International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Government brutalizes, the street protests in Belgium

Mateo Alaluf — 2026-05-30T06:10:23Z

Belgium has once again been paralysed by strikes. Tens of thousands of workers demonstrated in Brussels on Tuesday 12 May 2026, the day before the opening of the debates on the law and pension reform programme. Since the formation of the government, structured around the two major right-wing parties (the Flemish nationalists of the NVA and the “Trumpified” Francophone neoliberals of the MR- Mouvement réformateur), the trade union common front (Fédération générale du travail de Belgique-FGTB, Confédération des syndicats chrétiens-CSC and Confédération générale des syndicats libéraux-CGSLB) has been mobilising relentlessly and successfully. The conflict is primarily aimed at the federal government, but also at the federated entities, particularly with regard to education.

- IVP616 - May 2026 / Belgium, Protest movements

After three days of strike, a vast social movement with no political alternative

Mateo Alaluf — 2025-12-17T08:56:25Z

Belgium experienced a crescendo of strikes on Monday 24 November in public transport (trains, buses, trams, metros), Tuesday 25 November in all public services (including education and hospitals) and Wednesday 26 November, with the addition of the private sector, a day long interprofessional general strike that was widely followed in Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels.

- IVP611 - December 2025 / Belgium, Trade unions/workplace organizing

After the general strike of 9 November

Mateo Alaluf — 2022-11-25T12:03:23Z

Belgium is no exception to the wave of strikes in this hot European social autumn.

- IV574 - November 2022 / Belgium, Trade unions/workplace organizing