Belgian Labour Party Parti ouvrier belge (French) Belgische Werkliedenpartij (Dutch)
President	Emile Vandervelde (first) Henri de Man (last)
Founder(s)	César De Paepe,Edward Anseele
Founded	6 April 1885
Dissolved	28 June 1940
Succeeded by	Belgian Socialist Party
Headquarters	Brussels,Belgium
Newspaper	Le Peuple[1]
Trade union wing	General Federation of Belgian Labour
Ideology	Social democracy Democratic socialism
Political position	Centre-left toleft-wing
International affiliation	Second International(1889–1916) Labour and Socialist International(1923–40)
Colours	Red
Politics of Belgium Political parties Elections

TheBelgian Labour Party (Dutch:Belgische Werkliedenpartij,pronounced[ˈbɛlɣisəˈʋɛrklidə(m)pɑrˌtɛi],BWP;French:Parti ouvrier belge,pronounced[paʁtiuvʁijebɛlʒ],POB) was the first majorsocialist party inBelgium. Founded in 1885, the party achieved its first electoral breakthrough in the aftermath ofWorld War I. It was officially disbanded after theGerman invasion of Belgium in 1940 and superseded by theBelgian Socialist Party in 1945.

In April 1885, a meeting of 112 workers took place in a room of the caféDe Zwaan on theGrand-Place inBrussels, at the same place where theFirst International had convened, and whereKarl Marx had writtenThe Communist Manifesto. At this meeting the Belgian Labour Party (POB or BWP) was created. Several groups had been represented at this meeting, including the BSP ofEdward Anseele. The members were mainly craftsmen and not workers from industrial centres (with the exception ofGhent). When drafting a programme for the new party, it was feared that a radical programme would deter workers. On that basis it was decided that the wordsocialism would not be mentioned in the name of the party, a point of view which was also defended byCesar De Paepe (1841–1890).

TheCharter of Quaregnon (located in this municipality and not inMons because of theGarde Civique's'fusillade of Mons'), of 1894 provided the doctrinal basis for the Belgian socialists from 1894 until 1979. Before 1919, the district system in Belgian elections made it almost impossible for the Labour Party to get parliamentary seats inFlanders, and theGhent socialist leader, Edward Anseele, was elected inLiège. After 1919, universal male suffrage andproportional representation greatly enhanced the party's parliamentary strength and it participated in several governments.

In the1919 election, the Belgian Labour Party won 36.6% of the vote and increased their parliamentary representation from 26 to 70 seats. This was enough to deny theCatholic Party the majority it had enjoyed since 1884, which led the Catholic Party to form a coalition with Labour, forming a cabinet that contained Labour members. The Belgian Labour Party used this opportunity to demand and to have passed reforms such as the repeal of a law that prohibited picketing, an eight-hour workday, old-age pensions, inheritance taxes, and a graduated income tax.^[2]

The party was a member of theLabour and Socialist International between 1923 and 1940.^[3]

AfterWorld War II, most of the BWP/POB officials joined to found theBelgian Socialist Party.

Election year	Votes		Seats	Change
	Number	Percentage
1894	301,940	18.36%	27 / 152	27
1896	150,260	15.16%	27 / 152
1898	213,511	21.78%	15 / 152	12
1900[a]	461,295	22.49%	32 / 152	17
1902	159,370	14.97%	32 / 166	17
1904	297,847	26.64%	29 / 166	3
1906	72,224	22.64%	25 / 166	4
1908	271,870	22.64%	25 / 166
1910	85,326	6.69%	25 / 166
1912	243,338	9.28%	18 / 186	7
1914	404,701	30.32%	32 / 186	14
1919	645,124	36.62%	70 / 186	38
1921	672,478	34.81%	68 / 186	2
1925	821,116	39.48%	78 / 187	10
1929	803,347	36.02%	70 / 187	8
1932	824,946	37.03%	73 / 187	3
1936	758,485	32.11%	70 / 202	3
1939	575,775	29.44%	64 / 166	6

^a This election saw the introduction ofProportional representation (PR), making Belgium the first country in Europe to adopt said voting system.

• Victor Serge, member of the youth section of the party.
• Edward Anseele
• Camille Huysmans
• Henri de Man
• Jules Destrée
• Paul-Henri Spaak, one of theFounding fathers of the European Union.
• Emile Vandervelde
• August Vermeylen

• Politics of Belgium
• Progressive Party (Belgium)
• Christene Volkspartij

• Liebman, Marcel (1979).Les socialistes belges, 1885-1914 : la révolte et l'organisation. Brussels: Éditions Vie ouvrière.
• Van Haegendoren, Mieke (1989).Van werken krijg je vuile handen. Geschiedenis van de Belgische Werkliedenpartij, 1914-1940. Leuven: Acco.ISBN 9033419211.
• Witte, Els; Craeybeckx, Jan; Meynen, Alain (2009).Political History of Belgium from 1830 Onwards (New ed.). Brussels: ASP.ISBN 978-90-5487-517-8.
• Delsinne, Léon (1955).Le Parti ouvrier belge des origines à 1894. Brussels: Renaissance du livre.OCLC 13466311.
• Polasky, Janet L. (1995).The Democratic Socialism of Emile Vandervelde: Between Reform and Revolution. Oxford: Berg.ISBN 9780854963942.
• Van Ginderachter, Maarten (2005).Het rode vaderland: De vergeten geschiedenis van de communautaire spanningen in het Belgische socialisme voor WO I. Tielt: Lannoo.ISBN 9789020962970.

• Defunct socialist parties in Belgium
• Second International parties
• Members of the Labour and Socialist International
• Political parties established in 1885
• 1885 establishments in Belgium
• Labour parties
• 1940 disestablishments in Belgium
• Political parties disestablished in 1940

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• Short description is different from Wikidata
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