Thanks for inviting Peter to share the experience of the Workers party of Belgium with your followers and hopefully inspire progressive people, movements and parties worldwide that we can unite and create a better future for all of humanity.
The Belgian Workers’ Party is the best party in all of Europe IMO. They have figured out how to directly reach the working class unlike most other left-wing parties in the Global North, and they have demonstrated that an actual Marxist party can still appeal to the working classes, by fighting for their interests and organizing them, at the same time fighting for marginalized peoples and against imperialism rather than throwing marginalized people and the Global South under the bus. We need to study their leadership and tactics, because they could be the key to growing support for socialist parties in the Global North.
the thing i most dislike about them is their pro-car stance and their sussy stance on Russia which is a fascist state. Im anti-nato but their apologia for the russian invasion reeks of imperialist apologia
Proud member of the party. I have a bachelors degree and choose a workers life anyway, i work in logistics. When you put the intellectual part and the life experiences of being a worker together, the story of PTB in Belgium just fits perfectly. If you don't live the way you think, you're gonna start to think in the way you live. This is the reason so many neo-liberal minded politicians completely lost the connection with what workers life is like. People like Peter who work in parliamant but limit their income to that of the average worker make sure they still experience a lot of what the average Belgian experiences.
Worker's party in Belgium can make a difference Future...... i have been reading Them....... The way they organize is genius "door to door " we can do it here Who needs Capitalism??when the poor people can't afford healthy care........ Thanks Guys......
The ruling Socialist MORENA Party of Mexico had similar grassroot beginnings as this Belgian one.......and they're doing Very Well by the looks of the Sweeping results across the board in the last elections. I'm Absolutely Delighted to hear that the Belgian PVDA-PTP has a Real Backbone, by adhering to a Principled Stance wrt their monthly salaries as MP's in the elected assembly ; BRAVO!
As a Dutch marxist and left wing activist the PVDA/PTB, LFI in France and MORENA in Mexico and maybe Sumar in Spain give me hope politically. As well renewed union radicalism.
I can confirm this person will personally try to help you out if you reach out. And not appear to help, but actually act and do. That is something we no longer link with politicians. But he and his party is being seen by the working class, who's suffering like crazy. And people appreciate and talk about that 'act/fact' everywhere (like workfloor/office), even if they are not "socialist" minded. To give you context to this man and his story.
Very interesting as always! I suggest you to interview leaders from neo socialist parties in core EU countries as well: Giuseppe Conte for Italy, Sarah Wagenknecht for Germany, Jean Luc Melenchon for France. 🇵🇸🇾🇪🇱🇧🇮🇷🇸🇾
All the other socialist/social-democratic parties you mention have an anti-migrant strain in their parties, which I have yet to see within the PVDA/PTB.
Conte is not the leader of a socialist party, let alone a marxist one. Yet, I do agree that it is probably the most pragmatic left oriented party we have had in italy in the last decade
@@rich_i_feynman9551at least she is on the roght side on the anti imperialist confrontation. Sadly it looks like other leftist parties in Germany opened up to figures (I think of Rakete) who have turned out to be completely aligned with the imperialistic policies.
I remember Bill Maher saying something like --- Americans love socialism, they just do not like calling it socialism. Also, he once said something like, when you go somewhere in your car, you do not have to bring your own street or highway.
Bill Maher is a stuck up, elitist jack*ss but, he was right on that. Look at what was popular or made popular under the Bernie Sanders moment or under Corbyn in the U.K (although the people of the U.K are some of the most class conscious people in the world).
The PVDA-PTB is the smallest of the Belgian Socialist parties. Mertens is the mouse shaking the bridge with a little help of the Elephants. In fact, when you think of it, compared to the US, all Belgians are socialists. It's part of our culture. And then there are the labour unions: In one hour and a half from this very moment, a general strike will impact the ongoing government formation, during which somebody had suggested that there might be a pension reform.
Maybe you are unaware, but the person who is being interviewed here has completely turned his back on Ludo martens who was an idiot himself anyways there’s no point in putting long live Ludo Martens. He was at least a ML so don’t mention him under this interview here between two of the worlds leading revisionist
Fukuyama and his end of history crap. The guy should have been drummed out of society for that one. He could have been given a seat up the back where he would keep his mouth shut and listen to people who actually know stuff.
Yeah it’s a bad look. I think he was trying to say that action through a strong party is preferable to vigilantism. But let’s not diminish the bravery that young man (allegedly) showed.
A note from Brian: “Hello and thanks for your comment. We recorded this show on Dec 7, before Luigi Mangione had been identified and arrested. It was weeks before he was charged with terrorism. I disagree 100% with this charge and oppose it. I see how this could be misinterpreted but I used the term “individual terrorist act” in the classical sense of the debate well known in the Marxist movement in the early 20th century about the efficacy of mass action vs individual action. In that debate, the word “terror” was not politicized as it is now. It was a point of controversy and debate that Lenin emphasized under tsarist Russia. I used the term in reference to that debate, not in a pejorative sense or in a legal sense. My point was that in absence of mass movements and parties providing direction to people’s feelings of injustice and oppression in the face of the system, many would resort to individual actions because it’s the only way they feel they can make an impact. And this will resonate with many who compare it to the much larger daily violence of the system itself, on a national and international scale.”
Please, BT, try to get Peter Joseph on, author of The New Human Rights Movement and soon to be released film, Zeitgeist: Requiem. Get a 1-2 hour sit down interview with him and be journalist heroes!
Peter Joseph has interesting ideas and is well-read ilon a technical level, but he arrogantly doesn't believe in socialism, which makes him disconnected with historical progress.
@ Arrogantly? Actually, smartly he avoids calling for socialism because that’s not actually a system. Socialism is a series of values or policies placed on a market economy. Peter calls for a new system to capitalism, a post-scarcity natural law resource based economy, if you must call it something. Peter is quite supportive of progress through means that are typically socialist, like worker co-ops, sharing, less working weeks, healthcare for all, student debt cancellation and such. He just doesn’t believe socialism is the end goal. It would be arrogant of anybody to think socialism is the end goal, instead of just a step in transition.
