First Published: The Call, paper of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), USA, Vol. 8, No. 47, December 10, 1979.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The Party of Labor of Belgium (PTB) was established in November, and 3,000 people gathered in Brussels to celebrate this event. A broad range of artists and musicians from various third world countries performed at the festivities, which lasted for three days and three nights.
The founding of the PTB was the product of a decade of effort by the Marxist-Leninist organization known as “TPO-AMADA,” the initials for the words “All Power to the Workers.” AMADA had been active in both the Belgian labor and student movements since the late 1960s and led several significant strikes and union drives. It also played a very active role in the developing movement of the Belgian people against superpower domination and Soviet hegemonism.
Many of the featured speakers at the celebration were exiled writers and activists from such countries as Vietnam, Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan. A large delegation from the coal miners strike in Belgium’s northwest expressed appreciation for the work of the Marxist-Leninist organization in building nationwide solidarity with their strike.
Messages to the founding congress were received from many countries, including the CPML of the United States. “Many of Belgium’s workers are exploited by the very same U.S. multinationals which exploit us” here in the U.S.—GM, Caterpillar and Westinghouse, to name but a few,” the CPML message noted. “Belgium is at the same time gravely menaced by Soviet hegemonism, and your party has worked to expose this danger to the people and to build a broad movement against it.”
The founding of the PTB, the message concluded, has strengthened not only the international Marxist-Leninist movement, but also the broad fighting front of the world’s peoples against the two superpowers, particularly the Soviet social-imperialists.