Workers' Party of Belgium
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Workers' Party of Belgium
Partij van de Arbeid van België Parti du Travail de Belgique |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| President | Peter Mertens |
| Founder | Ludo Martens |
| Founded | 1979 |
| Headquarters | M.Lemonnierlaan 171, 1000 Brussels |
| Youth wing | COMAC & Red Foxes |
| Ideology |
Marxism Communism Marxism-Leninism Socialism |
| Political position | Far-left |
| European affiliation | None |
| International affiliation |
International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties International Communist Seminar |
| European Parliament group | No MEPs |
| Colours | Red |
| Chamber of Representatives |
2 / 150
|
| Senate |
0 / 60
|
| Walloon Parliament |
2 / 75
|
| Brussels Parliament |
4 / 89
|
| European Parliament |
0 / 21
|
| Website | |
|
www.pvda.be (Dutch) www.ptb.be (French) |
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The Workers' Party of Belgium (Dutch: Partij van de Arbeid van België, PVDA; French: Parti du Travail de Belgique, PTB) is a Marxist political party in Belgium. It is one of the few parties that operates as a single Belgian party. Most other parties are either Flemish or Francophone.
The PVDA-PTB hosts the International Communist Seminar, which in recent years has become 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 revisionist, i.e. too much turned toward 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 the Vietnam War, and the Leuven-Vlaams movement, all perceived as aspects of a worldwide struggle against colonial or neo-colonial oppression and for civil or workers' rights.
Their support and participation in an important strike in the coalmines turned the movement into a political party. 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 programme and changed the name into PVDA-PTB. Ludo Martens became the first president, and remained an important ideologist of the party until his death in 2011.
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