Right now in the UK, the Green Party under Zach Polansky is surging.

But if recent years have taught us anything, it's that moments of great opportunity don't always last,

and that parties which explode into life can just as fast end up

fizzling out. The Workers' Party of Belgium takes a very different approach. Now I know there's

something of an album track in left-wing politics, they're not super well known in the UK,

but in Belgium they've got 15 parliamentary seats, not bad for a bunch of out and

proud Marxist Leninists. How have they done it? Well, by growing cautiously and deliberately.

They run community health clinics, they organise locally, and they impose strict internal

discipline. What they have is a party that prioritises

strategy and unity. But is it able to move fast enough to meet the overlapping crises of the 21st century?

I'm joined by Peter Merton's General Secretary of the Workers Party of Belgium, aka the PtB.

We talk about democratic centralism, how to stop middle class people like me from taking over

left-wing parties and just what it is that politics should learn from football. I hope you enjoy the

interview.

Peter Mertons, thank you so much for joining us on downstream.

Thanks for having me.

So for people that aren't familiar with the Workers Party of Belgium and your role within it,

could you quickly describe it?

Yeah, I'm Peter Mertens. I'm the General Secretary of the Workers' of Belgium. We are the fourth party in our country of 15 people in the federal parliament. In general, we have 10% in Belgium

in the election, but in Brussels, we are the biggest party and in Antwerp, where I live, we are the

second party. So we're growing. And you're Marxists? Yeah, where I live, we are the second party.

And you're Marxists?

...