Belgium

Kino Eye: Chantal Ackerman and “the greatest film”

Every ten years the great and good around the film magazine Sight and Sound come together to list the one hundred greatest films ever made. Personally, I find this sort of exercise rather pointless. I mention it only because the number one slot has just gone to Chantal Ackerman for her film, Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce 1080, Bruxelles , made in 1975. Previous winners have all been men. Ackerman, who died in 2015, was a Belgian daughter of Holocaust survivors. She was a feminist whose work never embraced the mainstream, and was influenced early in her career by Jean-Luc Godard. In...

General strike in Belgium

Belgian workers staged a general strike on 9 November to demand scope for wage rises, cuts in energy bill, and an increase in welfare benefits. One-day general strikes are relatively common in Belgium. This one was more effective than most. In Brussels, no trains were running as far as I could see. Very few buses, only a few trams. The post, bin collections, and schools all stopped. At the main university campus, there were well-attended student picket-lines, and blockades on some buildings, though some classes went ahead. Students are hard-hit as well as workers, because the rents for student...

Canada's blockades boost far-right anti-vax movement

Since 29 January lorry drivers who travelled in a “Freedom Convoy” across Canada to protest at Covid restrictions, including current and planned vaccine mandates, have rallied with thousands of other right-wing protesters in the capital Ottawa. Many have described the Ottawa protests as a blockade of the city; protesters are also blockading other parts of the country, including on the Canada-US border. The protests were organised with strong support from right-wing activists in the US. They are smaller than anti-vax or anti-lockdown protests have been elsewhere (France, Germany, Italy...

New Covid plans

Doctors and scientists want a shift in virus-control policy. An open letter to all the political parties, on 23 June, by leading medical figures, called for an urgent effort to map new policies because "the available evidence indicates that local flare-ups are increasingly likely and a second wave a real risk".

Requisition and workers' control to get tests and PPE

In the Thursday 8pm “clapping for the NHS” on 2 April 2020, many people chanted “Test! Test! Test! PPE!” Health workers are pressing the government on its failure to meet its promises to expand testing hugely, to make PPE [Personal Protective Equipment] available to all, and to agree adequate PPE guidelines for health workers. So, even, are NHS bosses. NHS Providers, a confederation of NHS hospital, mental health, community, and ambulance trusts, said on 3 April: “There are still trusts that are unable to begin testing, and lack of swabs, reagents and test kits is a continuing concern”. They...

Ryanair must change

Ryanair pilots in Ireland, Sweden and Belgium will strike for 24-hours on Friday 10 August. The strike is part of an ongoing dispute as pilots are demanding a fair and transparent approach to transfers between different bases. On 25 July Ryanair escalated the dispute by threatening to sack 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew, or transfer them to Poland. Pilots based in Ireland, and members of FORSA union, have already struck for four periods of 24 hours since 12 July. They may be joined by pilots based in Germany and the Netherlands after a poll by the Association of Dutch Pilots saw 99.5% of...

Mass strikes defend workers’ rights

The strike in France for the withdrawal of the “labour law” is continuing to spread slowly, and this week alone it has won over the waste treatment centres; it is continuing in the refineries; it is supported by thousands of local groups of activists, in particular CGT members, who are active in logistics and transport centres. Meanwhile, on 2 June we saw 30,000 demonstrating in Le Havre, and 45,000 in Marseilles. There is also a strike at Amazon, and in the Bio Habitat firm. No-one is still keeping count of incidents of police brutality in the strike movement, but a threshold was crossed in...

Brussels transport workers take a stand for safety

I have been talking with Brussels transport workers and trade unionists in the aftermath of the 22 March Daesh bombings which killed 32 people and injured hundreds more. Amidst the news reporting and political demagogy, it is important that their voices are heard. Two workers died in the Brussels airport bombing - one working on check-in, the other in baggage handling. Others were injured, and still more were traumatised by what they experienced: helping the injured and dying, seeing body parts among the baggage. At least 14 passengers also perished. I was told that once the airport has been...

Strikes back on the menu in Belgium

Belgian trade unions are mobilising against ruling class plans to “do a Thatcher”, cutting pensions and workers’ rights, and removing the automatic link between inflation and wage increases. Following the election of a right-wing Flemish nationalist dominated government last year, Belgian trade unions — divided by political affiliation and linguistic groups — formed a common front and conducted a wave of national demonstrations and regional strikes culminating in a highly effective and well supported general strike on 15 December. The trade union bureaucracy then entered into long and...

Belgium: general strike on 15 December

The three union confederations in Belgium — the FGTB, linked to the social democratic parties, the CSC, the Catholic confederation, and the liberal-linked CGSLB — have called a general strike for 15 December against the new right-wing government’s cuts plans. There have been regional general strikes on 24 November, 1 December, and 8 November and a demonstration on 6 November. The demonstration was the biggest labour protest in Belgium for many years. The regional strikes have been well-supported too: in each area, nothing has moved on the day of the strike. Teachers have struck nationally for...

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