Archive for the ‘Belgium’ Category
Solidarity with Turkish Protests in Brussels, backed by Yorum.
Yorum: Revolutionary and Socialist Music.
Brussels, Saturday.
Four hundred protesters, according to organisers, demonstrated on Saturday evening at the Place du Luxembourg in Brussels to protest against police violence in Turkey.
Muharrem Cengiz Caner Bozkurt from the Turkish music group Yorum talked about the events at Taskim Square in Turkey, at Sazz n’Jazz.
Several musicians from Yorum have participated in demonstrations in Gezi Park, close to Taksim Square in Istanbul.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the withdrawal of police on Saturday afternoon, after two days of police repression. ”This action to save the last green island in the ocean of what became concrete Istanbul has turned into a social movement against Erdogan’s policy.” explained Bahar Kimyongür, a Belgian activist of Turkish origin.
Members of Yorum the are regularly prosecuted for their alleged link with the Turkish extreme left group DHKP-C. Five members were arrested only this January.
The treatment of Yorum is is an important illustration of the limits of the Turkish Islamist government-state’s ‘liberalism’.
This is from Wikipedia:
Grup Yorum is a Turkish band known for their political song writing. Grup Yorum (Yorum means interpretation or comment in Turkish) has released twenty albums since 1987. Some of the group’s concerts and albums were banned over the years, and some of the group members were allegedly arrested or tortured] Yorum remains popular and their albums continue to sell well in Turkey and internationally. Yorum has also given concerts in Germany, Austria, Australia, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, United Kingdom, and Greece.
Then we have this, “70 journalists in Turkey are currently being prosecuted and kept in jail all over the country.”
We could go on but recommend reading this from Human Rights Watch,
Turkey’s Justice and Development Party government maintained economic growth in 2012 despite a slowdown and has taken a strong focus on developing a leading regional role. However, the government failed to take convincing steps to address the country’s worsening domestic human rights record and democratic deficit. Prosecutors and courts continue to use terrorism laws to prosecute and prolong the incarceration of thousands of Kurdish political activists, human rights defenders, students, journalists, lawyers, and trade unionists. Free speech and media remain restricted, and there are ongoing serious violations of fair trial rights.
Holland, Republicans Speak as Monarchy Celebrates .
In Holland Not Everybody Waves Back.
This morning the media is full of the ascension to the Dutch Throne of the new King.
It was suggested this morning on the Belgium French-speaking radio le Première (which as a neighbouring country, takes a keen intrest in this) that opponents of the House of Orange were isolated cranks, even right-wing homophobes (???).
e Christian Science Monitor reports on another side of today jamboree in Holland,
Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, will be inaugurated as the new king. It’s expected to be a major event that will be celebrated across the country by a supportive public.
But just a few days ago, some 500 yards away from the Dam Square in central Amsterdam where the abdication and inauguration will take place, a small group of Dutch republicans met to discuss how best to call for the abolition of the country’s 200-year-old monarchy and instate a true republic.
The workshop was organized by the movement #HetIs2013 – Dutch for “It’s 2013″ – which was started in February when a student protester named Joanna was forcibly removed by police from an event in Utrecht that the queen attended.
Joanna had been holding up a sign that read “Away with the monarchy, it’s 2013″ – which the policemen took to be a violation of the Netherlands‘ lese majeste law, which still prohibits insulting the royal family despite the country’s general support of freedom of speech.
Willem-Alexander later said during a TV interview that the policemen had made “a mistake” by removing her.
The plucky Dutch republicans are organised in the Nieuw Republikeins Genootschap.
Wikipedia has an English entry on them.
Their main demand is to reduce the King’s salary and have launched a petition to this end.
With around 1,200 members the republicans are small but determined.
Polls, cited on the Belgium radio, indicate around 10% of the Dutch agree with them.
New Workers’ Left Emerges in Belgium
“Nous voulons la rupture avec le PS”
Daniel Piron, of the left-trade union federation, the FGTB*, was on the Belgium Radio station, La Première this morning (Here).
He charged the country’s Socialist Party of participating in “neo-liberal” governments.
La FGTB Charleroi organise samedi avec la CNE-Hainaut un meeting pour créer une “alternative de gauche à la crise capitaliste”. Des formations de la gauche radicale sont aussi invitées, mais il n’est pas question de créer un nouveau parti explique Daniel Piron, secrétaire régional de la FGTB Charleroi/Sud-Hainaut. “Il y a une volonté de travailler ensemble et d’élargir la réflexion aux autres instances syndicales de la FGTB et de la CSC“**.
