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The refrain is known. ” No one gets rich by becoming a parliamentarian or a leader in the PTB, since they and they live on an average worker’s salary: thus careerists and opportunists are excluded”. summarizes Germain Mugemangango, spokesperson for the PTB.
However, this is only the visible face of a much larger and much less hammered-out reality. Like elected officials, many activists pay the party a substantial part of their income each month.
A figure makes it possible to determine the extent of the phenomenon. In 2021, the PTB collected 2.1 million euros in contributions from its members and activists, according to the accounts of the radical left party published by the Chamber. This figure does not include the amount of retrocessions for elected officials.
Fewer activists, more contributions
In the same year, the MR and the PS collected respectively only 417,000 and 395,000 euros. These two parties, however, have a larger number of activists than the PTB. The MR declares 30,000, for 24,000 in the PTB, while it is a priori higher in the PS (which did not communicate its figures).
“Sectarian functioning”, “financial pressure” and on inheritances: former members of the PTB testify
A member or activist of the Labor Party of Belgium therefore contributes on average much more than those of all the other parties.
The PTB has had spectacular electoral success since 2014 (12 deputies in the Chamber since 2019). This has led to a significant increase in its public funding (5.8 million euros per year). But this should not make us forget that, since its creation, in the bosom of the Flemish student movement All power to the workers (AMADA) and for 50 years, the PTB had to rely mainly on the financial means of its members. The party claims it, this constitutes its DNA. But the way in which the Maoist-inspired party makes its members contribute is not, on the other hand, the subject of strong communication. That’s an understatement. Little is known regarding the unique inner workings of the PTB.
”I felt like my money was wanted in the PTBremembers Philippe Defrise, former president of the PTB in Châtelet, poached by the PS in 2018. They were intrusive. You are made to understand that if you want to have a future in the party, you have to go through it and contribute financially. Personally, the more I advanced in the party, the more I said to myself: this is how a sect works.
“The PTB has a more sectarian side than other parties. It has a very community dimension: we are building a small PTB counter-society. They live very strong in between themselves”
The term “sect”, or “sectarian”, has returned to the term of several former members. “The PTB has a more sectarian side than other partiesanalyzes Pascal Delwit, political scientist at the ULB and author of “PTB, new left and old recipes. It has a very community dimension: a small PTB counter-society is being built, reproducing the logic of pillars: the Comac (Editor’s note, student movement), Marianne (Editor’s note, women’s movement), Intal (Editor’s note, international organization), the houses medical, the Pioneers (Editor’s note, youth movement), festive moments like the Manifiesta… if not completely. There is also a facet linked to the reproduction of party theses. It is possible to debate internally, but externally, we exclusively carry the word of the PTB.”
The PTB no longer prohibits its activists from owning property or receiving an inheritance
”There is, for each activist, an obligation to give part of his salary”
”There is, for each activist, an obligation to give part of his salary, but the amount is variable”, specifies Karl Boulanger, former activist and ex-president of the PTB section in Legs, who also joined the PS. “The party decrees a monthly salary with which one can live normally (Editor’s note: the reference amount). Anything above this amount must in theory, when one is an activist, be returned to the party. But in practice, the activist has room for manoeuvre”, continues Karl Boulanger.
Free was thus able to get his hands on “an activist commitment form”, dated 2016. By this document, the activist undertakes to pay a monthly contribution to the PTB. In particular, he must indicate the amount of his monthly income, which makes it possible to calculate a “reference amount”, a sort of threshold beyond which he must contribute.
This amount was then set at 1,530 euros net per month for a single person, but only 1,140 euros for a cohabitant (1,240 for a cohabitant with a car). Having a young dependent child allows you to keep 110 euros more, 145 euros if he is 6 years old and up to 485 euros for a student in kot.
Inflation has since gone that way. The party has also grown, opening up to a greater number of members and elected officials, and the amount has been relaxed.
“The reference amount now stands at between 2,200 and 2,400 euros net”
”The reference amount now amounts to between 2200 and 2400 euros net”, says Germain Mugemangango.
Let’s be precise: a militant, in the PTB, is not a simple member or sympathizer. The status already corresponds to a high level of internal involvement.
At the bottom of the pyramid are the advisory members. They pay 20 euros per year.
Slightly more motivated members can be elevated to the rank of group member, provided they pay 5 euros per month.
Finally, a very involved member can become an activist. This involves going to training courses over several Saturdays, in Waterloo, in a sort of Marxist university where the foundations of the doctrine are taught. The aspirant can follow modules there on imperialism, the strategy of change, socialism 2.0 or the conception of the party, with courses in economics given in particular by Gérard Mugemangango, Germain’s brother.
