WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, Lamouette Enragee: Debate on the strikes and the social situation in Belgium with Belgian comrades (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The comrades from Lille and Boulogne-sur-Mer of the OCL invite you to a debate on Saturday, March 21st, at 3 pm at Anamorphose, 48 rue du Long Pot in Lille. Spread the word! ---- Belgium is experiencing a large-scale social movement, considered by many to be the most significant in 40 years. In just a few months of the "Arizona" coalition government (1) led by Prime Minister Bart De Wever, Belgians have been subjected to a full-scale attack on their social "achievements," which we in France have endured for several decades now. The rhetoric is always the same: the emergence of the "problem" of public debt; the need to make savings, initially 20 billion euros; massive neoliberal attacks on labor such as: limiting unemployment benefits; eliminating special pension schemes; and aligning the public sector with the private sector. The lengthening of working days and weeks (up to 12 hours/day and 50 hours/week) while wage indexation is capped, etc.

On the union side, things are getting organized to fight against this austerity plan. Large days of mobilization have already taken place: on October 14th with more than 100,000 people in Brussels, from November 23rd to 26th with three days of strikes that paralyzed the country, and even today, a mobilization plan that is still underway with demonstrations planned for the 13th of each month and a massive demonstration scheduled for March 12th. All of this seems well (too?) well-rehearsed, which is why unions in Belgium occupy an important place within the public administration (2), unlike in France, because, for example, it is the unions that partially pay unemployment benefits, help with job searches, etc.

To discuss all this and more, three Belgian comrades will join us to help us gain a clearer understanding of the current social situation, the socio-political characteristics of Belgium, and above all, it will be a moment of solidarity among workers to fight against capitalism, which promises us ever more misery and war.

This discussion is organized by the OCL - Libertarian Communist Organization - as part of the Journal Commission, which will produce the May issue of the journal Courant Alternatif.

Lille-Boulogne-sur-Mer, March 4, 2026

Notes:
1 - Right-wing alliance whose party colors are reminiscent of the American flag. Here is a more precise description of this diverse political alliance: N-VA, CD&V, Vooruit, MR, and Les Engagés.
2 - The major Belgian trade unions are the FGTB/ABVV, the CSC/ACV, and the CGSLB/ACLVB.

https://lamouetteenragee.noblogs.org/post/2026/03/04/4229/
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca