Belgium. A real class struggle is needed against the “Arizona” government coalition!

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A real class struggle is needed against the “Arizona” government coalition!

The general strike on Wednesday, November 26, which followed strikes on Monday, November 24 (transport strike) and Tuesday (public sector strike), was a great success, with numerous picket lines and road blockades. The strike affected, among others, the metal, chemical, food, logistics, retail, airport, and port industries. In public transport, pickets often blocked bus services for three days, while in rail transport, limited replacement services were introduced thanks to non-striking employees. At the post office, the authorities reported 40% participation in the strike, and thousands of teachers and others joined the strike and demonstrated.

These strikes at the end of November come after several days of mobilization and strikes since the beginning of the year: nationwide strikes on March 31, April 21, and October 14, with a large central demonstration in Brussels where tens of thousands of people gathered (140,000 according to the unions), more than at the demonstration in February (100,000 according to the unions), which were joined by sectoral strikes, such as strikes in transport and by teachers, etc. Dissatisfaction with the anti-social measures adopted by the Arizona government (so named because the colours of the governing coalition correspond to the colours of the flag of this US state) since its inception is deep and is reflected in a determination to fight harder than ever before, as demonstrated by the strikes of recent days: mobilization has reached levels unseen in decades.

By virtually bringing the capitalist economy to a halt, the working class has demonstrated its potential power: capitalism relies on its labour, which it exploits in its enterprises to derive the profits necessary for its survival. When the economic situation deteriorates and threatens profits, or when it is forced to increase its costs (for example, in the case of military spending), capitalism has no other solution than to increase exploitation, to attack the living and working conditions of the proletariat, directly through the reduction of real wages and indirectly through the reduction of social benefits, which constitute what is called indirect wages (the part of wages that is not paid to workers and is used to finance social benefits): this is precisely what the Arizona government has committed itself to—organizing, centralizing, and planning anti-proletarian attacks in the service of the capitalists. On November 24, the first day of union mobilization, it announced its budget proposal, showing that the strike days don't shake it; the package of measures includes an increase in gas prices, a reduction in the duration of unemployment benefits, the abolition of disability benefits for nearly 100,000 people, an end to wage indexation (currently only for salaries above €4,000 gross or €2,500 net), changes in VAT, etc. This manoeuvre is therefore part of a class attack that can only be successfully countered by a class response, a decisive struggle using classist means and methods that strike at capitalist interests.

However, the organizations of the united trade union front that organize the movement have not taken this path; their statement the day after the general strike limited itself to describing as “extremely regrettable” the fact that the government does not take into account that its “measures undermine confidence (…) in political representatives” (!). And after this pitiful statement, it assured that the unions would “think about further steps to be taken within the framework of this social movement in the coming days” (1)…

These organizations consider themselves “social partners”; they focus their actions on class collaboration with employers and the state and therefore seek to be heard by the government rather than fighting it head-on. The general strike is thus reduced to a means of pressure to “influence” government decisions (2), and the union leadership seeks to regulate and control the movement to prevent any “overstepping of bounds” that could threaten the established order (3). Mobilization is fragmented into sporadically organized days of action, announced well in advance so that employers and the state can prepare, and into intermittent or company-level struggles, which in the long run can only exhaust the workers, with minimal difficulty for the capitalists and without the ability to shake the government's resolve.

The proletariat in Belgium has a long history of hard struggles, but it also has a long history of struggles betrayed by reformist and collaborationist union leaderships: this is a lesson that must not be forgotten.

To win, it will have to break with opportunist and defeatist tendencies, take its struggles into its own hands, and engage in a genuine anti-capitalist class struggle.

(2) One unionist explains: “In the struggle against the Arizona government, we are not pursuing an uncompromising strategy with an unlimited strike and clear slogans demanding the fall of the government. Our unions prefer mass mobilization to gain room for maneuver in negotiations.” https://rapportsdeforce.fr/classes-en-lutte/greve-generale-que-se-passe-t-il-en-belgique-040824109. It seems that the unions wanted to seek help from the Flemish socialists (Vooruit), who are part of the Arizona coalition.

(3) On September 9, the joint trade union front submitted a statement to the Parliamentary Committee on Social Affairs opposing a bill aimed at banning strike pickets: this statement argues that the right (to participate in pickets) “can only be restricted in cases of intimidation or violence.” In other words, our trade unionists defend pickets only when they are harmless… https://fgtb.be/echo/lavis-du-front-commun-syndical-contre-la-proposition-de-loi-mr-sur-la-liberte-de-travailler-en

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