This “counter-revolutionary” threat galvanized the left wing of the party led by the senior Maoist leaders of the youth movement and the paramilitary militias, namely Ange Diawara, Ambroise Noumazalaye and Claude-Ernest Ndalla who, in December 1971, attempted to marginalize Marien Ngouabi into the minority during the special session of the Central Committee of the PCT, convened following the student strikes of November 1971.