Alex

Hello! I'm Alex, a 23 year old Belgian currently employed as a factory worker.

I have only embraced Marxism in the last year. Before I was always on the left already, but more moderate, I voted Social Democrat. This was cause I was an optimist. I had the believe that the world was gradually getting better. That capitalism was gradually being reformed into a system for a perfect world.
You can more easily get that impression in Belgium than almost anywhere else in the world. The gains that the working class made in the 20th century here are truly great. And an almost total unionization made them very good at keeping them as well. Besides that my life was giving me this wrong impression as well. In but a few months after I graduated I got highpaying factoryjob with very little stress or other major downsides. I was able to keep it for almost two years, then me and many of my colleagues became one of the earliest victims of the economic crisis. It took me over a year and a half to find some decent employment again.

In that time I started to realize how lucky I had been and I might never be again under the current system. A better understanding of history and politics has shown me the world is not gradually getting better and it hasn't been for a while now.

This all inspired me to become a lot more radical. Last spring I joined Belgium's largest Marxist party PVDA+. And I continue to try and better my understanding of Marxism and hope to help bring about a better world. This is also the reason I joined here.