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Workers Party of Belgium
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Belgian Workers Party was also the name of a socialist party that existed prior to World War I, which split following the foundation of the Comintern and gave rise to the Socialist Party and to theCommunist Party of Belgium.
The Workers' Party of Belgium (WPB) (Dutch: Partij van de Arbeid van België, French: Parti du Travail de Belgique) is a Belgian Maoist party. It is one of the few parties that operates as a single Belgian party. Most other Belgian parties are either Flemish or Francophone. The WPB has no seats in the Belgian parliament, having usually won no more than 1% in elections (last time 0.57%, according to broadleft.org).
The WPB hosts the International Communist Seminar, which in recent years has become the one of the main worldwide gatherings of communist parties.
The Workers Party of Belgium originated in the student movement at the end of the 1960s. Radicalized students (organized in the student union SVB - Studenten VakBeweging), mainly from the Catholic University of Leuven, turned towards the working-class movement. They considered the politics of the existing Communist Party of Belgium as being revisionist, i.e. too much turned toward the social-democratic politics (represented in Belgium by the Belgian Socialist Party). They were influenced by the ideas of the Communist Party of China, guerrilla movements in Latin America, the movement against Vietnam War, and the Leuven-Vlaams movement, all perceived as aspects of a worldwide struggle against colonial or neocolonial oppression and for civil or workers' rights.
Their support and participation in an important strike in the coalmines made their turn towards a political party a definite one. They founded a periodical, AMADA (Alle Macht Aan De Arbeiders - all power to the workers), which became the first name of their party. In 1979 the first congress was held, which adopted a Maoist program and changed the name to PVDA-PTB. Ludo Martens became the first president, and is still considered the most important ideologist of the party. A noticed observer at the first congress of the WPB was Laurent Kabila, who later took power in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, naming himself president.
In recent years, the Communist Party of Belgium has virtually disappeared, leaving the Workers' Party of Belgium as the biggest communist party in Belgium. The weekly paper "Solidair / Solidaire" has some influence in the trade-union movement in Belgium.
The party formed an electoral coalition in Flanders with the Arab European League for the 2003 elections, named RESIST, running a campaign that also called for the establishment of Islamic confessional schools for children, which would be financed by the government. After poor results, the AEL left the coalition to found Moslim Democratische Partij.
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Related subjects
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| Flemish parties | Christian Democratic and Flemish · Flemish Interest · Flemish Liberals and Democrats · Green! · List Dedecker · New-Flemish Alliance · Socialist Party – Different · spirit · VLOTT |
| Francophone parties | Ecolo · Humanist Democratic Centre · National Front · Reformist Movement (component parties: Citizens' Movement for Change · Democratic Front of Francophones · Liberal Reformist Party) · Socialist Party |
| German parties | Christian Social Party · Party for Freedom and Progress (component party of the MR) · Party of German-speaking Belgians |
| Pan-Belgian | Vivant |
| Portal:Politics - List of political parties - Politics of Belgium | |