The Most Influential Leftist You’ve Never Heard Of | Ash Sarkar Meets Peter Mertens

British politics is in turmoil. The two party system has collapsed, the far right has won huge gains across the country. Crises of this scale can create huge opportunities for socialists too, but only when the left is organised and ready. Peter Mertens is the general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Belgium. If recent years in British politics have had a manic-depressive quality, with extreme highs and extreme lows, the Workers’ Party of Belgium under Mertens takes a very different approach. They might be relatively unknown in the UK, but as we speak, they’re fourth in the national polls, and leading in Brussels. They’ve got 15 parliamentary seats – not bad for out and proud Marxist-Leninists. How have they done it? By growing cautiously and deliberately. They run community health clinics, organise locally, and impose strict internal discipline. Their party prioritises unity and strategy. But how well-placed is it to take on the overlapping crises of the 21st Century? What advice does Mertens have for Zack Polanski? How can we stop middle class people taking over and dominating the left? And how is politics like football? 00:00 Introduction 00:03:10:09 Class Is Back 00:04:48:24 Who Is in the Left’s Coalition? 00:07:03:16 Reconstructing the Left 00:10:45:12 Our System Is Approaching Breaking Point 00:13:15:03 Overcoming Mistrust in Politics Through Organising 00:15:27:21 Why Leaders in the PTB Take an Average Working Class Salary 00:19:34:12 How to Manage Bourgeouis Leftists 00:23:47:18 The Ancient Greeks on Time and AI 00:29:40:04 The Four Day Week 00:35:54:06 How to Stop Middle Class People from Taking Over the Left? 00:39:26:24 How to Manage Conflict in Groups 00:42:49:17 Party Discipline 00:48:54:18 The Structure of the Belgian Worker’s Party 00:54:41:22 Finding Joy in Working for Socialism 01:01:03:02 Listening as a Revolutionary Act 01:06:11:22 Do British Leftists Need to Slow Down? 01:09:42:04 Principles and Flexibility 01:14:40:16 How to Be a Good Marxist? Subscribe to the Downstream newsletter https://novaramedia.com/newsletters/the-downstream-newsletter/ Support our work: http://novara.media/support Buy Novara Media merch: https://shop.novaramedia.com/