The Workers' Party of Ethiopia (WPE) was a Marxist-Leninist political party which served as the ruling party of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia from 1987 until its downfall in 1991 at the end of the Ethiopian Civil War. The WPE was created to replace the Derg military junta, and it served as the sole legal party of the nominally civilian-ruled PDRE, with Derg chairman Mengistu Haile Mariam serving as its Chairman. The WPE served as a civilian-based vanguard party, replacing the Commission for Organizing the Party of the Working People of Ethiopia (COPWE; established in 1979 as a temporary ruling party). In 1990, as the armed separatist groups gained ground and the USSR cut off aid to the PDRE, the Workers' Party of Ethiopia formally abandoned Marxism in favor of a mixed economy, but Mengistu was forced to flee Addis Ababa before it fell to the EPRDF in May 1991. The WPE was then dissolved by the EPRDF's Transitional Government, and most of its leadership was imprisoned for their roles in the Derg and PDRE's abuses.
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