Yes, arrogant. Peter Joseph sounds like he's invented something new but he's basically just rehashing socialist ideas while simultaneously discarding socialism as a viable and necessary alternative to capitalism, the ultimate goal of socialism being communism, i.e. no classes, no money, no private property. Joseph doesn't seem to or willingly ignores that the only way to get rid of capitalism is for the working class (the majority of people actually producing value without owning the means of production) to overthrow the current ruling class or capitalists, and establish a workers' state.
@ he knows better than you. I don’t think you’ve been paying proper attention. You may be the arrogant one, in this case, for thinking you know what he’s saying and why he’s avoiding the socialist label trap, because if communism is the goal, why not just say you want a communist society? The ruling elite of this capitalist system will call you communists terrorists and you’ll be done. Socialism isn’t a system, communism has never existed, unless you talk about our egalitarian roots as hunter-gatherers and that’s not really the same thing. A post-capitalist society will not be universally called “communist” so don’t be so arrogant to think you know the exact terms of revolution. You’ll fail if you police language rather than just agree on the same end goals, regardless of names. The funny thing is, Peter will be called a socialist and communist even if he calls for different methods. System change will be bottom-up not top-down by voting in a socialist party. Labels of socialism are distractions for the ground work that is needed. Please do less demonizing and more uniting.
The examples of good practices in party work and the principled stances on foreign policy were valuable and encouraging. The main weak spot I noticed was a bit too much hope set on China, a bit like the hopes attached to the USSR in the past. The Chinese system does have a more substantial statist/dirigiste component than the Western one, and this fact does *sometimes* benefit the population, but that's hardly enough for it to be considered fundamentally socialist. The capitalist element has been a crucial part of Chinese success and the post-Mao Chinese system has had and still has neoliberal, non-solidary, non-egalitarian aspects and tendencies that are even more extreme than what is found in most of the West; and ideologically, a nationalist-authoritarian element is increasingly predominant in it. China is useful as a foil to US imperialism - and to the unchecked plutocratic power of global corporations that US imperialism is intimately connected with - but not as a model of a new socialist system.
Don't call Luigi a terrorist. He's the natural result of a system that ruins individual lives and whole families, multiple times a day, every day. I'm not saying what he did is a route to revolution, but I am saying that the label of "terrorist" has been given to him by the ruling class for their own purposes, dont play into it if you ever hope to gain the trust of working people. I'm a newer viewer and you've immediately made your whole channel suspect.
A note from Brian: “Hello and thanks for your comment. We recorded this show on Dec 7, before Luigi Mangione had been identified and arrested. It was weeks before he was charged with terrorism. I disagree 100% with this charge and oppose it. I see how this could be misinterpreted but I used the term “individual terrorist act” in the classical sense of the debate well known in the Marxist movement in the early 20th century about the efficacy of mass action vs individual action. In that debate, the word “terror” was not politicized as it is now. It was a point of controversy and debate that Lenin emphasized under tsarist Russia. I used the term in reference to that debate, not in a pejorative sense or in a legal sense. My point was that in absence of mass movements and parties providing direction to people’s feelings of injustice and oppression in the face of the system, many would resort to individual actions because it’s the only way they feel they can make an impact. And this will resonate with many who compare it to the much larger daily violence of the system itself, on a national and international scale.”
@BreakThroughNews I appreciate the clarification and apologise for how harsh I was, I wasn't aware how long ago this had been recorded either. I'm in full agreement with you about the general history of the term and about the ultimate inefficacy of individual action as compared to mass action guided by an organisation, I however still stand by the sentiment that we shouldn't use the term in response to situations like these purely because it plays into the intense social conditioning that the ruling class have put us through, especially in recent history, to justify the destruction, subjugation and/or occupation of the middle east for the purposes of dominating non-compliant states to send a message to others, as well as to control their markets and ultimately their labour. tl;dr, great clarification, I completely understand what context you were using for the term now, and even though it does fit the strict definition of the term, before the war on terror and regular mass shootings the label was largely used as a veiled polemic to demonise those that reacted violently to the regime of the ruling class for their brutal indifference to, or direct contribution, to the suffering of the working people under their rule, and we're seeing the return of that original usage with Luigi now. This is why I think we should totally refrain from using it in circumstances like this, it takes the onus off of the ruling class, whose abuses directly lead to this. I know, I'm not very good at tl;drs.
Christian Democrat parties occupy that electoral niche where other countries have per se Conservative parties, but Christian Democrats are not just conservatives. Historically, due Catholic Social Teaching, the various Papal Encyclicals which have been critical of capitalism and the humanist burden of scripture and the Gospel, Christian Democracy has been an ideological current which is significantly to the left of secular conservatism elsewhere. It's necessarily distinct from nationalism (including Christian-Nationalism) and from the market-idolatry of Neoliberalism, which are the two dominant streams of conservative ideology in the USA. That's at the ideas level, as opposed to the class interest level, where there is again a certain amount of difference, in that the class composition of the churches, especially of the Catholic church, is not at all just bourgeois. Just to say European Christian Democratic parties do not = Republicans and that if you have the choice of a secular nationalist or neoliberal conservative party or a Christian Democratic party as your national centre-right option, you want the Christian Democrat version instead every time. They are much more pro-welfare state for one thing.
Maybe you’ve been confused about what the working class is and what his goals are because of the sort of nonsense which has been spewed in this interview, but yeah, it doesn’t matter that the Christian Democrat parties are more pro-welfare than other reactionary parties. They’ll still oppose a dictatorship of the prole I can guarantee that.
