of the December 12th-13th congress banning participation in the leadership of the Walloon Popular Movement or in the publication of the weekly La Gauche and Links, the crisis in the Belgian Socialist party went through several abrupt turns. Some 6co Left-Socialist militants, meeting in Liege December 27th, decided to lay the basis of a new party, -provisionally named the “Parti Socialiste de Travailleurs’ (Socialist Workers’ Party). This decision was made in reply to the motion railroaded through the congress by the Right wing, suppressing the right to form tendencies inside the Socialist party. The Liege decision was met with a most favourable response in plants and factories throughout Belgium, a fact that was reflected in the play given to the development in the daily press. Startled and rather frightened by this response, the Right-wing leadership of the Socialist Party suddenly shifted tactics. They drew back from implementing the decisions of the December 12th-13th congress and granted some minor concessions to the Left wing. Glinne and Hurez, two Left-wing members of parliament, as well as a few figures connected with the Flemish weekly Links, buckled under the combination of pressure and blandishments and signed a declaration submitted to them by the Right-wing leadership. The declaration, while formally recognising the right of tendencies in the Socialist party, restricted the right so severely as to make the concession virtually meaningless. Two other leaders of the Left wing, Yerna, secretary of the Liege trade unions, and Mandel, editor of the weekly La Gauche, stood firm. Yerna demonstratively resigned from the Socialist party; while Mandel rejected the demand that he add his signature to the declaration. Massart, a Leftwing member of parliament, joined in this firm position against the Rightwing witch-hunters. For a few days the public display of differences among leaders of the Left wing inevitably caused some confusion. However, the situation was rapidly corrected when the leading
from our Brussels Correspondent bodies of both La Gauche and Links publicly reaffirmed their stands, stating that they would continue to refuse to sign any declaration whatsoever limiting the right to defend the platforms on which they stood. The decision of La Gauche was taken unanimously; Links by a two-thirds majority. A new turn then occurred. Glinne indicated that he was reconsidering the meaning of the declaration he had signed. This brought him under fresh heavy fire from the Socialist party leadership. Without paying much attention to these inevitable waverings in the face of a basic decision of the greatest importance to the political future of the Belgian working class, the key Leftwing leaders moved rapidly ahead to launch the new party. On January 18th, in an even larger meeting than the previous one, the Liege local adopted a draft programme and proposed statutes, In the Charleroi region an enthusiastic meeting of some 400 workers called for implementation of the Liege December 27th resolution. In Brussels, 200 activists, meeting on invitation, laid plans for a membership drive in anticipation of a founding conference projected for February 7th. An indication of the possibilities in Brussels as well as in the rest of Belgium was provided by the impressive success of a rally called to protest against the Belgian paratroop landings in the Congo at the end of November. The meeting was sponsored by the Brussels Teachers’ union and the Gas and Electric Workers’ union on January 15th. The main speaker was Pierre Le Greve, chairman of the Teachers’ union and one of the main initiators of the Parti Socialist de Travailleurs in Brussels. Despite the chauvinistic atmosphere which the Spaak government has sought to whip up in the predominantly pettybourgeois Belgian capital, despite the strong opposition of all the political parties (only the Communist party gave lukewarm support to the rally), and despite a complete conspiracy of silence about the meeting in the daily press, more than 1,000 people jammed into the hall.
The place was so crowded that not
even standing room was left and many
could not get inside..
A grouping of pro-Fascist students
announced a “counter demonstration”
in which they planned to hail the
colonialist aggression in the Congo.
This turned out to be a complete
fiasco. The “counter demonstrators”
could mot get a single one of their
adherents inside the packed hall.
They gave up in disgust and went
home while the demonstrators against
the imperialist role of the Belgian
government registered their anger
against the intervention in the Co
and their solidarity with the Con-
golese people.
Gromyko
Cypriot
HERE has been, in recent
months, a rapprochement
between the Soviet Union and Tur-
key. A Soviet delegation visited
Turkey and laid great stress on the
formerly good relations between the
two countries which existed in the
days of Kemal Ataturk. Turkey,
whose economic position has deteri-
orated since the second world war,
has shown signs of wanting to break
away from the rigid cold-war NATO
policy of the ’40s and ’50s. American
‘aid’ has done little but prop up the
disproportionately large army and
encouraged inflation. Turkey’s pres-
ent rulers would perhaps like to have
a little more room for mancouvre
and get concessions from both sides
in the cold war.
One of the by-products of this
process seems to be a change in
Soviet policy towards Cyprus, Pre-
viously the Soviet Union has backed
Enosis (union between that island
and Greece) and has denounced the
leaders of the Turkish community on
the island as ‘agents of imperialism’.
Now Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet
Foreign Minister, has spoken in
favourable terms of federation as a
solution to the Cyprus crisis.
He did this in guarded terms in
an interview with a correspondent of
Izvestia by saying: “.. . The people
THE WEEK — Feb. 10, 1965