FORMED IN BELGIUM oo "BRUSSELS, Dec. 28 =-- Some 600 enthusiastic. militants, ‘meeting in Lidge yesterday, decided to hold a constitutional congress ‘at. ..- Charleroi February 1 to set up.a.new left Socialist party. , The projected name of the new organization is Parti Socialiste des Travailleurs [Socialist Workers party]. Its initial base will be in Wallonie; but as soon as similar organizations are set up in Flanders and. Brussels, a federation will be organized on the basis of the three regional units.
The Lidge meeting was. chaired by Fernanda Massart, a Socialist . _member of parliament from Namur, who left the Socialist party a-year ago out-of disgust over the opportunist policies | of the coalition | government. oT
The main report was given by Ernest Glinne, a Socialist mem-. -~ ber of parliament from..Charleroi and the only Socialist in parlia-ment wha. publicly denounced Spaak's neocolonialist intervention. in the | Congo.
Other key ‘addresses were given-by Frangois périn, a Litge University professor and main theoretician of the Walloon. Popular Movement, and Ernest Mandel, editor.of. the left Socialist weekly La Gauche. Jacques. Yerna, secretary of the Lidge Trade Union Federa-_ tion, sponsored . the meeting. The. main leaders of the Jeunes Gardes. Socialistes [Socialist Youth . organization] and the Socialist Students Federation were also present,
The central feature of the gathering was the presence of the principal shop stewards and direct representatives of the workers of Belgium's most important plants in the Liége and Charleroi heavy industry area. The overwhelming majority of the speakers were these workers representatives. Speaker after speaker went to the rostrum to denounce the disillusionment felt by the Belgian working class over the: cynical betrayal of the objectives of the great general strike of 1960-61 by the. reformist leaders. who supported the strike so loudly at the time, Speaker after. speaker denounced the abandon= ment of the fight. for real socialist objectives by the leaders: of the Socialist party, the many antiworking-class measures taken by the present coalition government, and the urgent need for a new party to prevent demoralization from spreading among the vanguard of the working class, ae a.
The Lidge meeting was public and open, to the press. The Bel-= gian radio and television, as well as the daily papers, gave it extensive coverage, viewing it as an important turning point in the political life of the. country. =
Although it is too early to judge the weight of the new party in the parliamentary field.(new. elections will be held in Belgium not later than May 1965, and perhaps much..sopner, leaving little time, for. the new party to become thoroughly organized and to prepare for an
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electoral campaign),.it.is.certain that. it will have a mass bade in several of the key working-class areas.