General strikes in Belgium
Depiction of striking Belgian workers in 1893 by the painter Eugène Laermans
Since 1893, there have been a number of general strikes in Belgium. Occasioned by the emergence of the labour movement and socialism in Belgium, general strikes have been an enduring part of Belgian political life. Originally intended to encourage the reform of the franchise, more recent strikes have focused on issues of wages and opposition to government austerity. Since 1945, general strikes have been co-ordinated by the General Federation of Belgian Labour (ABVV-FGTB) while most before World War II were organised by the parliamentary Belgian Labour Party (POB-BWP).
According to Carl J. Strikwerda, the Belgian general strike of 1893 was the first general strike in the European history.[1]
Origins
In 1866, the government revoked articles of the Le Chapelier Law outlawing trade unions.[2] The first strikes followed soon after. A mining strike occured in 1868 and textile workers went on strike during the economic depression of the 1870s.[2] In 1885, the Belgian Labour Party was formed.[2] During the nineteenth century, Belgian workers were famous for their low pay and poor working conditions.[3]
The first major strike in Belgian history was the Walloon Jacquerie of 1886 which, though unorganised, led to the first legislation regarding working conditions.[4]
List
| Year | Date | Title | Cause | Number of strikers | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1893 | 12-18 April | Belgian general strike of 1893 | Franchise reform | 200,000 | Successfully led to the establishment of universal male suffrage with plural votes.[3] Thirteen strikers were killed and socialist leaders were briefly arrested.[5] |
| 1902 | 8-19 April | Belgian general strike of 1902 | Franchise reform and an end to plural vote | 350,000 | Failure to achieve objectives amid Catholic and Liberal agreement on plural voting. Soon descended into violence in Brussels and parts of Wallonia. 12 workers and one policeman were killed. Union membership dropped sharply in the aftermath.[5] |
| 1913 | 14-24 April | Belgian general strike of 1913 | Franchise reform | 400,000 | Carefully planned to avoid the same problems as 1902, the strike gained the promise of electoral reform but proposals postponed by the outbreak of World War I and the subsequent German occupation. The policy was finally adopted in 1919.[3][6] |
| 1932 | 7 July-September | Belgian strikes of 1932 | Pay, working hours and unemployment insurance | Began after a spontaneous strike by coal miners in the Borinage and involved Communist agitation following severe decrease in living standards and real wages. Two people killed.[7] | |
| 1936 | 2 June-2 July | Belgian general strike of 1936 | Working hours, paid holiday, union reforms | 500,000 | Broke out at the port of Antwerp and led to the creation of a National Labour Conference.[7] Although influenced by the French Popular Front and against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, it was supported by Catholic unions.[8] |
| 1950 | 24 July-3 August | Belgian general strike of 1950 | The Royal Question | 700,000 | Chiefly active in Wallonia, the strike contributed to the abdication of King Leopold III on 1 August 1950. |
| 1960-61 | 20 December-23 January | Belgian general strike of winter 1960-61 | Austerity | 700,000 | Strike failed to defeat the government's Eenheidswet or Loi Unique. Its failure to attract support in Flanders, combined with the industrial decline of Wallonia, contributed to the growing language divide in Belgium.[9] |
| 1982 | February, November, December | Belgian national strikes of 1982 | Austerity, union reform, devaluation of the Belgian franc | Three 24-hour strikes against the backdrop of the early 1980s recession | |
| 1983 | 9-12 September | Belgian national strike of 1983 | Cuts to public services | A general strike of public sector workers against the backdrop of the early 1980s recession.[10] | |
| 1993 | 26 November | Belgian general strike of 1993 | Wage indexing reform | An unsuccessful strike against the Global Plan (plan global) of Jean-Luc Dehaene's government amid the early 1990s recession and the 1992 approval of the Maastricht Treaty.[11] | |
| 2005 | 7 and 28 October | Belgian general strikes of 2005 | Raising the retirement age | Unsuccessful strike against the plans of Guy Verhofstadt's government to raise the retirement age from 58 to 60.[12] | |
| 2012 | 30 January | Belgian general strike of 2012 | Austerity | ||
| 2014 | 15 December | Belgian general strike of 2014 | Austerity | 120,000+ | Unsuccessful opposition to the austerity of the Charles Michel government in the context of the Great Recession and European debt crisis.[13][14] |
See also
- Strike of the 100,000 - a notable strike in German-occupied Belgium in 1941
- Misère au Borinage (1933) - Socialist film looking at the living conditions in the Borinage after the 1932 strike
- Belgium in the long nineteenth century
Notes
- ↑ Strikwerda 1997, p. 109.
- 1 2 3 Cook 2004, p. 87.
- 1 2 3 Cook 2004, p. 88.
- ↑ Cook 2004, pp. 87-8.
- 1 2 Strikwerda 1997, p. 144.
- ↑ Witte, Craeybeckx & Meynen 2009, p. 108.
- 1 2 Witte, Craeybeckx & Meynen 2009, p. 186.
- ↑ Witte, Craeybeckx & Meynen 2009, p. 197.
- ↑ Cook 2004, p. 139.
- ↑ Witte, Craeybeckx & Meynen 2009, p. 306.
- ↑ Coenen 2004, p. 317.
- ↑ "Belgium hit by second mass strike". BBC. 28 October 2005. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
- ↑ "Strikes across Belgium cause transport chaos". BBC. 15 December 2014. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
- ↑ Robinson, Duncan (15 December 2014). "Belgium hit by general strike". The Financial Times. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
Bibliography
- Cook, Bernard A. (2004). Belgium: A History. Studies in Modern European History (3rd ed.). New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 0-8204-7647-1.
- Witte, Els; Craeybeckx, Jan; Meynen, Alain (2009). Political History of Belgium from 1830 Onwards (New ed.). Brussels: ASP. ISBN 978-90-5487-517-8.
- Strikwerda, Carl (1997). A House Divided: Catholics, Socialists, and Flemish Nationalists in Nineteenth-century Belgium. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0847685271.
- Coenen, Marie-Thérèse (2004). L'État de la Belgique: 1989 - 2004, quinze années a la charnière du siècle (1st ed.). Brussels: De Boeck Univ. ISBN 9782804146382.
Further reading
- Merkx, Kris; Deruette, Serge (1999). La Vie en Rose: Réalités de l'Histoire du Parti socialiste en Belgique. Brussels: EPO. ISBN 2872621474.
- Polasky, Janet L. (July 1992). "A Revolution for Socialist Reforms: The Belgian General Strike for Universal Suffrage". Journal of Contemporary History 27 (3): 449–66. JSTOR 260900.
External links
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