Belgium

In terms of its political charter (approved in January 2009 during the World Social Forum in Belém, Brazil), CADTM, as an international organization, does not appear to focus on feminism or on specific work with women. However, all its work regarding debt cancellation implicitly aims for women’s emancipation. For CADTM debt cancellation is merely a means to achieve a goal; the liberation of all human beings – women and men – from all forms of oppression. - read article...

On Friday 28 May 2010, in the late afternoon, Denise died suddenly following a heart attack in a Brussels street as she walked to the railway station to catch a train back to Liège after participating in a Forum on the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of the Democratic Republic of Congo. During this activity in support of the Congolese people, she had again been outstanding for her impassioned speeches and infectious good humour. - read article...

Around 250 people attended a colloquium in Brussels on 19 November to discuss the life and ideas of Ernest Mandel, who died ten years ago this year. - read article...

We have learned with immense sadness of the death of our comrade Denise Comanne, last Friday May 28, following a mild heart attack, just after she had participated in a solidarity activity with the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo. - read article...

Despite cold rainy weather and a strike that seriously affected the railways, 4000 people demonstrated in Brussels on December 8 “for climate and solidarity.” - read article...

The Belgian section of the Fourth International LCR/SAP pays tribute to a long standing member, Jos Geudens. A tribute is being organised in Antwerp on Saturday the 3rd of April. - read article...

The dominant class and the main political parties have shown themselves incapable of solving they political crisis that they themselves created. - read article...

The politics into which Belgium is sinking remain unintelligible if we do not grasp the specific interaction between objective and subjective factors, and between the long history of the country and recent developments. - read article...

With the political crisis stemming from the difficulty experienced by the right wing parties in forming a new federal executive because of “community quarrelling” thousands of people, essentially in Francophone Belgium, are hanging Belgian flags in their windows. - read article...

After more than a hundred days of information, formation, exploration and discussions, it seems there is only the shadow of the beginning of a perspective of an orange-blue government in Belgium, or of any other Belgian government for that matter. - read article...

The recent elections have provoked debate on the left about the crisis of the federal Belgian state. This contribution by journalist Chris Den Hond illustrates many of the issues under discussion; it should not be taken as a formal expression of the views of our Belgian section. - read article...

The coming together of a left electoral bloc for the May 2007 elections is leading towards the formation of a new left party in Belgium. - read article...

The Belgian government triggered a massive wave of social protest last month when it attacked the ‘bridge pension’. The SAP/POS (Belgian section of the Fourth International) explains the roots of the crisis and points a way forward. - read article...

Belgium’s European elections took place amid relative indifference, not the least of paradoxes in the country which is home to the European Parliament. Significant regional elections (since Belgium became a federal state, the Flemish, Brussels, Walloon and German-speaking regions possess greater powers) were held at the same time and these commanded all the attention. - read article...

Our articles on the floods in Pakistan have given details of how to send financial aid to the Labour Relief Fund. If it is more convenient for you, you can also send funds through the Europe Solidaire Sans Frontieres account. - read article...

Pakistan is facing worst ever floods of its history. Torrential rains have unleashed flash floods in different parts of the country since last three weeks. Water levies broke leaving the people exposed to flood water. More than 12 million people have suffered due to these floods. More than 650,000 houses have collapsed, mainly in villages. Thousands of acres of crops have been destroyed due to flood water. Houses, live-stock such as cattle’s and goats, household goods, clothes, shoes and other items have been destroyed. Residents of villages are currently without drinkable water, food, shelter and in need of clothes. In particular, the situation is dire for children and women and they are in desperate need of food and clothing. Disease is spreading fast in the areas affected due to lack of drinkable water. In particular, flu, fever, diarrhea, cholera have been noted and are spreading. - read article...

An unexpected, unthinkable, yet - concerning current circumstances - quite expectable and natural thing has occurred yesterday night. Three public social activists that have always expressed a consistent antifascist attitude and shunned civil indifference have been detained. - read article...

We, the participants at the Istanbul ESF, affirming that we have a strong engagement aganist all war and occupation and that we are for a politial resolution of the Kurdish issue, have made the following resolution : - read article...

Under the impulse of the World Bank and international capitalist institutions, the Moroccan regime started a privatization process of the universities and attacks against the right to studiy. The announcement of the “Emergency plan” to the university at beginning of the academic year, i.e. of the brutal aggravation of these attacks, put a spark to the powder. The class-struggle trade unionists of fight, organised within the UNEM, are at the forefront of the mobilization against the “Emergency plan”. - read article...