The Communist Party of Belgium was formed in 1920 by the merger of a number of small, largely Flemish speaking, groups. The following year the original Communist Party merged with left dissidents, largely French speaking, from the Belgian Labor Party creating the multilingual party described below.

‘Communism in Belgium’ from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 1 No. 2. October 17, 1921.

The first phase of the development of communism in Belgium is at an end. From the original small groups of adherents to communism and from the revolutionary opposition in the Belgian Labour Party have arisen the two Communist Parties of Belgium that were united on the 4th of September of this year at the Congress in Brussels. This is now the Belgian section of the III.rd International.

Hardly any of the countries that took part in the World War have been so directly and gravely affected by it than Belgium. But the times of war passed and the Belgians had the satisfaction of deliverance from foreign yoke and moreover received material assistance.

These are the principal causes why the Belgian working classes do not look more closely and energetically into this question. Nevertheless these peculiar circumstances disappear more and more and the consequences of the war impress also Belgian political and economic life more and more.

The C.P.B. is just like the great majority of the sections of the IIIrd International; a product of the opinions and circumstances, ripened by the development since 1914, whilst in the neighboring Netherlands the Communist Party originates from the time of the formation of the Russian and Bulgarian bolshevist parties. In spite of the similarity of the C.P.B. with the Communist Parties of the large neighboring countries in regard to origin and growth, nevertheless the conditions under which the Belgian comrades carry on their struggle with their class adversaries is essentially different from that of other countries. The peculiarity of the Belgian Labour Party is that, it does not rely on its own political organisations but that almost all members of the C.P.B. are at the same members of the Belgian Labour Party. The B.L.P. is a federation of all workers organized in trade-unions led by groups of delegates from the trade unions and confederations as well as from the representatives in Parliament. In the larger towns inside this party there exist political groups called “Workers Leagues”, which have about 12-13,000 members throughout the country, whilst the so-called Belgian “Labour Party” comprises about 700,000 members. Our comrades are almost all among these as members of the trade unions. To get a picture of the size of our party under these circumstances it is necessary to compare the 1000 members of the present C.P.B. with the 13000 members of the “Workers Leagues” in the Labour Party. As to numbers the young Communist party comprises about 7% of the politically organized workers, whereas their influence on the working classes organized in trade-unions is undoubtedly much larger in proposition to their numbers. Proofs of these facts may be seen in the recent movements in the Charleroi Basin, at the congress of the railway men, of the post and telegraphic workers, in the textile workers movement in Verviers, in the Communist leadership of the Central Unions of Employees, and at the Brussels Confederation of the teachers organisations.

The peculiar form of the Belgian Labour Party and the traditional want of clearness in its attitude concerning the importance and the character of a political party has caused a somewhat sectional point of view among the older members of the now united communist parties. Under these circumstances one would have thought that the atmosphere would have been favourable for the crystalisation of the Communist movement in Belgium outside of the B.L.P. and in opposition to its social chauvinism. But as a matter of fact the “discontented” of the B.L.P. gathered around the weekly paper of the opposition, “L’Exploité”, founded and led by the chairman of the Central Union of Employees, Jaquemotte, as an organ for revolutionary socialism. The active part of this opposition developed fairly quickly in the direction of communism and half a year ago severed itself from the B.L.P. and from the undecided part of the opposition and constituted itself as the Communist Party of Belgium. That part of the opposition remaining in the B.L.P. at first easily allowed itself to be dominated by opportunism, in its endeavour to establish the opposition on as broad a basis as possible.

Both parties were represented on the III.rd World Congress in Moscow. There a resolution was adopted which after some discussion was accepted later by the Unity Congress in Belgium By the union there have been brought together different. forces whose representatives attribute partly an excessive and partly an insufficient importance to certain aspects of the class-struggle. It is very satisfactory that these forces neutralize each other and that both of them have shown themselves capable of development. Two Comrades, van Overstraten and Nessart, are the present chairmen of the party and they encourage one to hope besides that the best will be made of the different forces.

The C.P.B. is generally speaking in the favourable situation of being able to reflect the revolutionary development of the Belgian proletariat; this is not the case with every Communist Party. It will have to develop itself very quickly, in order to keep this position, which is its greatest duty.

To this end it must shake off a strong tendency to anti-parliamentarism and must recognise the necessity of making the best of parliament in a revolutionary manner. It must in its own ranks overcome opportunism, that allows itself to be deluded by sham-successes. It must in its own ranks deepen Communist understanding, it must be a strict disciplinarian, it must interest all comrades in party-work, in order to strengthen the collective will and fight against particularism.

The young party has before it great and difficult tasks: the elections for parliament on the 23th of October, the ferment in the Belgian Labour Party, the capture of the trade-unions for communism, the development of propaganda among the great masses of workers in the districts, where Flemish is spoken etc. The development of the press, the creation of at least one French daily paper must be accomplished at all costs.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecor” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecor’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1921/v01n02-oct-17-1921-inprecor.pdf