A-Infos (en) France, OCL: Belgium File - An overview of Belgian political life and the labor movement (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Belgian political life is complex from both a French and Belgian 
perspective, as evidenced by the four Walloon colleagues we invited to a 
debate in Lille on March 21st regarding the ongoing social movement - 
which you will read about in the following pages of this report. Indeed, 
there are no fewer than six levels of government: five regional 
governments and a federal state, spread across three administrative 
tiers: federal, regional, and linguistic. For the labor movement, union 
life appears simpler, structured around three major unions: the FGTB, 
the CSC, and the CGSLB. However, the reality is more complex, with 
linguistic divisions between Walloons and Flemings, as well as numerous 
divisions by sector. Finally, it should be noted that unions in Belgium 
are co-managers of the state, as they are, for example, responsible for 
unemployment benefits. Let's try to shed some light on this!

A brief history of the birth of the Belgian state
The Belgian state was born in 1830, emancipating itself from the 
Netherlands. Until then, only the United Kingdom of the Netherlands 
existed, created after the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna 
(1815). The struggle for independence was fueled by religious 
antagonisms (Catholics in Belgium and Protestants in the Netherlands), 
but also by economic ones, where each side felt disadvantaged by the 
other, particularly in the development of ports. All of this unfolded 
against the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution, which arrived very 
quickly in Wallonia, following on from the United Kingdom. The 1830 
revolution-even though it had a popular, class-based foundation, in line 
with other revolutions of 1830 (France, Poland)-was quickly hijacked by 
the Catholic, liberal, industrial, and rentier bourgeoisie, who seized 
power and suppressed the revolutionary momentum in Brussels. To remain 
compliant with the Congress of Vienna, which absolutely rejected a 
republican regime, an agreement was reached between the great powers to 
place the German prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha on the throne, 
making him Leopold I. A new dynasty was thus established! Economically, 
private property and the exploitation of labor were guaranteed by law to 
make land and its inhabitants available for the new accumulation brought 
about by the Industrial Revolution.

Belgium is a constitutional monarchy: executive power belongs to the 
king - who in reality has little power because, as the saying goes, he 
reigns but does not govern - and to the government; legislative power is 
shared between the Senate (60 members, 50 of whom are appointed by the 
communities and regions) and the Chamber of Representatives (150 members 
elected by proportional representation). The Belgian state retains its 
prerogatives in sovereign functions such as foreign affairs, the 
military, and the judiciary, but the major political development is the 
federalization of the state, which began in the 1960s and 1970s.

Belgian-style federalism
It's a long process that will extend until 2013, with a total of six 
constitutional revisions to establish that the federal state is not a 
supervisory body, unlike in many other federations. Some even speak of 
Belgian confederalism, given the significant decision-making power of 
local authorities. Historically, federalism arose from two regional 
rivalries: on the Flemish side, an initial desire for cultural autonomy 
in the face of a "Frenchified" capital, Brussels; on the Walloon side, a 
desire for economic autonomy at the time, hoping to revive the already 
declining heavy industry. Today, we see a reversal of values, with 
Flanders, very prosperous economically and the majority in terms of 
population, while Wallonia feels it is in decline and wants to defend 
its distinctiveness. Ultimately, federalism appears as a political form 
adapted to managing the uneven development of capitalism between the two 
regions. It allows different factions of the bourgeoisie to have 
specific regulatory spaces while fragmenting the working class by 
diminishing class struggle through linguistic or cultural divisions. 
This is a real obstacle for the workers' movement, as we will see below.

Belgian federalism has resulted in no fewer than six administrative 
divisions. There are three regions: Wallonia, which occupies 60% of the 
territory and is divided into five provinces: Walloon Brabant, Hainaut, 
Liège, Luxembourg, and Namur; Brussels-Capital, which corresponds to the 
Brussels metropolitan area and is a predominantly French-speaking 
enclave within Flanders; and Flanders, also with five provinces: 
Antwerp, Flemish Brabant, West Flanders, East Flanders, and Limburg. 
Each region has its own parliament and government and is responsible for 
all matters related to land-use planning: transportation, economic 
development, and so on. In addition to the regions, there are the three 
linguistic communities, which also have their own executive and 
legislative bodies and are responsible for culture, education (schools, 
libraries, theaters, audiovisual media, etc.), and social welfare. There 
are the communities: Flemish with 6.5 million Dutch speakers, French 
with 4.5 million French speakers, and German-speaking with 71,000 
speakers. Apart from the Flemish community and region, which form a 
single government, Belgians have three decision-makers for their daily 
lives!

Governance and political life
Belgium regularly experiences political crises at both the federal and 
regional levels. While we won't go into detail here, proportional 
representation and the pillarization of society-a system in which social 
organization is essentially structured around community pillars where 
each group has its own schools, unions, etc.-exacerbate governmental 
instability and/or the necessary compromises and coalitions. It's worth 
noting that voting is compulsory in Belgium, under penalty of a fine. At 
the federal level, the record for a government vacuum was 541 days in 
2010-2011, while at the regional level, it has just been broken by 
Brussels-Capital with 600 days of power vacuum, ultimately resulting in 
a coalition agreement that brings together seven parties, representing 
almost the entire Belgian political spectrum! This doesn't prevent the 
implementation of austerity policies that accompany the reconfiguration 
of capitalism in the country.

