Communist Party of Belgium

Communist Party of Belgium (Dutch: Kommunistische Partij van België, French: Parti Communiste de Belgique) was a political party in Belgium. The youth wing of KPB/PCB was known as the Communist Youth of Belgium. The party published a newspaper known as Le Drapeau Rouge in French and De Roode Vaan in Dutch.

History

It was formed at a congress in Anderlecht on September 3-4 1921. KPB/PCB was formed through the unification of two groups, the Communist Party led by War Van Overstraeten and the Belgian Communist Party led by Joseph Jacquemotte, following a split from the Belgian Workers Party. At the time of its foundation, KPB/PCB had around 500 members. KPB/PCB became the Belgian section of the Communist International.

The party gained parliamentary presence in 1925, as both Van Overstraeten and Jacquemotte were elected MPs.

By 1935 KPB/PCB had 9 deputies in the lower house of parliament and 4 senators. In 1938 it had a membership of about 8,500.

During the Second World War, the party had to go underground during German occupation. The party was also closely affiliated with the Partisans Armés, a resistance group during the occupation, however in 1943 much of the party leadership was arrested by German forces. After the end of the war, the party was strengthened and obtained 25% in the parliamentary elections. The party participated in coalition government with the socialists and the liberals during 1946-1947.

Communist Party of China

The Communist Party of China (CPC) is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The CPC is the sole governing party of China, although it coexists alongside eight other legal parties that comprise the United Front. It was founded in 1921, chiefly by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. The party grew quickly, and by 1949 the CPC had driven the Kuomintang (KMT) government from mainland China after a 10-year civil war, thus leading to the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The CPC is currently the world's second largest political party with a membership of 87.79 million as of 2015.

The CPC is, officially, organized on the basis of democratic centralism, a principle conceived by Russian Marxist theoretician Vladimir Lenin which entails democratic and open discussion on policy on the condition of unity in upholding the agreed upon policies. The highest body of the CPC is the National Congress, convened every fifth year. When the National Congress is not in session, the Central Committee is the highest body, but since the body meets normally only once a year, most duties and responsibilities are vested in the Politburo and its Standing Committee. The party's leader holds the offices of General Secretary (responsible for civilian party duties), Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) (responsible for military affairs) and state president (a largely ceremonial position). Through these posts the party leader is the country's paramount leader. The current party leader is Xi Jinping, elected at the 18th National Congress (held in 2012).

Communist Party (disambiguation)

Communist Party is a label adopted by several political parties. Communist Party may refer to:

All-Union

Bolsheviks

Central, Centre

India

Communist Party of Iceland

The Communist Party of Iceland (Icelandic: Kommúnistaflokkur Íslands) was a political party in Iceland from 1930 to 1938.

History

In the early 1920s a group of young militants of the Social Democratic Party (Alþýðuflokkur) came into contact with the international communist movement. Their ideology and that of their party leader, was quickly growing apart. The communists formed a radical section within the party which they called the Association of Young Communists (Félag ungra kommúnista) in November 1922. The group evolved into the Sparta Social Democratic Association (Jafnaðarmannafélagið Sparta) in 1926 but eventually they left the social democrats to form their own party as suggested by Comintern in 1928. The Communist Party of Iceland (KFI) was formed in November 1930 and became a member of Comintern. KFI published Verkalýðsblaðið.

In 1938 another splinter group, which had left the social democrats the year before, unified itself with the communists forming the Popular Unity Party - Socialist Party (Sameiningarflokkur alþýðu - Sósíalistaflokkurinn). The new party did not continue the Comintern membership. However, the communists were dominant in the party and it was mostly the same as its predecessor. In 1956 the Socialist Party formed the People's Alliance as an electoral alliance with yet another splinter group from the Social Democratic Party. The People's Alliance became a political party in 1968.

Belgium

Coordinates: 50°50′N 4°00′E / 50.833°N 4.000°E / 50.833; 4.000

Belgium (ⁱ/ˈbɛldʒəm/; Dutch: België  [ˈbɛlɣijə]; French: Belgique  [bɛlʒik]; German: Belgien  [ˈbɛlɡiən]), officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts several of the EU's official seats and as well as the headquarters of many major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres (11,787 sq mi) and has a population of about 11 million people.

Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups: the Dutch-speaking, mostly Flemish community, which constitutes about 59% of the population, and the French-speaking, mostly Walloon population, which comprises 41% of all Belgians. Additionally, there is a small group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area, and bordering Germany.

Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. Its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of government.

History of Belgium

The history of Belgium stretches back before the origin of the modern state of that name in 1830. Belgium's history is intertwined with those of its neighbours: the Netherlands, Germany, France and Luxembourg. For most of its history, what is now Belgium was either a part of a larger territory, such as the Carolingian Empire, or divided into a number of smaller states, prominent among them being the Duchy of Brabant, the County of Flanders, the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and Luxembourg. Due to its strategic location and the many armies fighting on its soil, Belgium since the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) has often been called the "battlefield of Europe" or the "cockpit of Europe." It is also remarkable as a European nation which contains, and is divided by, a language boundary between Latin-derived French, and Germanic Dutch.

Belgium (1914–1940)

Belgium during the interwar period refers to the period between the end of World War I in 1918 and the invasion and occupation of Belgium by Nazi Germany in World War II in 1940. Belgium was occupied by the Germans, except for a small area behind the Yser river, here king Albert I stayed at La Panne. Belgium regained its lost territories with the Armistice of 1918 and the withdrawal of German forces under Governor-general Ludwig Freiherr von Falkenhausen. Belgium received the territory of Eupen-Malmedy from Germany in the Treaty of Versailles and also received the colony of Ruanda-Urundi from the former German colonial empire.