Interviews and articles

"Good morning, dear comrades, Today is May First. May First, International Workers' Day. May First, the day when the workers' world makes its voice heard. May First is the perfect day to talk about the growing inequalities in our society.

After the shock of the corona crisis and the shock of energy prices, the economy is facing a new shock: the interest rate shock. Central banks around the world hope to control inflation by raising their interest rates at lightning speed. Those high interest rates are a new financial policy that breaks with the recent past. How the global economy will respond is not yet clear. But what is certain is that, by doing so, central banks and governments are making ordinary people bear the consequences of inflation. What is going on and how can we avoid being the ones who are losing out again?

With his media platform WikiLeaks, Julian Assange exposed war crimes committed by US and European armies against Iraq and Afghanistan. Once grounds for a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, today his journalistic work is rewarded with a witch-hunt and imprisonment. On the outside, his wife Stella is fighting for his freedom.

Preface by Peter Mertens to the 175th anniversary edition of ‘Het Communistisch Manifest’, EPO Publishers, Antwerp, Belgium, February 2023

Peter Mertens at the Havana International Conference For World Balance

Charlie Le Paige at the Youth Forum of the Havana International Conference For World Balance, January 25, 2023

May Day Speech 2022 Raoul Hedebouw, president of the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB)

For 30 minutes, peace activist and long-time trade unionist Jeremy Corbyn waltzes us through his notebooks full of stories. Together with Peter Mertens, General Secretary of the PTB, they take us from soaring energy prices, through peace and war, to million-strong demonstrations in London's Hyde Park. From Chile and hope, to the red and white of Arsenal Football Club.

The war was started by Vladimir Putin. There is no excuse for it. Russian troops must leave Ukraine. Period. Moreover, it is urgent to have a debate on how to move towards de-escalation and guarantee security in Europe.

New Year's speech by Raoul Hedebouw, president of the PTB-PVDA 2022 will be a year of resistance. We are going to fight to make it better. Better than 2021, which was not an easy year. We, the workers, the young people, the grassroots, the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA), are going to give all to make 2022 different.

Set to win 18 seats in parliament, the Workers’ Party of Belgium is the fastest-growing force on the European left. Newly elected leader Raoul Hedebouw tells Jacobin how his comrades built an explicitly Marxist party with mass appeal.

On Sunday 5 December, Raoul Hedebouw was elected president of the PTB-PVDA at the closing session of our Unity Congress. Here is his speech at the closing session.