In December 1979, Mengistu formed the Commission for Organizing the Party of the Working People of Ethiopia (COPWE), a temporary political organization that served as a vanguard party for Ethiopia until a permanent one was created. A number of other pre-party mass organisations were also established, such as the Revolutionary Ethiopia Youth Association, hoping that these organisations would help lead to a unified party that would eliminate sectarianism and be based on broad yet clearly defined class interests. The organisations were also intended to act as a conduit for political consciousness at a more personal level by representing Ethiopians at congresses, in the workplace, and at educational institutes, and membership in multiple of the mass organizations was encouraged. The COPWE held three congresses for the mass organisations it had set up, and despite the best efforts of the government to encourage diversity, more than one third of those present at the first congress in 1980 were either soldiers or Addis Ababa residents. The 1980 congress unveiled the membership of the COPWE's Central Committee and Secretariat. The Secretariat, which controlled the more day to day aspects of the Central Committee's business and was supervised by the top Derg leadership, was composed of mainly civilian ideologues. Regional branches of the Secretariat coordinated by army officers helped complement the COPWE's central leadership. The organisation became more powerful in 1981 with the creation of separate offices for administrator and COPWE representatives in each region. By 1983, there were about 50,000 COPWE members and approximately 6,500 party cells.
