Emile Vandervelde (25 January 1866 – 27 December 1938) was a Belgian socialist politician. Nicknamed "the boss" (''le patron''), Vandervelde was a leading figure in the

Belgian Labour Party The Belgian Labour Party (, , BWP; , , POB) was the first major Socialism, socialist party in Belgium. Founded in 1885, the party achieved its first electoral breakthrough in the aftermath of World War I. It was officially disbanded after the Ger ...

(POB–BWP) and in international socialism.

Career

Emile Auguste Vandervelde was born into a middle-class family in

Ixelles (French language, French, ) or (Dutch language, Dutch, ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located to the south-east of Pentagon (Brussels), Brusse ...

, a suburb of

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, Belgium on 25 January 1866. Initially attracted by Liberal politics, Vandervelde entered the Free University of Brussels as a

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

student in 1881. However, he soon became interested in emerging

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

ideas and, in 1885, joined the small Workers' League of Ixelles (''Ligue Ouvrière d'Ixelles''). In 1886, he joined the newly formed

(POB–BWP). He worked as an academic at the Free University. Vandervelde was active in Belgian

Freemasonry Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

and was a member of the Lodge ''Les Amis philanthropes'' du Grand Orient de Belgique, in Brussels. Following the extension of

universal male suffrage Universal manhood suffrage is a form of voting rights in which all adult male citizens within a political system are allowed to vote, regardless of income, property, religion, race, or any other qualification. It is sometimes summarized by the sl ...

in 1893, Vandervelde proposed a

manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

for the POB, known as the

Charter of Quaregnon The Charter of Quaregnon (, ) was a political manifesto agreed in 1894 which formed the doctrinal basis for successive socialist parties in Belgium until 1979. In 1894, Belgian elections were, for the first time, held according to the scheme of ...

which would form the basis for Belgian socialist politics until the 1970s. In the 1894 elections, Vandervelde was elected to the Chamber of Representatives for the industrial city of

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

. He held the seat until 1890, when he transferred to Brussels which he held from 1900 to 1938. He was a staunch opponent of Leopold II and the absolute power he enjoyed in the Congo during the 1890s and wrote numerous articles against capitalist colonialism. From 1900 to 1918, he held the position of president of the

Second International The Second International, also called the Socialist International, was a political international of Labour movement, socialist and labour parties and Trade union, trade unions which existed from 1889 to 1916. It included representatives from mo ...

. Vandervelde was named

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

in 1914 and supported the policy of resistance to the German invasion of Belgium in World War I. As one of the more respected Socialists within Europe, he encouraged other socialists and other parties on the left to support the war against Germany. He wrote a telegram to the socialist party of Russia that called on the socialists to support the war effort. In 1916, he entered the de Broqueville government. He was a delegate for Belgium at the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

and subsequently involved in the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

. In 1923, he helped to found the

Labour and Socialist International The Labour and Socialist International (LSI) was an international organization of socialist and labourist parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The group was established through a merger of the rival Vienna International and the Berne Intern ...

of which he held the presidency until 1938. Vandervelde's principle political aims concerned the extension of

universal suffrage Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...

and

social democracy Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

. As a theoretician, he wrote extensively on the role of the state in socialism. In 1913, he was named a corresponding member of the ''Classe des Lettres et des Sciences morales et politiques'' at the

Royal Academy of Belgium The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB) is a non-governmental association that promotes and organises science and the arts in Belgium by coordinating the national and international activities of its constituent academies su ...

, later becoming a titular member in 1929 and director of the ''Classe'' in 1933. He was an opponent of King Leopold II's attempts to expand his constitutional powers through the creation of the

Congo Free State The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo (), was a large Sovereign state, state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by Leopold II of Belgium, King Leopold II, the const ...

in the period leading up to the Free State's annexation by Belgium in 1908. Vandervelde held the portfolio of Minister of Justice between 1918 and 1921 in which role he supported prison reform, measures against alcoholism, trade union rights and women's rights. In 1922, Vandervelde joined a group of socialist lawyers including Arthur Wauters, member of the Belgian Labour Party, Kurt Rosenfeld and

Theodor Liebknecht Theodor Karl Ernst Adolf Liebknecht (19 April 1870 – 6 January 1948) was a German socialist politician and activist. Biography Born in Leipzig in 1870 as the son of Wilhelm Liebknecht and the brother of Karl Liebknecht, Theodor Liebknecht stu ...

, members of the

Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (, USPD) was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of anti-war members of t ...

. They travelled to Russia as a group of socialist lawyers where they defended members of the

Socialist Revolutionary Party The Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR; ,, ) was a major socialist political party in the late Russian Empire, during both phases of the Russian Revolution, and in early Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Russia. The party memb ...

in the 1922 Moscow Trial of Socialist Revolutionaries. This resulted in his inclusion into a satirical poem "Mayakovsky Gallery" by the Soviet poet

Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky ( – 14 April 1930) was a Russian poet, playwright, artist, and actor. During his early, Russian Revolution, pre-Revolution period leading into 1917, Mayakovsky became renowned as a prominent figure of the Ru ...

. From 1925 to 1927, he held the role of Minister of Foreign Affairs where he contributed to the

Locarno Pact The Locarno Treaties, known collectively as the Locarno Pact, were seven post-World War I agreements negotiated amongst Germany, France, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Czechoslovakia in late 1925. In the main treaty, the five western ...

. He subsequently held a position on the Council of Ministers (1935–36) and Minister of Public Health (1936–37) in the government of

Paul Van Zeeland Paul Guillaume, Viscount van Zeeland (11 November 1893 – 22 September 1973) was a Belgian lawyer, economist, Catholic politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Belgium from 1935 to 1937. Biography van Zeeland was born in Soi ...

. In 1933, Vandervelde became the POB's first president but increasingly found his

internationalism Internationalism may refer to: * Cosmopolitanism, the view that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality as opposed to communitarianism, patriotism and nationalism * International Style, a major architectura ...

and reformism challenged by a new generation of Belgian socialists. During the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, Vandervelde's desire to intervene to halt the growing threat of

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

was challenged by Henri de Man and

Paul-Henri Spaak Paul-Henri Charles Spaak (; 25 January 1899 – 31 July 1972) was an influential Belgian Socialist politician, diplomat and statesman who thrice served as the prime minister of Belgium and later as the second secretary general of NATO. Nicknam ...

. His personal papers are held by the Institut Émile Vandervelde in Brussels.

Works

* ''Les associations professionelles d'artisans et d'ouvriers en Belgique'' (1892) * ''L'Evolution industrielle et le collectivisme'' (1896); English translation, ''Collectivism and Industrial Evolution'' (1901) * ''Le question agraire en Belgique'' (1897) * ''Le Socialisme en Belgique'' (1898), with Destrée * ''L'Alcoolisme et les conditions de travail en Belgique'' (1899) * ''Le propriété foncière en Belgique'' (1900) * ''L'Exode rural et le retour aux champs'' (1903) * ''Le Socialisme et l'agriculture'' (1906) * ''Le Belgique et le Congo'' (1911) * ''Three Aspects of The Russian Revolution'' (1918)
Archive.org
* ''Le pays d'Israel : un marxiste en Palestine'' (1929)
sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de

Notes

External links

Emile Vandervelde

Institut Emile Vandervelde
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vandervelde, Emile 1866 births 1938 deaths People from Ixelles Belgian Labour Party politicians Ministers of state of Belgium Free University of Brussels (1834–1969) alumni Members of the Executive of the Labour and Socialist International Ministers of justice of Belgium Foreign ministers of Belgium Health ministers of Belgium Belgian socialists

Career

Works

Notes

Further reading

External links