The “Model Party” of the Second International? Influence of the Belgian Workers’ Party (POB/BWP) and its Cooperatives on Socialist Organizations
Defoort, Hendrik
The “Model Party” of the Second International? Influence of the Belgian Workers’ Party (POB/BWP) and its Cooperatives on Socialist Organizations - 2025.
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More than the SPD, the Belgian Workers’ Party, founded in 1885, serves as a model for the International. The central role of cooperatives, of which Vooruit is the most brilliant example, makes it a source of inspiration for European socialists and beyond. The commercial success of this workers’ initiative gave the party the material means for active propaganda, allowing it to disseminate its results in Europe. The “Belgian model” spread materially through similar initiatives in northern France, theoretically during the Brussels Congress of 1891. It inspired French socialism as well as German social democracy, or socialism in Italy, Bulgaria, and elsewhere.
The “Model Party” of the Second International? Influence of the Belgian Workers’ Party (POB/BWP) and its Cooperatives on Socialist Organizations - 2025.
33
More than the SPD, the Belgian Workers’ Party, founded in 1885, serves as a model for the International. The central role of cooperatives, of which Vooruit is the most brilliant example, makes it a source of inspiration for European socialists and beyond. The commercial success of this workers’ initiative gave the party the material means for active propaganda, allowing it to disseminate its results in Europe. The “Belgian model” spread materially through similar initiatives in northern France, theoretically during the Brussels Congress of 1891. It inspired French socialism as well as German social democracy, or socialism in Italy, Bulgaria, and elsewhere.
Réseaux sociaux