The USSR did not collapse. The USSR was dissolved. Stalinists always get this important point wrong. The USSR was lead by a Stalinist bureaucracy. That means the bureaucracy had all the power and used the program of Socialism In One Country as its guiding principle. Eventually the bureaucracy foumd that Socialism wasn't leading to their further enrichment. So they abandoned it and fully restored capitalism.
@@bv2623 romanov russia was a combination between feudalism and capitalism, just as the soviet union had the NEP and state capitalism. they have known capitalism since it has been a thing. Just because they were never 100% free market capitalist doesnt mean they dont know it. Western european countries have a mixed capitalist economy, with state control, unions, co-ops ect. But that doesnt mean they dont live in a capitalist system with a upper class profiting off the labour of the working class.
I am watching and listeing the first 20 minutes and I just feel these two guys just live in a parallel world, nothing to do with the world in which ordinary people actually do. I live and work in Belgium and coming from a country from South America and been living even through out dictatorship, I can say that they don´t even make an autocritisise of their own mistakes.
these guys are coping so goddamn hard, ptb was supposed to easily sweep Belgium's left votes and barely got any extra seats. It'd be more admirable if Mertens admitted they underperformed at the elections and should rethink their strategies
2:57 yes people think of mutiny as an uprising, which is why a bunch of representatives of bourgeois dictatorships in the fucking United Nations deciding to vote a different way than Yankee imperialism would like them to vote. It’s not a fucking mutiny. It’s not an uprising it’s not a revolution. It’s not on a ship.. so, yeah.
6:22 he’s completely right that things can go a different way when there was a working in class party, which is why it would be really really good. If the workers party of Belgium would become a working class party then maybe things could go a different way.
A note from Brian: “Hello and thanks for your comment. We recorded this show on Dec 7, before Luigi Mangione had ever been identified and arrested. It was weeks before he was charged with terrorism. I disagree 100% with this charge and oppose it. I see how this could be misinterpreted but I used the term “individual terrorist act” in the classical sense of the debate well known in the Marxist movement in the early 20th century about the efficacy of mass action vs individual action. In that debate, the word “terror” was not politicized as it is now. It was a point of controversy and debate that Lenin emphasized under tsarist Russia. I used the term in reference to that debate, not in a pejorative sense or in a legal sense. My point was that in absence of mass movements and parties providing direction to people’s feelings of injustice and oppression in the face of the system, many would resort to individual actions because it’s the only way they feel they can make an impact. And this will resonate with many who compare it to the much larger daily violence of the system itself, on a national and international scale.”
Xi and Pu is like Tik and Tok they are joined forever and ever Amen ,China is the world manufacturer Power House and Russia is Rocket Science put them together and that is Hypa 😂
The basic principles of an economy that serves humanity rather than humanity being just seen as tools to serve "the economy" (which is never the real material economy, but the amount of yacht and coke money available for the plutocracy) and not paying ridiculous costs just to merely exist, surplus value belonging to the people rather than siphoned off as profit or to fund brutality within the confines of the boarders and overseas in imperialist plunder, taking care of the only planet we have as a home, it just makes sense and is something that everyone feels in their hearts
Looking at the SFRJ, it's incredible what a Socialist/Communist Party in power can achieve even when starting from, as was the case with the Partisans, nothing but the rubble and extreme suffering which fascism reduced the country to. It's always good to see people fighting for something greater, to see people who are trying to build a better world, because while the odds are difficult, if it wasn't possible, then people would not have achieved any success in the fight for a future. We need a spark of hope, and this is definitely a light shining up in a world of despair during a period of heightened reaction, it's great to, and we must, hear from these people who are beating the odds and showing that the future is not dead or resigned
I just checked the timestamp you left. You are mistaken. In 1979-1980 the soviet union did not anticipate what happened a decade in the future. Brian was talking about how the Reagan administration ramped up military spending in order to stop socialist and communist revolutions occurring around the world. At the end of the 1970's the Soviets seemed to be in the ascendant, and then in the next decade thing got turned around. The context of this was expanded on by telling us that we shouldn't get complacent about the strength of the Communist Party of China as there are opposition forces there backed by the same kind of people who fostered opposition in the USSR. Stay vigilant.
8:13 I think the movements only survive when the people are politically educated and are aware. There has to be common people support. Otherwise we end up with a dictatorship of *one,* instead of a dictatorship of the people.
Appreciate thoughtful conversation. You had me until I felt the comments marginalized the fact that russia INVADED Ukraine. A fully unnecessary and likely futile move of sacrificing their 18-50 yo male work force and family bearing age couples. You would think that P had a plan as an oligarch for a dwindling population and instead he prefers a war. Yes, a normal person would see how irrational this decision was, but russian leadership is anything but rational. I would like to see American socialism move away from dead and divisive language like i.e., proletariat and bourgeois. The kids say bougee, btw. But US socialism needs a wider language that comes from including younger and ready to lead Americans. The US is politically and culturally locked in a WWII geriatric right/left paradigm. Dems are toast. Fully captured by neo liberalism and don't see the writing on the wall. Liberals, moderates, progressives and soon disillusioned magas are prime for class consciousness.
Brian, what? What, what , what, what???? What would prompt you to define a murder as a terrorist act? I have always wanted to love your show but I have always felt you fall short of the human connection and this was a defining moment.
A note from Brian: “Hello and thanks for your comment. We recorded this show on Dec 7, before Luigi Mangione had been identified and arrested. It was weeks before he was charged with terrorism. I disagree 100% with this charge and oppose it. I see how this could be misinterpreted but I used the term “individual terrorist act” in the classical sense of the debate well known in the Marxist movement in the early 20th century about the efficacy of mass action vs individual action. In that debate, the word “terror” was not politicized as it is now. It was a point of controversy and debate that Lenin emphasized under tsarist Russia. I used the term in reference to that debate, not in a pejorative sense or in a legal sense. My point was that in absence of mass movements and parties providing direction to people’s feelings of injustice and oppression in the face of the system, many would resort to individual actions because it’s the only way they feel they can make an impact. And this will resonate with many who compare it to the much larger daily violence of the system itself, on a national and international scale.”
