Elkie Dee and Veronica Tais cace Fagan MORE THAN 300,000 people marched through Brusses in a the country s largest ever demonstration held in memory of the children who died after being abducted by Mare DiOux Demonstrators made it very clear who they held responsible for the children's deaths: anuce. the Belgian legal system and the government, as increasing evidence of corruption, inefficiency and official cover-ups came to ligat. wuuroux seculs to have been part of a wider paedophile network with a profitable business operating under police protection. Links with the mafia-style murder in July 1991 of Andre Cools a former Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium and Socialist Party leader in Liege were also becoming more apparent.
During the week leading up to tne nacional acmonstanon in Brussels, thousands of workers and young people took part in strikes, school protests and demonstrations around the issues raised by The protests were sparked Dy the supreme court s removal of Jean-Maro Connerotte, the investigating magistrate leading the official inquiry into what had occurred, for publicly appearing to take sıdes on the issue by eating a spaghetti meal at a fundraising dinner organised bv campaigners against Child The irony that the state. teartul or naving me corruption at its heart exposed, quered. should dismiss Connerotte who had achieved almost folkhero status by this time was understood by huge swathes of Belgian society.
Às La Gauche, the paper of the Parti Ouvrier Socialiste, Belgian section of the Fourth International explained:
"The ideology of the dominant class is always me cominant ideology. But it is not always the only ideology of society. The demonstration and the week of strikes by workers and school students which preceded it are living proof that an alternative to liberalism is possible, that the feeling of their children. had run into the sand by the late fifties. Belgians march in remembrance and for justice powerlessness can be con- In the response of the government, one can see three difThis march was necessary ferent tendencies. Firstly, the to give people the opportunity removal of Connerotte was beto assemble together, to speak cause he could not be relied and to give them a conscious- on to maintain the official siness of their numbers and lence. Secondly, the prime their strength. Without this, minister met the parents of the anger and sorrow will just dead children and made some stay bitter, with no positive ex- promises on continuing the inpression. Fears that the far quiry. Thirdly, the governright might cash in were not ment is now aiming to borne out. 'They didn't appear. normalise the situation, and reThis apparently non-politi- establish the dominant ideolcal march was a magnificent ogy: the myth of consensus, demonstration of politics, an of a family-oriented society reassertion of the need for social united beyond its contradicchange. The majority of peo- tions of class and gender. ple, who suffer socially and People must now do all are politically dispossessed, they can to prevent normalisawant something different for tion. For this there is only one means: to continue to mobiprecondition for this stance. None of this lise, petition, demonstrate, go on strike"
While the march on October 20 was billed as a peaceful, non-politica. demonstration, the authorities were taking no chances and obviously saw the week of protests as a challenge. On October 20 the Ministry of Justice was sealed off from demonstrators ne aulnoriucs lecuznised that this was a powertul political issue. The king himseit intervenea - a cicar sigl that those at the stop were worried.
Before the Brussels demonstration, protests nad taken nlace in other towns, and there had been a number of confrontations between protestors and the police. In Malines, 186 young people were arrested, 40 of them under 16. In Gand, 20,000 young people demonstrated. They demanded that information about the case and the accused was made public, but made it clear that they were opposed to reactionary demands for the death penalty, the strengthening of the gendarmerie and restrictions on sexual freedom. the pressure of the Unionist ruling class While some calm has returned to the streets of Belgium, there is clear dissatisfaction with the only concession so far made by the government - that political appointents of the judiciary will be stopped. As one journanst svmoalcul lolic orutestors commented on a popular talk show on Belgian television devoted to the crisis iwo days before the Brussels demonstration " This means that the justice system will be reformed in 20 years time.
While no actions can take away the griet or tnose whose children were murdered or the horror of those young women who were found after long in carceration, La Gauche was certainly right that the protests gave an oportunity to tan allger and bitterness into something much more positive. The strength of solidarity will surely stay with those wno were there for a long time to come - and the fear of it with those who have attempted to brush aside their rightful calls for justice. Part of the failure of republicanism in