Ali Yata

Who was Ali Yata?

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 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.

In 1960 PCM was banned. Yata then founded the Party of Liberation and Socialism, which was banned in 1969. In 1974 he founded the Party of Progress and Socialism. 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.