@ thank-you for that clarification and fortunately now I understand the reference to which was meant to be implied, however, in my opinion it would have been prudent to have made that clarification at the beginning of this video before it’s publication.
2:07: Lol, in Dutch, Mertens claims the exact opposite. He persistently frames the Russian invasion of Ukraine as 'illegal'. And not just that, he goes way further by insinuating how there would have been a global consensus around that. Extra striking since at least in Dutch, this seems to be of major essence for him. Up to the point he was asking to develop a stronger European army to 'protect' ourselves from Russian aggression leading up to last elections. If that party would have been less Mertens-focussed and if Mertens had an honest agenda, the electoral boom would have been way bigger then the hiccup we've experienced now. PVDA even persisted to not make Gaza any electoral priority. Untill today they still refuse to call out Belgians co-responsibility for the genocide...
I doubt Becker would invite someone on who sympathizes with the US Empire and its fascistic proxy the Maidan-Banderite regime. Rhetoric about defending "civilization" against "barbarians" fits right in with Manifest Destiny, British imperialism, the Third Reich, etc.
0:32 and for defense of the bureaucrat capitalist regime ruling china, apparently. Not sure how that fits into the fight for socialism, workers rights, peace, and so on.
Stop trying to “orientate” the working classes. Stop trying to tell them what, or how to think. Stop presuming that you have the moral authority to tell members of the working classes what is, and isn’t okay.
You can inspire people tho, and spread knowledge. It's not like the Belgian Workers' Party puts guns against people's heads and tells them "be class conscious or DIE"
From my understanding, I look at all the past forms of governments like communism, socialism, fascism, dictatorship, authoritarian, monarchy, republic, etc. a Republic has the best chance of protecting every individuals rights. This is done by not allowing the government to inflatrate any private sector. the only reason why u.s. has a federal government to make sure the laws being passed at the state level are constitutional. Checks and balances. the Fed Government shouldn't have any more reach other than that. the people are supposed to have access to the u.s. military not the Federal government. The u.s. Military is supposed to protect the United States of America, not the federal government. The u.s. people decide if there is an actual threat to u.s soil. and are suppose to be the ultimate deciders if we go to war or not. No country should be able to put their bases on soil that isn't theirs. Basic rule that any country can agree upon unless the leaders are put in by the west. If the leader is put in by west there is probably never going to be any agreement issued sadly. In the end that's what the world is trying to go for, which is protecting the right of every individual. All those forms of governments listed above have failed miserably in the past and a Republic does show the best chance of protecting each person's individual rights and civil liberties. A Republic is supposed to avoid some type of third party trying to take over their government. lots of these forms of governments listed holds the rights of individuals to a small group of wealthy people. This small group of wealthy people are the decisions makers of the country intead of the people that live within country borders. Decisions are supposed to he made from we the people not from a wealthy group of people . These elites their groups get smaller and smaller as they back stab eachother. Old hat, even from thousands of years ago. The only reason why United States Republic is not working is because of centlized bankers hijacking the government through the use of the Federal Reserve ever since 1913 when its was signed into law. There has unfortunately always been a group of rich people trying to use their centlized money to take over any government. this time around its the u.s. government. centlized governments started thousands of years ago. Probably even since Egypt in 3000 BC. talking about history repeating itself. You can't have centlized money for a good sound country to function correctly.
Individualism is just "every man for himself", which leads right back to feudalism. Competition has winners and losers, and the winners have the power and incentive to defend their position asymmetrically. There is no magical force that would make a radically decentralised society stay in equilibrium. Reality is quite the opposite.
Thanks for inviting Peter to share the experience of the Workers party of Belgium with your followers and hopefully inspire progressive people, movements and parties worldwide that we can unite and create a better future for all of humanity.
The Belgian Workers’ Party is the best party in all of Europe IMO. They have figured out how to directly reach the working class unlike most other left-wing parties in the Global North, and they have demonstrated that an actual Marxist party can still appeal to the working classes, by fighting for their interests and organizing them, at the same time fighting for marginalized peoples and against imperialism rather than throwing marginalized people and the Global South under the bus. We need to study their leadership and tactics, because they could be the key to growing support for socialist parties in the Global North.
and yet they severely underperformed at last 2024's elections
the thing i most dislike about them is their pro-car stance and their sussy stance on Russia which is a fascist state. Im anti-nato but their apologia for the russian invasion reeks of imperialist apologia
Proud member of the party. I have a bachelors degree and choose a workers life anyway, i work in logistics. When you put the intellectual part and the life experiences of being a worker together, the story of PTB in Belgium just fits perfectly. If you don't live the way you think, you're gonna start to think in the way you live. This is the reason so many neo-liberal minded politicians completely lost the connection with what workers life is like. People like Peter who work in parliamant but limit their income to that of the average worker make sure they still experience a lot of what the average Belgian experiences.
👍I'm a Belgian and I approve this message
I am a half belgian living in Sweden. I will agree too!
Socialism kills.
And the ideas are so good that you have to force humans to join…
All the best
Awesome conversation, learned a lot about Europe
Solidarity from Greece!!
Thanks!
Thank you!
Fascinating and enlightening history of the French-German competition in the EU and history of success of the PTB
Worker's party in Belgium can make a difference Future...... i have been reading Them.......
The way they organize is genius "door to door " we can do it here
Who needs Capitalism??when the poor people can't afford healthy care........
Thanks Guys......
No, they won’t make a difference
@@geminye-j1c Not with that attitude
Peter Martens partie is one best politician parties in, Belgium,and in Europe.
Thank you for you teaching
Amazing! Obrigado!
Peter Mertens is DE MAX! ❤❤❤
♥️♥️♥️✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏿
The ruling Socialist MORENA Party of Mexico had similar grassroot beginnings as this Belgian one.......and they're doing Very Well by the looks of the Sweeping results across the board in the last elections.
