And I convinced at least 12 people to vote for us. I also managed to get several more people to get on the fence about voting for us.
Fun things I heard:
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You guys are extremists! - To which I replied: extremist against which group? I also asked for an example of our extremist policies but nobody managed to name one. They just read we were in the media. I managed to explain that we are seen as extremisits by the rich people controlling our society.
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You guys are on the side of Russia - This was funny because I guess you could see it that way but I gave a diplomatic answer about not being on the side of Russia but rather not wanting this war to escalate any further.
Other debates were about our plans and how we want to realize them.
It was fun doing this actually. Our group in our district managed to convince at least 100 people to vote for us on this day alone.
I also spoke to a guy who said he wasn’t going to vote because he has lost all faith in politics and that all politicians are bastards who don’t understand the people. He had some far right takes too. I pointed out that many of our officials are actually still factory workers, cleaning personnel, teachers, workers in general and he was amazed by that. He said he might consider voting even.
it’s always “you’re being funded by russia” or “you’re on the side of russia”
For which party?
Workers’ Party of Belgium
Are you focused on nationalizing waffle production?
State distributed waffles are the only reason I joined tbh
You have nothing to lose but your arteries and powdered sugar to gain
Opinion on Trappist Beer monks and monasteries?
They’re great as a culinary art. The monastries are always nicely maintained. The monks keep to themselves most of the time and don’t bother anyone. Overall, good thing.
Yeah, they seem quaint. Trappist beer is expensive though. If your party got elected, would you nationalise the monasteries (I assume they are some sort of private ownership now) but keep the artisanal production? How would you distribute the beer? A national waiting list anyone could get on with a limited number of beers per person?
I’m sure there are more important issues facing Belgium, but I don’t know what they are.
great job. What’s your party like? I don’t really know anything about Belgian politicsWe started as a ML-maoist party decades ago and remained an active but niche communist party throughout the years. It was only since the 2010s that we started growing harder. In 2019 we managed to get some people elected and ever since the popularity is rising at a fast pace. We are nearing 30 thousand active members now and recent polls have us as the third or fourth biggest party in the country. Some of our politicians are the most popular politicians on social media. We are by far the most active party in the streets, with members at every social gathering, event, market, concert, etc. happening.
Growing at that pace brings its own challenges. You don’t want to present yourself to the world as too radical as that might scare people that have been bombarded with anti communist propaganda away. You also don’t want to abandon your marxist principles. A big influx of new members makes it that not all of them are principles marxists yet and they need to be educated. And while electoral politics are not a goal and we need actual systematic change to happen, you need to find a way to be a part of it regardless. We do so by having actual workers on our lists. People that work the factories, do the cleaning at the airport, work at the supermarkets, combined with experienced marxists.
All in all I think the party is managing to bring marxism to the general public in a way that is familiar for common people while also holding on to marxist thought. It is by far the most serious marxist party I have seen in Western Europe and I think we have a lot of potential.
I think we have a lot of potential.
Sounds like it! Happy to hear all that. I’m glad a marxist party is doing well somewhere in Europe.
I tend to answer the Russia/Ukraine question as such:
Support Russia? No, we’d rather see Ukraine remain independent of foreign interference. We don’t support the military occupation of Ukraine by Russia, and neither do we want to see Ukraine become a US puppet and end up an eternal battering ram to be used against Russia. We don’t want to see the sacrifice in lives of many more tens of thousands of people that is happening now. This conflict won’t get solved with more bullets, only with more talks, just as every other modern conflict. We want to see deescalation, and to stop fueling the oligarch that rake in the mega profits from the ever growing war machine on both sides of this conflict.
The question that stumps me with Westerners is: do you denounce Hamas?
Taking the Geneva Convention route or using the ICJ answer, or even talking about the history, just end up with them screaming at me.