The FGBT Charleroi is organising a meeting on Saturday with the CNE-Hinaut to “create a left-wing alternative to the capitalist crisis. Organisations of the radical left have been invited, though there is no question of forming a new party, explained Daniel Prion, the regional secretary of the FGBT Charlero/Sud-Hainaut. “There is a will to work together, to deeper our analysis, with other parts of the union structure inside the FGBT and the CSC”.
Daniel Piron added,
le PS et Ecolo “ne sont plus des partis qui relaient les revendications du monde du travail. Ces partis sont intégrés au système.
The Socialist Party and the Greens are “no longer parties which reflect the demands of working people. These parties are part-and-parcel of the system.
Background information on La Lettre aux syndicalistes Blog here.
The left groups invited include (see article here), Le parti de Gauche (aligned with its French counterpart of Jean-Luc Mélenchon) the Front des Gauches (alliance of 6 small groups, including Communist Party, and the LCR) , LCR (Fourth International), LRT (Committee for a Workers International CWI) , PTB (Parti du travail de Belgique – Partij van de Arbeid van België – Marxist-Leninist)
* 1,5 Million members. La Fédération générale du travail de Belgique (FGTB) (Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond = ABVV.
** 1,7 million members La Confédération des syndicats chrétiens, ou CS
Gérard Depardieu: Boycott this Tax Traitor!
Boycott Greedy Gérard!
Gérard Depardieu, one of the best-paid French cinema actors, now lives in Belgium in the village of Néchin, near the French border.
This place, it is said, has all the charms and cultural attractions of a South Essex hamlet.
The Bourgmestre (Mayor), Daniel Senesael, openly admits the new resident is there for financial reasons.
That is, to avoid French taxes and benefit from a more favourable regime that the wealthy (and only them) enjoy in Belgium.
27% of the village’s inhabitants are ‘tax exiles’.
Earlier this year, when he was not pissing himself on planes, Depardieu, gave his public backing to Nicolas Sarkozy.
At a public rally with the Presidential candidate at Villepinte he said,
“Since my friend Nicolas Sarkozy came to power, I only hear bad things about this man who does nothing but good,”
Libération reports, that the French left has taken a serious dislike to the man once proud of his working class roots.
“Minister Benoît Hamon has said that Depardieu has decided to avoid paying his due in a time of economic crisis. That is “anti-patriotic”. ”
The PCF has compared him to a miser.
“It’s shameful” says Nathalie Arthaud, of Lutte Ouvrière. “It doesn’t surprise me, when somebody gets millions every year to get tired of paying tax. Meanwhile workers, those on the minimum wage, the unemployed, they have to.” She called for a crack down on tax evasion.
On France-Inter this morning there were strong suggestions that the French state will not take Depardieu’s efforts to avoid giving something back for the money he makes from the country lightly.
They will be watching his every move for ways to get him to pay up.
Meanwhile we support this: Boycott every film Gérard makes!
What of Depardieu’s future?
We imagine him, in his Néchin Mansion.
Dressed in a giant nappy, barely able to contain his girth, he is watching DVDs of his past triumphs.
Gérard is eating his tenth Horse steak and washing it down with a pail of wine from his Château de Tigné.
Next to him is a bucket of chips swimming in mayonnaise.
Sometimes he breaks into lonely sobs.
Mouvement de Gauche, Belgium, First Conference Held.
A new Left movement has been officially launched in Belgium the Mouvement de Gauche (MG). Over the weekend around 400 activists attended its first conference. Inspired by the French Front de Gauche (FdG) its provisional leader Bernard Wesphael is a former member of the Belgian ecologist Party, ECOLO, and an MP.
Interviewed on the public radio, La Première this morning Wesphael said that his break with the ecologists began with differences over the 2004 European Constitutional Treaty and paralleled that of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. While having links with the FDG he added that it was not a replica of the French party. It has already received the support of the Greek left bloc, Syriza.
The MG is a “citizens’ democratic party”. It stands in opposition to what it calls the ‘right-wing’ Beligian socialists, at rpesent in coalition with right-wing parties, and implementing cuts and financial austerity, It offers a straightforward left political programme, including a 75% tax rate for the rich, opposition to the European Stability Pact, and supports a range for radical reforms.
The MG intends to stand candidates in the federal, regional and European elections of 2012. At present it has around 1,000 members.
It will not align itself with the ‘marxist-leninist’ Parti du travail de belgique – Partij van de Arbeid van België (PTB – PVDA). Unlike the PTB it appears to have no Flemish support.
The Mouvement de Gauche has been attacked. Its leader, Bernard Wesphael ”lacks credibility” says political scientist Verjans (ULg). He has no long-term record of left-wing activism within the ecologist movement. On the Radio this morning Wesphael poured scorn on this charge and underlined the MB’s present project.