I'm Absolutely Delighted to hear that the Belgian PVDA-PTP has a Real Backbone, by adhering to a Principled Stance wrt their monthly salaries as MP's in the elected assembly ; BRAVO!
@@adrianariaratnam5817 🙌 ¡Viva
México🇲🇽! as an exemplary reference to the strength of solidarity ❤️
lol! Perfect comparison of two revisionist parties who will never contribute to socialist revolution.
@@defianceforhumanityget a job
As a Dutch marxist and left wing activist the PVDA/PTB, LFI in France and MORENA in Mexico and maybe Sumar in Spain give me hope politically. As well renewed union radicalism.
@@geminye-j1c what are you on about?
Le parti ptb en Belgique est l'un des meilleurs : j'ai voté pour eux....
👄👄💓...
Great interview Thank you
I can confirm this person will personally try to help you out if you reach out. And not appear to help, but actually act and do. That is something we no longer link with politicians. But he and his party is being seen by the working class, who's suffering like crazy. And people appreciate and talk about that 'act/fact' everywhere (like workfloor/office), even if they are not "socialist" minded. To give you context to this man and his story.
What can't go on forever won't....Michael Hudson
Very interesting as always! I suggest you to interview leaders from neo socialist parties in core EU countries as well: Giuseppe Conte for Italy, Sarah Wagenknecht for Germany, Jean Luc Melenchon for France. 🇵🇸🇾🇪🇱🇧🇮🇷🇸🇾
All the other socialist/social-democratic parties you mention have an anti-migrant strain in their parties, which I have yet to see within the PVDA/PTB.
Conte is not the leader of a socialist party, let alone a marxist one. Yet, I do agree that it is probably the most pragmatic left oriented party we have had in italy in the last decade
Same for Wagenknecht. She's a conservative SocDem
@@rich_i_feynman9551at least she is on the roght side on the anti imperialist confrontation. Sadly it looks like other leftist parties in Germany opened up to figures (I think of Rakete) who have turned out to be completely aligned with the imperialistic policies.
@@carlofino4666 Sarah Wagenknecht is just pro Russian imperialist, dont pretend you are a anti imperialist by siding with a weaker imperial power
I voted in the last 2 elections for them !
I voted for them last election! My girlfriend convinced me :)
De même...
didn't get you anywhere did it
@@icantpursuewhatimtrulypass7335 Someone does not know how politics work.
@icantpursuewhatimtrulypass7335 yet....
Brian
I love your program and I love all your crues :)
Great Discussion.
I really enjoyed the whole program, thank you. I want to be a part of the group.
Thanks.
Akmeemana
I remember Bill Maher saying something like --- Americans love socialism, they just do not like calling it socialism. Also, he once said something like, when you go somewhere in your car, you do not have to bring your own street or highway.
Bill Maher is a stuck up, elitist jack*ss but, he was right on that. Look at what was popular or made popular under the Bernie Sanders moment or under Corbyn in the U.K (although the people of the U.K are some of the most class conscious people in the world).
I like Bill Burr's analysis more. He said: "Capitalism isn't doing anything for us and socialism sounds kind of nice what I understand of it."
Socialism for the win lads!
Great show!
Nothing is a right, it’s always given
And sometimes taken (in more ways than one)
The PVDA-PTB is the smallest of the Belgian Socialist parties. Mertens is the mouse shaking the bridge with a little help of the Elephants. In fact, when you think of it, compared to the US, all Belgians are socialists. It's part of our culture.
And then there are the labour unions:
In one hour and a half from this very moment, a general strike will impact the ongoing government formation, during which somebody had suggested that there might be a pension reform.
Lang leve, Ludo Martens ✊🏻
Maybe you are unaware, but the person who is being interviewed here has completely turned his back on Ludo martens who was an idiot himself anyways there’s no point in putting long live Ludo Martens. He was at least a ML so don’t mention him under this interview here between two of the worlds leading revisionist
Fukuyama and his end of history crap. The guy should have been drummed out of society for that one. He could have been given a seat up the back where he would keep his mouth shut and listen to people who actually know stuff.
Bri, why you sounding like a collaborator calling Luigi a terrorist?
Yeah it’s a bad look. I think he was trying to say that action through a strong party is preferable to vigilantism. But let’s not diminish the bravery that young man (allegedly) showed.
A note from Brian: “Hello and thanks for your comment. We recorded this show on Dec 7, before Luigi Mangione had been identified and arrested. It was weeks before he was charged with terrorism. I disagree 100% with this charge and oppose it. I see how this could be misinterpreted but I used the term “individual terrorist act” in the classical sense of the debate well known in the Marxist movement in the early 20th century about the efficacy of mass action vs individual action. In that debate, the word “terror” was not politicized as it is now. It was a point of controversy and debate that Lenin emphasized under tsarist Russia. I used the term in reference to that debate, not in a pejorative sense or in a legal sense. My point was that in absence of mass movements and parties providing direction to people’s feelings of injustice and oppression in the face of the system, many would resort to individual actions because it’s the only way they feel they can make an impact. And this will resonate with many who compare it to the much larger daily violence of the system itself, on a national and international scale.”
Please, BT, try to get Peter Joseph on, author of The New Human Rights Movement and soon to be released film, Zeitgeist: Requiem. Get a 1-2 hour sit down interview with him and be journalist heroes!
Peter Joseph has interesting ideas and is well-read ilon a technical level, but he arrogantly doesn't believe in socialism, which makes him disconnected with historical progress.
@ Arrogantly? Actually, smartly he avoids calling for socialism because that’s not actually a system. Socialism is a series of values or policies placed on a market economy. Peter calls for a new system to capitalism, a post-scarcity natural law resource based economy, if you must call it something.
