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The Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF), known more commonly in Ethiopia as Woyane or Weyane (Ge'ez: ሕዝባዊ ወያኔ ሓርነት ትግራይ, Tigrinya: ḥizbāwī weyānē ḥārinet tigrāy, "Popular revolution (for) the freedom of Tigray") is a political party in Ethiopia. At the last legislative elections, 15 May 2005, the party was the main part of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, that won 327 out of 527 seats.^[1]

In the August 2005 Regional assembly elections, the party won all 152 seats in the Tigray Region.^[2]

In the early 1970s a grouping of Tigrayan revolutionaries formed the Tigrean National Organization. TNO formed clandestine cells and carried out propaganda work amongst the people. During the 1974 popular uprising, TNO played an important role in mobilizing the people of Tigray. After the takeover by the Derg junta, TNO claimed that armed struggle was necessarily to remove the new regime. In february 1975, the TNO was transformed into the TPLF, after having conducted political and military preparations.^[3]

Along with groups like the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, the TPLF fought against the authoritarian Derg regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam. TPLF had close cooperation with Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement, and controled large areas of Wollo and Gondar jointly.^[4] From 1983, the core cadres of TPLF founded the Marxist-Leninist League of Tigray in the line of Albanian Party of Labour. They incorporated the name Woyane in the title of their organization as an intentional reference to the Woyane rebellion, a revolt in Tigray that arose and was crushed in 1943.^[5]

TPLF was led by a Central Committee and a politburo. TPLF was divided in four regional organization, three in Tigray and one of them organizing the cadres outside of Tigray. Each of the regions in Tigray had politburo members coordinating their activities. The foreign committee supervised subdivisions in Sudan, Middle East, Europe and North America.^[6]

Following the success of the TPLF in 1991 in gaining control of Ethiopia, and the collapse of communist regime in Albania, the TPLF dropped all references to Marxism-Leninism. The leadership of the TPLF claims that the MLLT dissolved when the TPLF-backed Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front took power after the collapse of the Derg in 1991.

Members of the TPLF include: Meles Zenawi (the Chairman), Seyoum Mesfin, Sebhat Nega, Arkebe Equbay, Abay Tsehaye, Tsegay Berhe, Siye Abraha, Sara Abraham (behind-the-scenes member), Tadesse Gebregzabier, Haftom Abraha, Gebrezgi Alemayahu (deceased), and Weyen (deceased).

1. ^ Ethiopian House of Peoples' Representatives Website
2. ^ African Elections Database
3. ^ Torstensson, Gösta. Befrielsekampen i Tigray. Stockholm: Kommunistiska Arbetarförlaget, 1986. p. 4-5.
4. ^ Torstensson, Gösta. Befrielsekampen i Tigray. Stockholm: Kommunistiska Arbetarförlaget, 1986. p. 8.
5. ^ Bahru Zewde, A History of Modern Ethiopia, second edition (Oxford: James Currey, 2001), pp. 215, 259.
6. ^ Torstensson, Gösta. Befrielsekampen i Tigray. Stockholm: Kommunistiska Arbetarförlaget, 1986. p. 14.

• Kahsay Berhe: Ethopia: Democratization and Unity: The Role of the Tigray's People Liberation Front, Münster 2005 ISBN 3-86582-137-5
• Jenny Hammond: Fire From the Ashes: A Chronicle of the Revolution in Tigray, Ethiopia, 1975-1991. Lawrenceville 1999 ISBN 1-56902-087-6
• John Young: Peasant Revolution in Ethiopia: the Tigray People's Liberation Front, Cambridge 1997. ISBN 0-521-59198-8

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