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And it would be cool if people from here will attend too! We've got people like Vijay Prashad, Irvin Jim, Jeremy Corbyn, Dr. Hassan Abu Sittah, Aleida Guevara and many more coming over. There's food, music, workshops, cinema, sports, everything happening on September 7 and 8. You can buy tickets here: www.manifiesta.be Oh and Oppo and I will be there of course. Let me know in the DM's if you wanna meet up there. I promise I'm not a total weirdo.
Hi there! Just curious which countries in Europe actually have communist parties with tangible successes post 2000. The Communist Party of Austria seems fairly popular, even having a popular mayor in Graz, and some electoral success in Salzburg. Can anyone point out some others in action?
On september 7 and 8 our party will host our annual festival [Manifiesta](https://manifiesta.be/nl/line-up) in which socialist activists from all over the world will come together to debate, learn, party, eat, drink and much more. We've got European speakers like Corbyn, we've got Palestinian speakers like Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, we've got Sudanese activists, Cuban speakers, South African speakers like Irvin Jim, US speakers like Shawn Fain, we've got music, we've got food from Global South countries as well as AES (which is absolutely amazing, trust me). There will be a book fair, there will be workshops on organizing, there will be talks on various topics like feminism, trans rights, healthcare, climate change, public transport, Palestine, etc. It is always a fun event and you will meet many different comrades from all over the world, all in harmony on a beautiful former horse race track at the beach. Public transport can be free within Belgium, so that could also shorten travel time from abroad. Oh, and I will be there, as well as [@Oppo@lemmygrad.ml](https://lemmygrad.ml/u/Oppo)
What a day it was yesterday. The sun was out and everyone got to do their highest civil duty possible: VoTe! For weeks the media were all over the place, saying that Vlaams Belang, the far right nationalist party, would be the biggest winner of the elections, with some even saying they could get up to 38% of the votes. Belgium operates on different levels. You've got the Federal level which makes decisions for the entire country, you've got the Regional level for the three regions Wallonia, Brussels and Flanders, you've got a provincial level within these regions and you've got a municipal level for the cities and towns. Yesterday we voted for Federal, Regional and European levels. These are the results: **Flanders** NVA - 23.9% - neoliberal nationalists Vlaams Belang - 22.7% - far right nationalists Vooruit - 13.9% - socdems CD&V - 13% - Christian Democrats Open VLD - 8.3% - liberals PVDA - 8.3% - Communists (THAT'S US) Groen - 7.3% - Green Party/socdem **Wallonia** MR - 29.6% - liberals PS - 23.2% - socdems, same as Vooruit Les Engagés - 20.7% - Christian Democrats, same as CD&V PTB - 12.1% - Communists (us, again) Ecolo - 7% - Green Party/socdem **Brussels** Groen - 22.8% - Green Party/socdem Team Fouad Ahidar - 16.5% - independent socdem with muslim background NVA - 11.9% - neoliberal nationalists Open VLD - 10.6% - liberals Vlaams Belang - 10.5% - far right nationalists Vooruit - 10% - socdem PVDA - 7% - communists, us CD&V - 6.3% - Christian Democrats VIVA PALESTINA! - 2.4% - No idea what ideology they belong to, one issue party **Federal** NVA - 16.7% - neoliberal nationalists Vlaams Belang - 13.8% - far right nationalists MR - 10.3% - liberals PVDA/PTB - 9.9% - communists, us Vooruit - 8.1% - Flemish socdems PS - 8.1% - Wallonia socdems CD&V - 8 % - Christian Democrats, Flemish Les Engagés - 6.8% - Christian Democrats, Wallonia Open VLD- 5.4% - liberals Groen - 4.6% - Green party, Flemish Ecolo - 2.9% - Green party, Wallonia ** I left several parties out of the results as I did not consider them noteworthy
Today we (well, not me as I don't have a Belgian nationality) shall vote in Belgium. We will be voting on a Federal level, Regional (Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels) level and European level. Chances are likely to have at least a far right nationalist government on the Flanders level, though Federal might be just as bad even. The nationalist want Flanders to become independent, so it will be interesting to see what happens. They are extremely anti LGBTQ+ and anti immigration, though 'coincidentally' not against my kind of immigration. Many of my friends in both categories are scared and frankly, being a member of the communist party, so am I. For us it looks like we will at least double the amount of votes compared to last time. Polls have us at 10% but I think it might be higher. 21% of the voters still don't have a clue. And voting is mandatory here, so they need to have one today. My own group managed to convince 5000 people in the last weeks by going into the streets and talking to people. Every day for the last few weeks has been spent by reaching out to as much people as possible and we did it. As far as I could see we were the only party to do it this way. Others would arrive in a big ass campaign bus, in suits and whatnot. We would be there, ordinary locals to talk to. What the future will hold, nobody knows. All we know is that our struggle isn't over and we continue to give it all.
I'm in a bit of a doomer mood tbh. Left wing movements are at least gaining some traction where I am but they are far from principled MLs. As much as I like my own party, which even started as a ML movement, I believe we are really far away from returning to our roots. And as much as I appreciate my comrades doing their work, the liberal brain rot can still be strong. I especially feel like walking on egg shells when it comes to showing support for countries like China, DPRK, etc. And I don't even want to begin on the naive attitude towards the rise of the far right and possible violence lol.
Not looking forward to a possible far right government taking place. Many of my LGBTQ+ friends are nervous.
Take note Dutch Universities. This is how you can also act. This week the Antwerp University also decided to put all collaborations on hold, with a possibility to stop them all together. Protesting works.
Small but fun protest
Our annual festival Manifiesta will be on September 7th and 8th. Many guests from all over the world will be present to talk about the communist struggle and our victories. We've got Irvin Jim for example, a marxist Union leader from South Africa. We've got Shawn Fain, the US Automobile Union leader. Vijay Prashad will be there. Talks about Cuba, China, Palestine, Feminism, LGBTQ+ struggle, Unions, Communism, Workshop, you name it, it will be there probably. There's also music and food from all over the world, especially socialist countries like Vietnam and Laos and Cuba and whatnot. Oh, and Oppo and I will be there too! Info and tickets: https://manifiesta.be/nl
nos.nl
You are all saints
It was fun seeing the Nazi Youth. Lots of mothers had an empty basements in Antwerp that evening it seemed.
We're third biggest in Wallonia and Brussels too (though some have us as the biggest there)
www.vrt.be
It took place in Borgerhout where our party is also governing
In 10 years they managed to ban blackface icon Black Pete from the Dutch holiday Sinterklaas in almost every place in the Netherlands. It wasn't easy as some of their protests erupted in actual riots and they were under constant threat of the far right. Still, they managed to kick out a racist caricature. Thank you all for your efforts ✊🏼
www.vice.com
Italy having a normal one
The scandal saw thousands of people wrongfully accused of fraude with benefits, resulting in people in debt, children taken away by CPS and even suicides, eventually leading to the resignation of the government in 2021.
There are stories coming out of people seeing their 15 minute bus ride to work turn into a 1 hour+ commute, or of people now having to take 4 busses instead of just 1. Meanwhile rich people who can afford to buy a new electric car can do so with a 5000 euro support of the government. I hate this society.