Communist Party of Belgium (1963)

The party was formed as a splinter of the Communist Party of Belgium (KPB-PCB) after a schism within the party regarding the Sino-Soviet split.^[2] The anti-revisionist faction first emerged within the KPB-PCB in 1962, with Grippa expelled from the party as the faction's leader for promoting a successful anti-Soviet resolution at a local party meeting in Brussels.^[3][4] Following his expulsion, Grippa and his faction established the Communist periodical La Voix du Peuple, whose third issue made clear their aim to organize a new anti-revisionist party.^[5] The CPB was thus founded at a national conference in December 1963,^[6] its main resolution declaring "the Communist Party of Belgium reconstituted on the national level, on the basis of Marxism–Leninism."^[5]

Grippa had prior contacts with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials during his time in the KPB-PCB, having been invited to Beijing in June 1956. He was seen as a promising leader by Kang Sheng for establishing pro-Chinese influence in Belgium, and was personally received in meetings with Liu Shaoqi and Mao Zedong.^[7] Although the CPB was initially materially backed by the Chinese government,^[8] Grippa maintained that the CPB was independent and eventually came to criticize the official Chinese narrative of the Cultural Revolution.^[9] He furthermore condemned the attack on Liu during the revolution, which sparked the "Rittenberg case" after prominent Maoist Sidney Rittenberg censured him in a pamphlet for his defense of Liu.^[10] The case soured Grippa's relations with the Chinese government under Mao^[11] and the Albanian government under Enver Hoxha.^[12] When Grippa returned to Beijing in the summer of 1966, he was scolded by Kang for leading his party too independently from the CCP.^[13] Kang ultimately ended Chinese support for the party in September that year, and Grippa was further denied support by Hoxha.^[14]

Grippa was subsequently ousted from the CPB by another faction within his party in December 1967, possibly with the involvement of the Albanian government.^[15] By early 1968, the Chinese government had transferred their support to the separate Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Belgium.^[11] According to the Marxists Internet Archive, the CPB was dissolved in 1976.^[16] The party succumbed to factionalism, spawning other parties which further disintegrated into divided sub-groups.^[14]

Political scientists have described the Communist Party of Belgium as a Maoist political party^[17][18] with a primarily Belgian Francophone character,^[19] situated on the extreme left of the political spectrum.^[20] The CPB was the first Maoist party in Europe, being founded in Western Europe as Eastern Europe was under the Soviet sphere of influence.^[21] According to Benjamin I. Schwartz, "Grippa (a former Stalinist) [was] committed to the party not only as a moral entity but as a Leninist structure" and he attached great importance to communist party rules and organization as opposed to what Grippa condemned as a "cult or idolatry with regard to a leader". This, according to Schwartz, alienated Grippa's standing within Beijing.^[10]