Peter is quite supportive of progress through means that are typically socialist, like worker co-ops, sharing, less working weeks, healthcare for all, student debt cancellation and such. He just doesn’t believe socialism is the end goal. It would be arrogant of anybody to think socialism is the end goal, instead of just a step in transition.
Yes, arrogant. Peter Joseph sounds like he's invented something new but he's basically just rehashing socialist ideas while simultaneously discarding socialism as a viable and necessary alternative to capitalism, the ultimate goal of socialism being communism, i.e. no classes, no money, no private property. Joseph doesn't seem to or willingly ignores that the only way to get rid of capitalism is for the working class (the majority of people actually producing value without owning the means of production) to overthrow the current ruling class or capitalists, and establish a workers' state.
@ he knows better than you. I don’t think you’ve been paying proper attention. You may be the arrogant one, in this case, for thinking you know what he’s saying and why he’s avoiding the socialist label trap, because if communism is the goal, why not just say you want a communist society? The ruling elite of this capitalist system will call you communists terrorists and you’ll be done. Socialism isn’t a system, communism has never existed, unless you talk about our egalitarian roots as hunter-gatherers and that’s not really the same thing.
A post-capitalist society will not be universally called “communist” so don’t be so arrogant to think you know the exact terms of revolution. You’ll fail if you police language rather than just agree on the same end goals, regardless of names.
The funny thing is, Peter will be called a socialist and communist even if he calls for different methods. System change will be bottom-up not top-down by voting in a socialist party. Labels of socialism are distractions for the ground work that is needed. Please do less demonizing and more uniting.
The examples of good practices in party work and the principled stances on foreign policy were valuable and encouraging. The main weak spot I noticed was a bit too much hope set on China, a bit like the hopes attached to the USSR in the past. The Chinese system does have a more substantial statist/dirigiste component than the Western one, and this fact does *sometimes* benefit the population, but that's hardly enough for it to be considered fundamentally socialist. The capitalist element has been a crucial part of Chinese success and the post-Mao Chinese system has had and still has neoliberal, non-solidary, non-egalitarian aspects and tendencies that are even more extreme than what is found in most of the West; and ideologically, a nationalist-authoritarian element is increasingly predominant in it. China is useful as a foil to US imperialism - and to the unchecked plutocratic power of global corporations that US imperialism is intimately connected with - but not as a model of a new socialist system.
Destroying its autochtone people is not justice
T y a Brian and BT
May the CPC never fall victim to the betrayal experienced within the CCCP. Beware the Khrushchevs and opportunists.
😂things we said in 1978
Don't call Luigi a terrorist. He's the natural result of a system that ruins individual lives and whole families, multiple times a day, every day. I'm not saying what he did is a route to revolution, but I am saying that the label of "terrorist" has been given to him by the ruling class for their own purposes, dont play into it if you ever hope to gain the trust of working people. I'm a newer viewer and you've immediately made your whole channel suspect.
A note from Brian: “Hello and thanks for your comment. We recorded this show on Dec 7, before Luigi Mangione had been identified and arrested. It was weeks before he was charged with terrorism. I disagree 100% with this charge and oppose it. I see how this could be misinterpreted but I used the term “individual terrorist act” in the classical sense of the debate well known in the Marxist movement in the early 20th century about the efficacy of mass action vs individual action. In that debate, the word “terror” was not politicized as it is now. It was a point of controversy and debate that Lenin emphasized under tsarist Russia. I used the term in reference to that debate, not in a pejorative sense or in a legal sense. My point was that in absence of mass movements and parties providing direction to people’s feelings of injustice and oppression in the face of the system, many would resort to individual actions because it’s the only way they feel they can make an impact. And this will resonate with many who compare it to the much larger daily violence of the system itself, on a national and international scale.”
@BreakThroughNews I appreciate the clarification and apologise for how harsh I was, I wasn't aware how long ago this had been recorded either. I'm in full agreement with you about the general history of the term and about the ultimate inefficacy of individual action as compared to mass action guided by an organisation, I however still stand by the sentiment that we shouldn't use the term in response to situations like these purely because it plays into the intense social conditioning that the ruling class have put us through, especially in recent history, to justify the destruction, subjugation and/or occupation of the middle east for the purposes of dominating non-compliant states to send a message to others, as well as to control their markets and ultimately their labour.
tl;dr, great clarification, I completely understand what context you were using for the term now, and even though it does fit the strict definition of the term, before the war on terror and regular mass shootings the label was largely used as a veiled polemic to demonise those that reacted violently to the regime of the ruling class for their brutal indifference to, or direct contribution, to the suffering of the working people under their rule, and we're seeing the return of that original usage with Luigi now. This is why I think we should totally refrain from using it in circumstances like this, it takes the onus off of the ruling class, whose abuses directly lead to this.
I know, I'm not very good at tl;drs.
Are you joining DIEM25
Diem25 is another corrupt social democratic movement
Christian Democrat parties occupy that electoral niche where other countries have per se Conservative parties, but Christian Democrats are not just conservatives. Historically, due Catholic Social Teaching, the various Papal Encyclicals which have been critical of capitalism and the humanist burden of scripture and the Gospel, Christian Democracy has been an ideological current which is significantly to the left of secular conservatism elsewhere. It's necessarily distinct from nationalism (including Christian-Nationalism) and from the market-idolatry of Neoliberalism, which are the two dominant streams of conservative ideology in the USA. That's at the ideas level, as opposed to the class interest level, where there is again a certain amount of difference, in that the class composition of the churches, especially of the Catholic church, is not at all just bourgeois. Just to say European Christian Democratic parties do not = Republicans and that if you have the choice of a secular nationalist or neoliberal conservative party or a Christian Democratic party as your national centre-right option, you want the Christian Democrat version instead every time. They are much more pro-welfare state for one thing.
Maybe you’ve been confused about what the working class is and what his goals are because of the sort of nonsense which has been spewed in this interview, but yeah, it doesn’t matter that the Christian Democrat parties are more pro-welfare than other reactionary parties. They’ll still oppose a dictatorship of the prole I can guarantee that.
