hundred and fifty delegates, representing all the main cities and a St areas of Belgium, met in. Liege October 10 at the founding congress of the Socialist Workers' Confederation. They represented the three organisations: the Walloon Workers Party, the Left Socialist Movement of Brussels, and the Flemish Socialist Movement - which decided to unite their forces in the struggle for a socialist Belgium on a federal basis that would grant self-determination to the two nationalities living in the countrye The first action of the congress was to respond favourably to an appeal from the Berkeley, California, "Vietnam Day Committee" to join in an international demonstration on October 16 against the U.S. imperialist war in Vietname The great majority of the delegates consisted of youth and factory workers, among them well-known shop stewards and trade union militants from the Liege metal works, the Charleroi metal and gas plants, the Antwerp and Ostend shipyards, the railway workers and the teachers! union. The presiding comme ittee consisted of Robert Nicolas, of Charleroi, Pierre Le Greve, the Brussels left socialist member of parliament, and Frans Vrancks, chairman of the Louvain federation of the Young Socialists and shop steward at Sabena, the Belgian air lines, Vranks represented the Flemish wing of the movements The main reports were as follows: Marcel Slangen (of the Walloon wing of the confederation) on internal policy and federaliem, Van der Borght (Flemish wing) on foreign policy, and Ernest Mandel, editor of La Gauche on social and economic policy. The congress adopted a programmatic resolution stating the goal of the party is to overthrow capitalism, replacing it with collective ownership of all the means of production and workers management of all the plants and factories in the framework of a democratically planned economy. The resolution states that this goal cannot be reached except through conquest of power by the working class, international solidarity among workers, and the international victory of socialism, The immediate programme of action of the Socialist Workers! Confederation calls for federalism and anti-capitalist structural reforms; namely, nationalisation of the banks, insurance companies, all credit outfits, the mines, power plants, oil refineries and gas works, all of these to be placed under workers' controle The programme calls for workers control over all important factories and collective ownership of land used for building. It advocates the 40-hour week with no reduction in weekly pay, four week's vacation with double pay, a free national health service, large increases in pensions and social benefits, and so one It also demands that Belgium leave NATO and radically reduce military expenditure, Solidarity is expressed with all the colonial peoples fighting for their freedom as well as with the struggle of the Negro people in the United States for equal rights. The Belgian daily press, radio and television gave extensive coverage to the congress, handling it as a major political event in the country. The veteran of Helgian socialism, 94-year-old Camille Huysmens, sent a letter of sympathy to the new confederation and declared his readiness to join ite Huysmans, a social democrat all his life, started to move left a few years ago, espec= ially under the impact of the Chinese revolution and in opposition to the rearmament of Germany. He had recently made an extensive tour of China, In his message of sympathy to the congress, he strongly condemed Foreign Minister Spaak for complicity in the war of aggression which U.S. imperialism
Socialist Workers Confederation formed in Belgium continued/
is waging against the Vietnamese people, and took a firm stand in favour of
the Vietnamese and Chinese revolutions,
The October 16 demonstration against the war in Vietnam, which the delegates
decided to help organise, is being backed by a number of left wing organisat-
ions. Among them are the Brussels railway workers' union, the gas and
electridty workers' union, the teachers' union, the Committee for Stzuggle
against Neo-colonialism and Fascism, the Jeumes Gardes Socialistes, the
Communist Youth, the Socialist Students, the Commumist Students, and the
Committee for the Anti-nuclear demonstration,
The Khrushchevist Communist Party, which is participating in the demonstration,
wanted to give it a mere pacifist orientation, However the organising committe
ee, mainly under the influence of militants belonging to the Socialist
Workers Confederation, adopted a radical line and slogans so as to clearly
express solidarity with the opponents of the Vietnam war in the United States
and with the Vietnamese revolution itself,