To give a dramatic demonstration of their views on the entistrike legislation now under consideration in Parlianent, Belgian workers began turning this weak to direct action, The lst of April saw a wild-cat strike involving 10,000 workers at Charleroi, in the large AGSC electrical plant. On April end, wild-cat strikes snarlod up Charleroi's public transport system, On April jrd, more than 50,000 workers in Liege staged a two-hour general strike, Thay met in three separate mass meetings to hear union spokesmen denounce ths projected anti-strike laws.
On April 6th an emergency congress of the Socialist Party (our report from thie meeting is not yet to hand) was to decide which way the Socialist members of Parliament should vote on the pending bills. The work stoppages are intended to help stiffen resistance against the laws and weaken the pressure of those seeking to put them on the books, This issue is likely to have conciderable effect on the Belgian Socialist Party. Ernest Mandel, whose paper La Gauche has called for total rejectionof the anti-strike legislation has said that he and the tendency within the Socialist Party which is generally linked with himself and La Gauche, are propared to fight this issue through and through. Right-wing opposition to the legislation in the Socialist Party is far from being absolute, and many members wish to modify the legis— lation, doing away with its supposedly worst aspects, tit maintaining it on the statute books, Mandel, beceuse of his call for total rejection has been threatened with expulsion from the Party following his principled stand,