The three main political families are Catholic democracy, liberalism, 
and socialism. The first two shared power roughly from independence in 
1830 until the 1930s. Then the socialists, under Paul-Henri Spaak, came 
to power and held it in coalition with the Christian democrats until the 
2000s. Since the 2010s and the consequences of the 2008 economic crisis, 
there has been a significant political realignment with the rise of 
authoritarian liberalism, either center-right or left-wing depending on 
the degree to which it enforces the social reproduction system. Social 
democracy is represented by the PS/Vooruit (Flemish version), which has 
existed in its current form since 1978 and the split of the Belgian 
Socialist Party (PSB), itself the successor to the Belgian Workers' 
Party (POB - see below). We should also mention the Belgian Workers' 
Party (PTB), which, like La France Insoumise (LFI) in France, is gaining 
seats on a "popular" platform focused on purchasing power and pensions, 
while neglecting to address issues like employment, undocumented 
immigrants, or the unemployed, which are less appealing to the public. 
The PTB was founded in 1979 by former Maoists and originally defined 
itself as Marxist/anti-capitalist with a strong Leninist/Stalinist bent. 
Since its congress in 2008, the party has clearly embraced reformism. As 
for the Belgian Communist Party, it is moribund and has not participated 
in government since 1985.

Overview of the Belgian labour movement
The Belgian working class emerged at the beginning of the 19th century 
with early industrialization, particularly in Wallonia, in the "black 
triangle" (coal and pig iron production) formed by the cities of La 
Louvière, Liège, and Charleroi. In Flanders, while predominantly 
agricultural, mechanization in the textile industry around Ghent and 
Verviers is noteworthy. Capitalist development was extremely rapid and 
harsh: the country quickly acquired an optimal transport network with 
railways and canals, coupled with ports that facilitated flourishing 
import/export trade. The conditions of exploitation were reminiscent of 
the German novel Germinal. This was compounded by the violent 
colonization of the Congo, which was plundered to feed the capitalist 
behemoth. It is worth noting that it was the colonization of the Congo 
that enabled the bourgeoisie, along with the working-class aristocracy, 
to construct the Belgian social model, which was based on the extreme 
brutality of colonial imperialism. This economic development was 
accompanied by liberal policies that, somewhat ambivalently, allowed 
Belgium to become a refuge for exiled European revolutionaries. It's 
worth remembering that Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto 
there in 1848, and Proudhon and the Communards also sought refuge in 
Belgium.

Fueled by emerging workers' struggles, the labor movement gradually 
became more structured. Cooperatives, mutual aid societies, and other 
forms of mutual support were established. These organizations joined the 
International Workingmen's Association (IWA, First International) in 
1865, and very quickly, two opposing tendencies emerged: the 
anarcho-syndicalist/revolutionary communist current and a more 
democratic socialist current. From the 1880s onward, the 
social-democratic tendency prevailed. The Belgian Workers' Party (POB) 
was founded in 1885, heavily influenced by the Gotha Program, which 
placed political struggle and the demand for universal suffrage at the 
heart of its objectives, and workers' associations at the center of the 
means to achieve them. Thus, three major general strikes in 1893, 1902, 
and 1913 led to male suffrage in 1919 and then universal suffrage in 
1948. Despite internal and external dissension within the Belgian 
Workers' Party (POB) stemming from anarchists, communists, and 
Trotskyists, the party's base was firmly rooted in the trade unions and 
mutual aid societies. Only the Communist Party, regionally (in the 
Walloon industrial basins) and sporadically (during the social and 
political struggles of the 1930s and after the Resistance), was able, on 
occasion, to challenge the supremacy of this social-democratic movement 
over the urban artisan class and the working class of large-scale 
industry. The POB met a disastrous end, as it was tempted to collaborate 
with the Nazis during the Occupation and ultimately dissolved. From its 
ashes would emerge the Socialist Party and its allies. On the trade 
union front, the 1930s saw the rise of the CGTB (General Confederation 
of Belgian Labour), which would become the FGTB after the war. In 1939, 
the federation boasted over half a million members.

The socialist hegemony was challenged by Christian democracy. In 1946, 
the Christian Workers' Movement (MOC) brought together the various 
Christian workers' organizations. Among them was the General 
Confederation of Christian and Free Trade Unions of Belgium, which would 
later become the CSC - Confederation of Christian Trade Unions. 
Initially, the Christian tendency was a minority and more prevalent in 
Flanders, but after the Second World War, this reversed. The CSC became 
the majority union in 1955 among blue-collar workers and in 1967 in the 
civil service. Flanders remained a stronghold of the union, with 70% of 
its members, with the exception of Antwerp and Ghent. This shift 
coincided with the post-war Flemish economic boom: Flanders' GDP 
surpassed that of Wallonia in 1957.

Union co-management
Like the countries of Northern Europe, the Belgian social model is based 
on a powerful trade union movement that strongly controls workers and 
negotiates with employers regarding the management and acceptance of 
exploitation. The learning curve for co-management on both sides took 
place in the 1920s and 1930s when employers were forced to negotiate 
with a powerful labor movement. As early as 1921, joint industry 
commissions were created and tasked with managing the implementation of 
the eight-hour workday as well as the particularly numerous social 
conflicts of the time. This was followed by the first collective 
bargaining agreements and the linking of wages to the price index, and 
soon after, the first compulsory insurance schemes. Gradually, an 
integrated social security system emerged, managed by the unions and 
funded by employers and the state. The interconnectedness and power 
dynamics of this three-way relationship grew increasingly complex and 
shaped Belgian social life. Co-determination allows for a stabilization 
of the reproduction of labor power and limits open conflicts that could 
threaten the model. Thus, the three major unions are veritable social 
institutions: the CSC, the FGTB, and the CGSLB (a liberal union) manage 
unemployment insurance, are closely linked to mutual benefit societies, 
and even pay for strike days. This power of the union bureaucracies is 
commensurate with the strength of the proletariat, which has seen 
attempts to overwhelm its rank and file, as during the "Strike of the 
Century" of 1960-1961 (see the rest of our report).

Margat

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4707
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