Communist Party of Malaya

(CPM), founded Apr. 30, 1930; the First Congress of the party was held in 1935.

During World War II (1939–45) the CPM and other national patriotic forces waged an armed struggle against the Japanese occupiers beginning in 1941. Under the leadership of the CPM an anti-Japanese army was created in 1943; the army played a prominent role in driving the aggressors out of Malaya. In 1946 a united national liberation front was created on the initiative of the CPM; it was called the All-Malaya Council of Joint Action (from 1947, the United Popular Front), and it opposed the restoration of the British colonial system in Malaya. After the British colonialists instituted a state of emergency in Malaya in 1948, the CPM went underground and began an armed struggle. In 1949 the CPM created the Malayan People’s Liberation Army.

In 1955 the CPM adopted a program that called for driving the British colonialists out of the country and the establishment of a people’s republic in Malaya. In 1955 the CPM appealed to the government of the Federation of Malaya to end the civil war. The peace negotiations of December 1955 yielded no positive results. The CPM rejected the demand of the government of the Federation of Malaya for the complete surrender of its armed forces. In 1963 the CPM opposed the establishment of the Federation of Malaysia, consisting of the Federation of Malaya (which became independent in 1957), Singapore, and Sabah and Sarawak (North Kalimantan), and came out in support of national self-determination for the peoples of North Kalimantan.

Delegations of the CPM participated in the work of the international Conferences of Communist and Workers’ Parties held in 1957 and 1960 in Moscow. The CPM approved the documents of the conferences. Subsequently, the leaders of the CPM, falling under the influence of Maoism, isolated the party from the international communist movement. The leadership of the CPM refused to take part in the 1969 international Conference of Communist and Workers’ Parties.