Once this training has been completed, the comrade must commit himself in writing and financially.
The activist can thus commit, by ticking a box, to give the party 100% of the balance between his income and his reference amount, or indicate in a box a lesser percentage. Of his choice ?
An internal party document that the Libre was able to consult limited the room for maneuver by indicating that “activists can choose to pay less than 100% of this difference” more than “to avoid too great an inequality, the minimum is 50%. (see item 4)”
For an isolated person, without a car, who has an income of 2,530 euros net per month, the contribution therefore amounted to 1,000 euros per month. But a retrocession limited to 500 euros might in theory be tolerated.
According to Germain Mugemangango, the rule which obliges to pay back to the PTB all that exceeds the reference threshold “concerns only executives, members of the National Council”.
In several testimonies collected by Freeas well as in the internal document dating from 2016, it nevertheless appears that the rule potentially applies to each activist.
”Our system depends on the level of commitment”
”This document is no longer current. Our system depends on the level of commitment”, disputes Germain Mugemangango who assures that these rules are “not binding on militant candidates”. “A militant, that is to say a member who assumes a responsibility in the PTB, such as the management of a communal section for example, commits a little more financially. With a contribution which therefore varies from 5 euros to 30 or 50 euros per month. In traditional parties, the higher you go in the leadership structures, the more money you earn. In our party, this is not the case, specifies the group leader in the Walloon Parliament. The people who run the party’s leadership structures live on an average worker’s salary. It’s important for them to keep their feet on the ground and their hearts on the left.
”The party needs money and is very assertive”
Still, before the 2019 elections, the party believed, in an internal document, that “cending each cycle of positive engagement with a discussion and a completed engagement sheet should be a matter of course”, insisting on the importance of formalizing “clearly their financial commitment”.
“On the financial level, there is an ideological aspect: the militant must live like the people, very modestly which is very Maoist. There is also the second idea: the party needs money, concludes Pascal Delwit. The PTB has a very assertive side in collecting money from its members.”
The refrain is known. ” No one gets rich by becoming a parliamentarian or a leader in the PTB, since they and they live on an average worker’s salary: thus careerists and opportunists are excluded”. summarizes Germain Mugemangango, spokesperson for the PTB.
However, this is only the visible face of a much larger and much less hammered-out reality. Like elected officials, many activists pay the party a substantial part of their income each month.
A figure makes it possible to determine the extent of the phenomenon. In 2021, the PTB collected 2.1 million euros in contributions from its members and activists, according to the accounts of the radical left party published by the Chamber. This figure does not include the amount of retrocessions for elected officials.
Fewer activists, more contributions
In the same year, the MR and the PS collected respectively only 417,000 and 395,000 euros. These two parties, however, have a larger number of activists than the PTB. The MR declares 30,000, for 24,000 in the PTB, while it is a priori higher in the PS (which did not communicate its figures).
“Sectarian functioning”, “financial pressure” and on inheritances: former members of the PTB testify
A member or activist of the Labor Party of Belgium therefore contributes on average much more than those of all the other parties.
The PTB has had spectacular electoral success since 2014 (12 deputies in the Chamber since 2019). This has led to a significant increase in its public funding (5.8 million euros per year). But this should not make us forget that, since its creation, in the bosom of the Flemish student movement All power to the workers (AMADA) and for 50 years, the PTB had to rely mainly on the financial means of its members. The party claims it, this constitutes its DNA. But the way in which the Maoist-inspired party makes its members contribute is not, on the other hand, the subject of strong communication. That’s an understatement. Little is known regarding the unique inner workings of the PTB.
”I felt like my money was wanted in the PTBremembers Philippe Defrise, former president of the PTB in Châtelet, poached by the PS in 2018. They were intrusive. You are made to understand that if you want to have a future in the party, you have to go through it and contribute financially. Personally, the more I advanced in the party, the more I said to myself: this is how a sect works.
“The PTB has a more sectarian side than other parties. It has a very community dimension: we are building a small PTB counter-society. They live very strong in between themselves”
The term “sect”, or “sectarian”, has returned to the term of several former members. “The PTB has a more sectarian side than other partiesanalyzes Pascal Delwit, political scientist at the ULB and author of “PTB, new left and old recipes. It has a very community dimension: a small PTB counter-society is being built, reproducing the logic of pillars: the Comac (Editor’s note, student movement), Marianne (Editor’s note, women’s movement), Intal (Editor’s note, international organization), the houses medical, the Pioneers (Editor’s note, youth movement), festive moments like the Manifiesta… if not completely. There is also a facet linked to the reproduction of party theses. It is possible to debate internally, but externally, we exclusively carry the word of the PTB.”