Voice of guest not loud enough
Sounds fine to me.
The USSR did not collapse. The USSR was dissolved. Stalinists always get this important point wrong.
The USSR was lead by a Stalinist bureaucracy. That means the bureaucracy had all the power and used the program of Socialism In One Country as its guiding principle.
Eventually the bureaucracy foumd that Socialism wasn't leading to their further enrichment. So they abandoned it and fully restored capitalism.
How do you restore capitalism in a country which never knew capitalism?
@@bv2623 romanov russia was a combination between feudalism and capitalism, just as the soviet union had the NEP and state capitalism. they have known capitalism since it has been a thing. Just because they were never 100% free market capitalist doesnt mean they dont know it. Western european countries have a mixed capitalist economy, with state control, unions, co-ops ect. But that doesnt mean they dont live in a capitalist system with a upper class profiting off the labour of the working class.
Trotskyists love to strawman anything they criticize
I am watching and listeing the first 20 minutes and I just feel these two guys just live in a parallel world, nothing to do with the world in which ordinary people actually do. I live and work in Belgium and coming from a country from South America and been living even through out dictatorship, I can say that they don´t even make an autocritisise of their own mistakes.
these guys are coping so goddamn hard, ptb was supposed to easily sweep Belgium's left votes and barely got any extra seats. It'd be more admirable if Mertens admitted they underperformed at the elections and should rethink their strategies
In Malta and Portugal Socialist parties are also doing very well.
Please don't repeat rumors, or half truths that you hear! That's a complete lie, in regards to Portugal..
@NbdHrglfs336 So negative, try to be a bit more optimistic about the future
@@whoareyouyouareclearlylost323 Portugal has a right wing government and the far right has 1/3 of the parliament, what are you talking about?
Belgium W
🎈🌲♫
2:57 yes people think of mutiny as an uprising, which is why a bunch of representatives of bourgeois dictatorships in the fucking United Nations deciding to vote a different way than Yankee imperialism would like them to vote. It’s not a fucking mutiny. It’s not an uprising it’s not a revolution. It’s not on a ship.. so, yeah.
6:22 he’s completely right that things can go a different way when there was a working in class party, which is why it would be really really good. If the workers party of Belgium would become a working class party then maybe things could go a different way.
Did you just call Luigi a terrorist?😡
A note from Brian: “Hello and thanks for your comment. We recorded this show on Dec 7, before Luigi Mangione had ever been identified and arrested. It was weeks before he was charged with terrorism. I disagree 100% with this charge and oppose it. I see how this could be misinterpreted but I used the term “individual terrorist act” in the classical sense of the debate well known in the Marxist movement in the early 20th century about the efficacy of mass action vs individual action. In that debate, the word “terror” was not politicized as it is now. It was a point of controversy and debate that Lenin emphasized under tsarist Russia. I used the term in reference to that debate, not in a pejorative sense or in a legal sense. My point was that in absence of mass movements and parties providing direction to people’s feelings of injustice and oppression in the face of the system, many would resort to individual actions because it’s the only way they feel they can make an impact. And this will resonate with many who compare it to the much larger daily violence of the system itself, on a national and international scale.”
@ thank you for clarifying 🫡
Xi and Pu is like Tik and Tok they are joined forever and ever Amen ,China is the world manufacturer Power House and Russia is Rocket Science put them together and that is Hypa 😂
The basic principles of an economy that serves humanity rather than humanity being just seen as tools to serve "the economy" (which is never the real material economy, but the amount of yacht and coke money available for the plutocracy) and not paying ridiculous costs just to merely exist, surplus value belonging to the people rather than siphoned off as profit or to fund brutality within the confines of the boarders and overseas in imperialist plunder, taking care of the only planet we have as a home, it just makes sense and is something that everyone feels in their hearts
Looking at the SFRJ, it's incredible what a Socialist/Communist Party in power can achieve even when starting from, as was the case with the Partisans, nothing but the rubble and extreme suffering which fascism reduced the country to. It's always good to see people fighting for something greater, to see people who are trying to build a better world, because while the odds are difficult, if it wasn't possible, then people would not have achieved any success in the fight for a future. We need a spark of hope, and this is definitely a light shining up in a world of despair during a period of heightened reaction, it's great to, and we must, hear from these people who are beating the odds and showing that the future is not dead or resigned
31:00 did he mean 1989-1990 instead of 1979-80 for the fall of the Soviet Union? Or am I mistaken
I just checked the timestamp you left. You are mistaken. In 1979-1980 the soviet union did not anticipate what happened a decade in the future. Brian was talking about how the Reagan administration ramped up military spending in order to stop socialist and communist revolutions occurring around the world.
At the end of the 1970's the Soviets seemed to be in the ascendant, and then in the next decade thing got turned around. The context of this was expanded on by telling us that we shouldn't get complacent about the strength of the Communist Party of China as there are opposition forces there backed by the same kind of people who fostered opposition in the USSR.
Stay vigilant.
What's with all the ads? Sheesh
8:13 I think the movements only survive when the people are politically educated and are aware. There has to be common people support. Otherwise we end up with a dictatorship of *one,* instead of a dictatorship of the people.
China?
Appreciate thoughtful conversation. You had me until I felt the comments marginalized the fact that russia INVADED Ukraine. A fully unnecessary and likely futile move of sacrificing their 18-50 yo male work force and family bearing age couples. You would think that P had a plan as an oligarch for a dwindling population and instead he prefers a war. Yes, a normal person would see how irrational this decision was, but russian leadership is anything but rational.
I would like to see American socialism move away from dead and divisive language like i.e., proletariat and bourgeois. The kids say bougee, btw. But US socialism needs a wider language that comes from including younger and ready to lead Americans. The US is politically and culturally locked in a WWII geriatric right/left paradigm.
