Ludo Martens (12 March 1946 – 5 June 2011) was a Belgian

far-left Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some ...

activist who founded and served as the first leader of the

Workers' Party of Belgium The Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA) is a Marxist and socialist political party in Belgium. It is the only Belgian party represented in parliament that is a fully national party, representing both Flanders and Wallonia. Having historically be ...

. He wrote several works on the

political history Political history is the narrative and survey of political events, ideas, movements, organs of government, voters, parties and leaders. It is closely related to other fields of history, including diplomatic history, constitutional history, soci ...

Central Africa Central Africa (French language, French: ''Afrique centrale''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''África central''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''África Central'') is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries accordin ...

and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. In 1968, Martens founded the group ''Alle macht aan de arbeiders'' (All Power to the Workers), which became the Workers' Party of Belgium in 1979. He served as president of the Workers' Party until 2008. Martens was the last foreigner to meet North Korean president

Kim Il Sung Kim Il Sung (born Kim Song Ju; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he led as its first Supreme Leader (North Korean title), supreme leader from North Korea#Founding, its establishm ...

before his death on 8 July 1994. According to a press release by the Workers' Party, Martens died on the morning of 5 June 2011 after a long illness.

Biography

Martens was born in 1946, as the eldest son of a furniture manufacturer. He grew up in

Wingene Wingene (; ; historically: Wynghene) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the towns of Wingene proper and Zwevezele. On December 1, 2019, Wingene had a total population of 14,398. The total ...

West Flanders West Flanders is the westernmost province of the Flemish Region, in Belgium. It is the only coastal Belgian province, facing the North Sea to the northwest. It has land borders with the Dutch province of Zeeland to the northeast, the Flemis ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. While at school, he showed talent in

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and became a newspaper editor. He also had an interest in music and poetry. In 1965, Ludo entered the Louvain University to study medicine and during that time he became active in the

Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudentenverbond Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudentenverbond (KVHV) or the Catholic Flemish Students' Association is a political student society which concerns Flemish nationalism and conservatism. It accepts male and female members and has chapters in Ghent, Leuven, Ant ...

. Ludo got expelled from his university after writing an article about pedophilia within the church on ''Our Life'', the magazine which he ran in the university. He was influenced by the student movements in 1968. Having visited Berlin, where he came into contact with Marxist–Leninist German students, he introduced the thought of

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

into the Belgian student movement. In 1971, Ludo founded the ''Alle macht aan de arbeiders'' (AMADA) party, which renamed itself into the

in 1979. He was the last communist leader to meet

, two weeks before the latter's

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

. Kim told Ludo: "I think it is very good that you have written a book about Stalin. I intend to read it". In 1999, Ludo requested his party to relieve him of the post of party president, a position he had held since the founding of the party, as he wished to pursue his passion for work in the Congo. The request was granted. In nearly a decade, following 1999, he wrote his book on

Laurent Kabila Laurent may refer to: *Laurent (name), a French masculine given name and a surname **Saint Laurence (aka: Saint ''Laurent''), the martyr Laurent **Pierre Alphonse Laurent, mathematician **Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent, amateur astronomer, discoverer ...

and the Congolese revolution, while at the same time helping to lay the foundations of a communist party in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ludo died on the afternoon of June 5, 2011 after a long illness.

''Another View of Stalin''

In 1994, Martens published ''Another View of Stalin'' ('), a work that holds an apologetic view of collectivisation in the Soviet Union and the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

under

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

. He explained his motivation for writing the book in the introduction: "Defending Stalin's work, essentially defending

Marxism–Leninism Marxism–Leninism () is a communist ideology that became the largest faction of the History of communism, communist movement in the world in the years following the October Revolution. It was the predominant ideology of most communist gov ...

, is an important, urgent task in preparing ourselves for

class struggle In political science, the term class conflict, class struggle, or class war refers to the economic antagonism and political tension that exist among social classes because of clashing interests, competition for limited resources, and inequali ...

under the New World Order."Martens, Ludo (1994)
''Another View of Stalin''
. Antwerp: Éditions EPO. Complete and free PDF of the text of the book in English
''Un autre regard sur Staline''
. Complete and free PDF of the text of the book in the original French. Retrieved 13 August 2021. Martens referred to the notion of Stalinist crimes as a 'myth' and claimed that the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...

, in which the Soviet Union agreed to invade Poland in conjunction with Nazi Germany and divide Poland, Romania, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia between one another into respective "spheres of influence",. was "a key for victory in the anti-fascist war". The leadership of the

, particularly president Peter Mertens in 2016, distanced from Martens' vision on Stalin, whom they call "a dictator." Harpal Brar wrote in Martens'

obituary An obituary (wikt:obit#Etymology 2, obit for short) is an Article (publishing), article about a recently death, deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as Article (publishing), news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on p ...

: "His book ''Another view of Stalin'', while nailing the bourgeois, professorial and Khrushchevite revisionist lies about Stalin, brought to the fore the brilliance of Stalin's stewardship of the CPSU(B) and the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, which made such a monumental contribution to the march forward of the

Soviet people The Soviet people () were the citizens and nationals of the Soviet Union. This demonym was presented in the ideology of the country as the "new historical unity of peoples of different nationalities" (). Nationality policy in the Soviet Union ...

and humanity at large".

Works

* ''Pierre Mulele, ou, La seconde vie de Patrice Lumumba'' (Antwerp: Éditions EPO, 1985). . * ''Sankara, Compaoré, et la révolution burkinabé'' (EPO, 1989). . * ''Abo: une femme du Congo'' (EPO, 1992). . * ''L'U.R.S.S. et la contre-révolution de velours'' (USSR: The Velvet Counter Revolution) (EPO, 1991). . * ''Un autre regard sur Staline'' (Another View of Stalin) (EPO, 1994). . * ''Kabila et la révolution congolaise: panafricanisme ou néocolonialisme?'' (EPO, 2002). .

References

External links

"Another View of Stalin"
Complete and free PDF-download of the text of the book in English. Retrieved 13 August 2021. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Martens, Ludo 1946 births 2011 deaths Anti-revisionists Belgian communists Belgian non-fiction writers Flemish writers Historical negationism Historians of the Democratic Republic of the Congo People from Torhout Workers' Party of Belgium politicians

Biography

''Another View of Stalin''

Works

See also

References

External links