Macedonian People's League
The Macedonian People's League was a leftist organization, founded in the USA.History
The foundations of the MPL were set by Smile Vojdanov in Pontiac, Michigan in 1929. In 1930, the first conference of the League was held in Toledo, Ohio, with Smile Vojdanov being elected as a chairman of the Central Committee and Georgi Pirinski Sr. as a secretary. The first regular congress of MPL was held in Gary, Indiana in 1931, and since then the Macedonian People's League has been formed. Immediately after its formation, the MPL was associated with various left-wing organizations in the United States and Europe, as well as with the Comintern.
It established relations with the Comintern's leader Georgi Dimitrov. Dimitrov praised the work of Georgi Pirinski publicized in Daily Worker in August 1935. Pirinski appealed to Bulgarian Americans to heed the call for action by their countryman Dimitrov. In 1938, the MPL was renamed the Macedonian-American People's League, and its branch - the Macedonian-Canadian People's League was founded in the Canada. The League published in Bulgarian language the Weekly "People's Will".
The organization supported the creation of an independent Macedonia within a Balkan Federation. It was the first organization in the United States to support the idea that Macedonian Slavs constitute a separate nationality. MPL acted aggressively against the Macedonian Patriotic Organization, that it believed, was a Bulgarian agent. During 1940s MPL supported the creation of the People's Republic of Macedonia within Communist Yugoslavia and favored the establishment of Communist regimes throughout Eastern Europe. Finally, because of its pro-Communist stance, the League was disbanded in 1948. The leaders of MPL either chose to leave the country or were deported. Some of them went back to Socialist Bulgaria and became highly placed officials there.