Dems are toast. Fully captured by neo liberalism and don't see the writing on the wall. Liberals, moderates, progressives and soon disillusioned magas are prime for class consciousness.
Brian, what? What, what , what, what????
What would prompt you to define a murder as a terrorist act?
I have always wanted to love your show but I have always felt you fall short of the human connection and this was a defining moment.
A note from Brian: “Hello and thanks for your comment. We recorded this show on Dec 7, before Luigi Mangione had been identified and arrested. It was weeks before he was charged with terrorism. I disagree 100% with this charge and oppose it. I see how this could be misinterpreted but I used the term “individual terrorist act” in the classical sense of the debate well known in the Marxist movement in the early 20th century about the efficacy of mass action vs individual action. In that debate, the word “terror” was not politicized as it is now. It was a point of controversy and debate that Lenin emphasized under tsarist Russia. I used the term in reference to that debate, not in a pejorative sense or in a legal sense. My point was that in absence of mass movements and parties providing direction to people’s feelings of injustice and oppression in the face of the system, many would resort to individual actions because it’s the only way they feel they can make an impact. And this will resonate with many who compare it to the much larger daily violence of the system itself, on a national and international scale.”
@ thank-you for that clarification and fortunately now I understand the reference to which was meant to be implied, however, in my opinion it would have been prudent to have made that clarification at the beginning of this video before it’s publication.
@@defianceforhumanitythanks for the feedback. We’ll take it back and consider for next time
👍
By the way, 1968 was also a year of rebellion in the eastern block against the USSR
2:07: Lol, in Dutch, Mertens claims the exact opposite. He persistently frames the Russian invasion of Ukraine as 'illegal'. And not just that, he goes way further by insinuating how there would have been a global consensus around that. Extra striking since at least in Dutch, this seems to be of major essence for him. Up to the point he was asking to develop a stronger European army to 'protect' ourselves from Russian aggression leading up to last elections. If that party would have been less Mertens-focussed and if Mertens had an honest agenda, the electoral boom would have been way bigger then the hiccup we've experienced now. PVDA even persisted to not make Gaza any electoral priority. Untill today they still refuse to call out Belgians co-responsibility for the genocide...
But they are trying to replace workers with robots , what will happen that people don’t have job
The goal of those that feel they are superior is to cut dependency of human labor completely
@ absolutely
@@defianceforhumanitythe shift from manual labour is driven by profit, not a feeling of superiority.
what will happen if/when people no loner have jobs, or a job.
@@stuartwray6175 Evil exists for many reasons simultaneously but in the end it’s for one reason alone…superiority “the god complex”
11:05 yea don’t fking say that
The answer is he didnt
21:57 I can’t believe how long this guy has been talking without saying anything. This is where I stopped watching.
Is that the same Peter Mertens who refuses to give Ukraine help in their fight against the barbarians from Putinstan?
I doubt Becker would invite someone on who sympathizes with the US Empire and its fascistic proxy the Maidan-Banderite regime. Rhetoric about defending "civilization" against "barbarians" fits right in with Manifest Destiny, British imperialism, the Third Reich, etc.
And the same Peter Mertens who praised the North Korean regime!
@@Verticaldiscourse Exactly.
0:32 and for defense of the bureaucrat capitalist regime ruling china, apparently. Not sure how that fits into the fight for socialism, workers rights, peace, and so on.
Stop trying to “orientate” the working classes. Stop trying to tell them what, or how to think. Stop presuming that you have the moral authority to tell members of the working classes what is, and isn’t okay.
You can inspire people tho, and spread knowledge. It's not like the Belgian Workers' Party puts guns against people's heads and tells them "be class conscious or DIE"
Excate...@@mumblerapkilla5406
From my understanding, I look at all the past forms of governments like communism, socialism, fascism, dictatorship, authoritarian, monarchy, republic, etc. a Republic has the best chance of protecting every individuals rights. This is done by not allowing the government to inflatrate any private sector. the only reason why u.s. has a federal government to make sure the laws being passed at the state level are constitutional. Checks and balances. the Fed Government shouldn't have any more reach other than that. the people are supposed to have access to the u.s. military not the Federal government. The u.s. Military is supposed to protect the United States of America, not the federal government. The u.s. people decide if there is an actual threat to u.s soil. and are suppose to be the ultimate deciders if we go to war or not.
No country should be able to put their bases on soil that isn't theirs. Basic rule that any country can agree upon unless the leaders are put in by the west. If the leader is put in by west there is probably never going to be any agreement issued sadly.
In the end that's what the world is trying to go for, which is protecting the right of every individual. All those forms of governments listed above have failed miserably in the past and a Republic does show the best chance of protecting each person's individual rights and civil liberties. A Republic is supposed to avoid some type of third party trying to take over their government. lots of these forms of governments listed holds the rights of individuals to a small group of wealthy people. This small group of wealthy people are the decisions makers of the country intead of the people that live within country borders. Decisions are supposed to he made from we the people not from a wealthy group of people . These elites their groups get smaller and smaller as they back stab eachother. Old hat, even from thousands of years ago.
The only reason why United States Republic is not working is because of centlized bankers hijacking the government through the use of the Federal Reserve ever since 1913 when its was signed into law.
There has unfortunately always been a group of rich people trying to use their centlized money to take over any government. this time around its the u.s. government. centlized governments started thousands of years ago. Probably even since Egypt in 3000 BC. talking about history repeating itself.
You can't have centlized money for a good sound country to function correctly.
@@EndTheIMF There has yet to be a communist government.
You speak of how great a Republic is, disregarding that the Soviet Union was exactly that, a Republic.
Tldr?
Individualism is just "every man for himself", which leads right back to feudalism. Competition has winners and losers, and the winners have the power and incentive to defend their position asymmetrically. There is no magical force that would make a radically decentralised society stay in equilibrium. Reality is quite the opposite.
RAAOUUUUUUL ON T'AIME RAOULLLL HERSTAL 4EVER