PROTESTS FLARE IN BELGIUM
By Fernand Charlier
BRUSSELS, Nov. 27 ---0n Tuesday November 24 the American and Belgian imperialists and their ignoble Social Democratic valets | launched their parachute operation on Stanleyville, an operation that was long prepared, as PauleHenri Spaak, the head Social Democrat, himself admitted in a press conference the same day.
The sacred union of the bourgeoisie and their servants was sealed in a parliament where only three Socialist deputies did not rise in a standing ovation to "their" government, and where the Communist deputies were the only. ones to register a formal protest through the head of their group, Gaston Moulin.
‘Caught in the trap of their own ‘policy: of moderation, “the - Come munist party group found it difficult to protest, as is revealed by the minutes of the parliamentary session, which were published. in the party's official organ Le Bpapeau Rouge November 256 This is indicated by the following extracts:
Nour ‘friend Gaston Moulin participated in his turn in | the de~
"twe want to. do this," he said by way of opening, ‘calmly and without passion, .We would like to join in expressing the emotion with which all of us were stricken upon the announcement of the number of civilian victims -- fifty up to this afternoon. We too bow our heads over the soldiers who fell in this operation.!
"D-H, Spaak -- 'I would like to know if you approve the taking of hostages in principle.!
‘Gaston Moulin -- ' absolutely not.
"Peis Spaak -~ 'That's the whole problem.’ me “Gaston Moulin -~ 'It was you who provoked the situation of today.!. (Protests. among the tripartite benches. )
"ta peaceful road was possible -- to reply to the proposals of the OAU. Organization of. African Unity; -and Kenyatta. tt,
But a popular reaction. has occurred in Belgium despite the falsified news, despite the self-imposed censorship which virtually the entire press applied. Among the daily papers, only Le Drapeau Rouge and La Wallonie (left syndicalist) have not joined in the parade" of chauvinist hysteria which has been skillfully whipped up.
In order to stir up the most sickening sentimentality, the Belgians get off the plane from Stanleyville in tropical clothes and
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are: photographed in sandals and shorts at the Brussels airport. Yet at the stopover in Léopoldville a service has been.set up to receive them, Dontt its organizers even know that Belgium, after all, is not a hot country in November?
The complete. hypocrisy of the government was similarly displayed in all the newspapers when alongside an. announcement about the return of the paratroopers another one was printed, explaining how their families could write to them in the Congo!
Despite the blackout on news and. the "brakes" on the main secetors of the workers movement, the taking:of positions in the good sense of the term began before the attack on Stanleyville.
On: November 22, for instance, the Sunday papers published a release issued by the Jeunes Gardes Socialistes which ran as follows:
“The National Bureau of the Jeunes Gardes Socialistes, who held an emergéncy meeting Saturday following the official confirma~:. tion of the presence of a battalion of Belgian paratroopers in the British island of Ascension, stated in a communiqué 'that only the Congolese-people can work out the problems posed by the civil war in the country.’ Young Belgian soldiers can in no case join forces with: the bloody dictator Tshombe,'"
“After the open aggression, rank-and-file reactions: broke: out. At Gand, sectors of the city and schoo] workers who belong tothe union of public services, affiliated to the FGTB [Fédération Générale des Travailleurs de Belgiquel, opposed the imperialist aggression,
At Antwerp, November 25, a demonstration of some fifty persons was banned end dispersed by the police,
- On the same day at Liége, a strike flared at Cockerill, Bel= gium's biggest plant. The workers of two shifts ina sector of the plant stopped.work inorder to hold a meeting and pass” a resolution against the colonialist intervention,
At Gand, a demonstration of Communist and Socialist students: (other organizations who at first joined in did not follow through) stuck tough for an hour despite a government ban and the cops,
. At Brussels, a united action front was immediately formed among all the workers youth organizations despite the divisions among their respective parties, The youth organizations broadcast a joint leaflet bearing for the first time the signatures of both the pro- Peking and pro=Moscow Communist youth tendencies. [See page 14 for ful text. | ea.
‘(In reporting. this ‘action, Le Drapeau Rouge avoided listing. ail the signatures on the leaflet, but La Voix du Peuple, the weekly |
published by the Maoist Communists, printed the whole text inelud- = ing the signatures. )
A demonstration called for in the leaflet was banned: by: the government. But the police tolerated a fascist "counter demonstra~ tion" which chanted, "Ben Bella, Murderer,"-in front of the Algerian embassy. . [Ben Bella vigorously denounced the paratrooper operation. }.
Finally, some new declarations of opposition to the government appeared today, These include resolutions of the teacherst union in Brussels, the Liége federations of Communist and Socialist students, and the Comité dtAction Contre .le Néo-colonialisme. et le. Fascisme. oo PE aR
Resolutions were also passed:in another sector of Cockerill Ougrée as well as at A.C.E.C., the big Charleroi plant.
A.meeting has been projected at Liége by the Jeunes Gardes Soclalistes, the Jeunesses Communistes and the Cadets. [lads] of the - FGTB (young. syndicalists). _ .
In addition, among the student organizations, a solidarity. action is under way, with the participation of union students, to: support the Congolese students here who are threatened with expul-. sion from the country because they organized a press conference on the events in their country. [For text of the declaration by the