Counting urban mestiços and assimilados, in addition to some liberal whites among its ranks, the MPLA was explicitly inclusive and set out to unite Angolans of different ethnic, religious, and regional backgrounds into one independence movement.  Many of the founders had been members of the Communist Party of Angola (PCA) and a Marxist class-based ideology was adopted by the movement, partially as a uniting force for a group without a strong ethnic or regional base. 