PENNELL

Ali Yata was a Moroccan communist leader. He was born in Tangier in 1920. Yata took part in the foundation of the Moroccan Communist Party (PCM) in 1943. After a few years he became the general secretary of the party, replacing the founding general secretary Léon Soltane who died in 1945.[1]

In 1960 PCM was banned. Yata then founded the Liberation and Socialism Party, which was banned in 1969. In 1974 he founded the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS). He became increasingly moderate, and supported the claims of the Moroccan government on Western Sahara. After the fall of the Socialist Bloc, his party distanced itself from communism.

Ali Yata died in 1997. He was replaced by Ismaïl Alaoui as the leader of PPS.[2]

External links

• Obituary in l'Humanité
• Photo of Yata with Mao Zedong

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