Democratic Way announces formation of a new workers’ Party in Morocco

The new Workers’ Democratic Way Party will be based on the idea of Marxism-Leninism with a program for greater working class and regional unity against exploitative, regressive and imperialist forces

July 28, 2022 by Abdul Rahman
Democratic Labor Party Morocco
(Photo: via annahjaddimocrati.org)

At the end of its fifth national conference, the Democratic Way in Morocco announced the formation of a new political party, the Workers’ Democratic Way Party, as a party of the working class with a socialist and anti-imperialist ideology. The three-day conference was held in Rabat on July 22, 23 and 24.

The conference elected an 81-member central committee and a 21-member political bureau of the new party and elected comrade Jamal Berrajaa as its general secretary and Abdel Hamid Amin and Zahra Azlaf as his deputies.

According to a statement issued after the end of the conference, the new party will be an independent party for the working class in Morocco fighting for “national liberation, democracy and socialism.”

The three-day conference was held despite hostilities and repression by the state authorities. The Moroccan government had not only denied permission for holding the conference at a public venue, but also took violent action against Democratic Way leaders when they protested the denial earlier this month.

Read more: Morocco’s Democratic Way blocked from holding national conference, supporters attacked by police

The Democratic Way thanked the Rabat Bar Association which finally provided the venue for the conference.

At the end of the conference, Democratic Way relieved General Secretary Mustafa Brahma from his work for the organization.

A socialist and anti-imperialist party 

The Workers’ Democratic Way Party will work on a program that aims to create a socialist society in Morocco. It will focus on “proletarianization” of its cadres by inculcating a revolutionary spirit among them for this purpose, said a statement released at the end of the conference. The statement proclaimed that the new party would be based on Marxism-Leninism as an ideology, also generously borrowing from the works of Mao Zedong and others. The new party will wage struggles against neoliberal capitalist exploitation and authoritarianism in Morocco.

As per the statement, the new party will adhere to internationalism and an anti-imperialist ideology with greater solidarity with all anti-capitalist movements across the world. “The party also adopts the principle of self-determination of peoples and seeks to contribute to building a Marxist international as an authentic process in its political and theoretical line,” the statement read.

The party will resist all attempts to snatch the basic rights of workers by opposing regressive laws that curtail the rights to strike and unionize.

The statement declared that the Workers’ Democratic Way Party will aim to revive all popular movements in Morocco, including the movements for the right to health, work, decent housing, and against price rise that affects the living standard of people. It declared that the party will make efforts to build a united front with trade unions and other struggling masses.

The party also aims to create a National Union of Moroccan Students as a single union of all students in the country, and similar unions for women and other marginalized sections. It also aims to carry forward the movement for the rights of the Berber minority in the country, and wants to establish a secular Morocco.

The statement further called on all progressive forces in the country to join the Moroccan Social Front to fight against the government’s attempts to normalize relations with Israel, for the fight for self-determination of Western Sahara, and to establish greater regional unity against imperialist aggression, authoritarian tendencies and reactionary elements.

Apart from calling for the end of the war in Ukraine, the Democratic Way conference also demanded the dissolution of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the end of imperialist loot and destruction of resources in Africa, Latin America, and other parts of the world.