BELGIAN YOUTH IN ANTINUCLEAR MARCH
BRUSSELS -- The fourth antinuclear march in Belgium, which took place March.28, was a huge success, centering on opposition to the colonial war in Vietnam and bringing prominently before the public the militant slogan, "Hands Off Vietnam!"
' . The first march, in 1962, was estimated at 4,000 participants. In 1965, the figure rose to.10,000. In.1964, it was 15,000. This _ year. the estimate was between 25,000 and 27,000. Additional thousands lined the streets of the Belgian capital to cheer and encourage the young antinuclear fighters.
The Ministry of Education allows a message in favor of the march to be read in those schools where the principal grants permission. But no adult mass political party has ever offered official sponsorship. Thus the march has been organized each year by the youth organizations themselves.- This year the work was done by the Jeunes Gardes Socialistes, the Flemish Young Socialists, the Socialist and Communist students, the Communist Youth (including both the pro~Moscow and the pro-Peking wings), the Catholic Workers Youth, the Metal Workers Union Youth, and some nonpolitical youth organiza-~ tions... They did a remarkable job, bringing in more than 20,000 youth from the provinces to swell the contingents in Brussels where the march was staged.
The official organizing committee, in order to avoid antagon-izing the more politically backward participating organizations like the Catholic Workers Youth, banned antigovernment and anti-American slogans in the march. But the youthful participants did not pay much attention to the ban. Thousands of voices joined in a mighty chant of "Let's Get Out of NATO" and "Hands Off Vietnam!"
Hundreds of banners and placards waved similar slogans in the colorful demonstration,
The use of gas by U.S. imperialism in Vietnam was another topic of bitter denunciation.
This militant and timely orientation of the march was inspired by the leaflets, banners and slogans of the Jeunes Ganrdes Socialistes, the new left socialist party [which has two sections, the Parti Wallon des Travailleurs and the Union de la Gauche Socialiste] and the pro-Peking Communists. The pro-Moscow Communist party which had favored restricting the slogans to "Peace in Vietnam!" became carried away .by the infectious mood of the chanting youngsters. As a result, at the rally winding up the march, the CP spokesman departed From the party's position and adopted the line of the PWT-UGS,.
_ After the march, some hundreds of young Socialists -and’ pro=
wo Gwe
Peking Communists demonstrated at the U.S. embassy, They shouted, "U.S. Go Home!" "Stop the War Crimes in Vietnam!" "Vietnam to the Vietnamese!"
The police moved in and scuffling broke out. As a result seven cops were injured, three seriously, according to the press, One demonstrator was arrested.
The development of the antinuclear marches in Belgium might profitably be studied by the left wing in other countries, particularly Britain. Belgian liberal and reformist circles have tried from the beginning to give the demonstrations an innocuous academic slant saturated with general pacifist nostrums and easily turned in a pro-government direction. The march this year testified to the failure of these efforts, thanks to the political capacities and energy of the movement's left wing.
The marches tend to become more and more anti-imperialist in character, against the government, in favor of unilateral disarmament, voicing sympathy and solidarity with colonial peoples fighting for freedom as in the case of the Vietnamese this year.
To make it decisively anticapitalist in character and to bring in broad layers of unionists and workers along with tens of thousands of marching youth -- that is one of the next big tasks facing the Belgian revolutionary Marxists.
FRANKFORT