Workers' Party of Belgium

Workers' Party of Belgium Partij van de Arbeid van België Parti du Travail de Belgique Partei der Arbeit Belgiens
Abbreviation	PTB . PVDA . PAB
President	Raoul Hedebouw
General Secretary	Peter Mertens
Founder	Ludo Martens
Founded	1979
Preceded by	All Power To The Workers
Newspaper	Solidaire / Solidair
Student wing	Comac
Youth wing	RedFox, Pioneers
Women's wing	Zelle
Political orientation	Socialism Reformism
International affiliation	IMCWP

The Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB/PVDA) is a is a Belgian party that declares themselves to be communist. Some observers consider it to have turned to reformism and abandoned communism in 2008.

History

First congress - 1979

The PTB-PVDA is officially born in the "foundation congress" on the 4th of November 1979, with 4000 people attending. This congress is the result of 10 years of work to formalize AMADA-TPO, a Marxist–Leninist student-worker's movement born out of the 1968 student movement. Ludo Martens becomes its first president, and will stay president until the 8th congress in 2008.

Here the PTB-PVDA first describes itself as Marxist-Leninist.

The Workers' Party is based on the scientific doctrine of socialism, the fundamental laws of which are indicated by dialectical and historical materialism. This doctrine, of which Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Zedong are the main teachers, is not a dogma but, like any science, it must develop as society evolves.

Second congress - 1983

Three books got written out of the discussions and conclusions of the 1983 congress:

• The Liquidationist Trend within the Marxist-Leninist Movement: Report and Summary of Discussions and Amendments.
• Party and Front: Report and Summary of Discussions and Amendments.
• Revolutionary Morality.

Fifth congress - 1995

In January 1995 is held the fifth congress. The position of general secretary is created and attributed to Nadine Rosa-Rosso. Ludo Martens writes with her help The party of revolution, based on the lessons of the congress.

The book outlines in minute detail how the party should be organized as a "Bolshevik-type communist party" for the future, to reach goals such as ensuring ideological commitment within the cadres, enforcing discipline, eradicating revisionism and opportunism etc.

It was publicly the official organizational manual of the PTB-PVDA until 2015

Sixth congress - 1997

The sixth congress prolonged for four years the "rectification period", the following of the fifth congress' lessons:

The period of rectification [was] initiated since the 5th Party Congress in 1995 and extended by four years during the 6th Congress in 1997. The purpose of the rectification period was to revolutionize the leadership, to form a stable core leadership, and to rectify the Party according to four axes: enhancing the sense of responsibility among cadres, placing politics in command, combating bureaucratism, tightening ties with the masses, fighting individualism, and strengthening control.

This congress is accused in the ninth congress throwing away the third congress' (the "union congress") lessons out the window, diving in sectarianism and leading to its worst electoral score in history.

Seventh congress - 2002

The seventh congress, "Communism, the future of humanity" marks the end of the "rectification period" of its practices through the lessons of the fifth congress. It marks out a plan for applying it further in the five following years ("IMPACT 2002-2006").

Another main point is a lowering of requirements for entry some "basis cells", in hopes of becoming a mass party.

Eighth congress - 2008

Named the "renewal congress", the eighth congress takes place in over a year, starting in 2007. Peter Mertens is elected president in place of Ludo Martens. Nadine Rosa-Rosso was purged from the party in 2003, unlike Ludo which will stay in the party until his death in 2011, becoming the party's "Central Africa expert".

The renewal congress is where the party adopts its new style of communication. It is divided in four main parts:

Chapter 1: "The future is for socialism"

Here, it argues for the necessity of socialism in Europe and in the world. It ends arguing for its new direction:

The evolution of society places us before a double task. The new PTB-PVDA wants, in the coming period, to be both a party of principles and a flexible party. In a world of change fast, we need a strong backbone. Our Marxist analysis and our commitment to socialism make the identity of our party. This is the subject of chapter 2. At the same time, we need flexibility and openness to stick to people's reality, to raise their awareness, to mobilize them read and organize them (this is chapter 3) and transform the party into a workers’ party (chapter 4).

Chapter 2: "A principled party"

This part is opened with its analysis of the treason of the POB — which later became the Socialist Party, the current Belgian social-democrats:

Some comrades say that the main objective for the party is to intervene more openly, more flexibly and more tactically. This is a mistake. The main objective of the party is to be firm on principles and flexible. Both, and at the same time. Anyone who dissociates the need to be flexible, open and tactical will soon bow to the pressure of capital.

This danger is not new. History teaches us that abandoning principles in the name of tactics and flexibility can go very quickly. The Belgian Workers' Party, the forerunner of today's PS, was founded in 1885. The POB quickly abandoned a number of socialist principles - especially after its first electoral victory in 1894. It is worthwhile today to examine this process a little more closely. Very quickly, there was a great aversion to substantive debate and to socialist theory. [...] The properties of the capitalist system, the objectives of socialism, the long-term interests of the working class... all this was quickly ‘forgotten’ and sacrificed in favour of the real or supposed advantages of the moment.

Very quickly, there was a great aversion to substantive debate and to socialist theory. [...] The properties of the capitalist system, the objectives of socialism, the long-term interests of the working class... all this was quickly ‘forgotten’ and sacrificed in favour of the real or supposed advantages of the moment.

Despite the statutes, power within the party shifted towards the party's parliamentarians to the detriment of the elected leadership, the General Council. The elected members of parliament placed themselves above the party leadership. They began to work for parliamentary life or for themselves, not in the service of the whole.

The party became a party of parliamentary legality instead of a party of class struggle. The party ended up being afraid of the workers' movement. It encouraged calm.

It then affirms their ideological basis:

The PTB's view of the world is called Marxism. Its foundations were laid by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin.

Later on, it outlines its strategy, calls itself (and defines) a "contemporary communist party", re-affirms the importance of strict democratic centralism, and its belonging to the "international communist movement".

Chapter 3: "A flexible party"

Here the party outlines the importance for tactics, its tactical recommendations, which maybe most notably contains:

We make a distinction between what happens in the dining room and what in the kitchen. The best chefs don't reveal all their secrets. The situation in the kitchen is often more chaotic than the atmosphere of the dining room. The party needs enough attention and space for all strategic and tactical questions. For the outside world, we need to know what is essential. In the limited time and space that the media gives us, we want to focus on that, even if journalists are often more interested in our internal cooking or the difficult points in our programme.

Chapter 4: "A workers' party"

The party here explains the way it wants to become a mass party of organized workers, but also outlines the new strategy it should adopt in order to attain that goal.

Ninth congress - 2015

The eighth congress forms the new basis for the party. The 2015 "congress of solidarity" expands on it, as well as does its critical assessment of the party's history.

Tenth congress - 2021

Like its predecessor, the "congress of unity" is in line with the eighth congress and focuses on the importance of national unity (in opposition to the nationalist Flemish separatists) as well as general working class unity to "build a counter-power for another society, Socialism 2.0".

Current Positions

Reform or revolution?

Ever since its creation in 1979, the PTB-PVDA has presented its ideas in the form of a minimum program for propaganda and agitative purposes. At the time and up until the 2002 congress, the PTB-PVDA has explicitly advocated for revolution to attain a socialist society through the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The 2008 congress forming the new basis drops the dictatorship of the proletariat from its terminology, but still calls for revolution. The next congresses call the party revolutionary. The congresses also point out that capitalism cannot be reformed, and insist to be distinguished from reformists because they put organizational work first.

The 2015 congress lays out the party's view on the parliament, which it calls "street-council-street", putting mobilization as the start and the end of a struggle, and the parliament only as a means to this end.

References