The PTB no longer prohibits its activists from owning property or receiving an inheritance
”There is, for each activist, an obligation to give part of his salary”
”There is, for each activist, an obligation to give part of his salary, but the amount is variable”, specifies Karl Boulanger, former activist and ex-president of the PTB section in Legs, who also joined the PS. “The party decrees a monthly salary with which one can live normally (Editor’s note: the reference amount). Anything above this amount must in theory, when one is an activist, be returned to the party. But in practice, the activist has room for manoeuvre”, continues Karl Boulanger.
Free was thus able to get his hands on “an activist commitment form”, dated 2016. By this document, the activist undertakes to pay a monthly contribution to the PTB. In particular, he must indicate the amount of his monthly income, which makes it possible to calculate a “reference amount”, a sort of threshold beyond which he must contribute.
This amount was then set at 1,530 euros net per month for a single person, but only 1,140 euros for a cohabitant (1,240 for a cohabitant with a car). Having a young dependent child allows you to keep 110 euros more, 145 euros if he is 6 years old and up to 485 euros for a student in kot.
Inflation has since gone that way. The party has also grown, opening up to a greater number of members and elected officials, and the amount has been relaxed.
“The reference amount now stands at between 2,200 and 2,400 euros net”
”The reference amount now amounts to between 2200 and 2400 euros net”, says Germain Mugemangango.
Let’s be precise: a militant, in the PTB, is not a simple member or sympathizer. The status already corresponds to a high level of internal involvement.
At the bottom of the pyramid are the advisory members. They pay 20 euros per year.
Slightly more motivated members can be elevated to the rank of group member, provided they pay 5 euros per month.
Finally, a very involved member can become an activist. This involves going to training courses over several Saturdays, in Waterloo, in a sort of Marxist university where the foundations of the doctrine are taught. The aspirant can follow modules there on imperialism, the strategy of change, socialism 2.0 or the conception of the party, with courses in economics given in particular by Gérard Mugemangango, Germain’s brother.
Once this training has been completed, the comrade must commit himself in writing and financially.
The activist can thus commit, by ticking a box, to give the party 100% of the balance between his income and his reference amount, or indicate in a box a lesser percentage. Of his choice ?
An internal party document that the Libre was able to consult limited the room for maneuver by indicating that “activists can choose to pay less than 100% of this difference” more than “to avoid too great an inequality, the minimum is 50%. (see item 4)”
For an isolated person, without a car, who has an income of 2,530 euros net per month, the contribution therefore amounted to 1,000 euros per month. But a retrocession limited to 500 euros might in theory be tolerated.
According to Germain Mugemangango, the rule which obliges to pay back to the PTB all that exceeds the reference threshold “concerns only executives, members of the National Council”.
In several testimonies collected by Freeas well as in the internal document dating from 2016, it nevertheless appears that the rule potentially applies to each activist.
”Our system depends on the level of commitment”
”This document is no longer current. Our system depends on the level of commitment”, disputes Germain Mugemangango who assures that these rules are “not binding on militant candidates”. “A militant, that is to say a member who assumes a responsibility in the PTB, such as the management of a communal section for example, commits a little more financially. With a contribution which therefore varies from 5 euros to 30 or 50 euros per month. In traditional parties, the higher you go in the leadership structures, the more money you earn. In our party, this is not the case, specifies the group leader in the Walloon Parliament. The people who run the party’s leadership structures live on an average worker’s salary. It’s important for them to keep their feet on the ground and their hearts on the left.
”The party needs money and is very assertive”
Still, before the 2019 elections, the party believed, in an internal document, that “cending each cycle of positive engagement with a discussion and a completed engagement sheet should be a matter of course”, insisting on the importance of formalizing “clearly their financial commitment”.
“On the financial level, there is an ideological aspect: the militant must live like the people, very modestly which is very Maoist. There is also the second idea: the party needs money, concludes Pascal Delwit. The PTB has a very assertive side in collecting money from its members.”
In conclusion, the PTB’s unique financial system has been shrouded in mystery for years, with little information being communicated to the public. However, recent testimonies and internal documents shed some light on how the party operates. The PTB’s success at the ballot box has been attributed to the dedication of its activists, who contribute a significant portion of their income to the party. While the PTB claims that careerists and opportunists are excluded from its ranks, former members have raised concerns regarding the party’s so-called sectarian functioning and financial pressure. The PTB’s spokesperson assures that the party’s financial system depends on the level of commitment, but the fact remains that the PTB is very assertive in collecting money from its members.
