Joseph Jacquemotte

Joseph Jacquemotte (; 22 April 1883 – 11 October 1936) was a Belgian anarcho-syndicalist and later communist activist who was a founding member and leader of the Communist Party of Belgium (KBP-PCB). He was the creator and editor of the newspapers L'Exploité (1911–1914 and 1918–1921), Le Drapeau rouge (1921–1936) and La Voix du Peuple.

Biography Born in to a family of a non-commissioned officer of working-class origin in Brussels, in 1899 he graduated from the cadet school and served in the army for some time. Under the influence of his brother, he joined the Brussels cell of the Belgian Labour Party (BWP), of which he was a member in 1906–1921.

Appointed regional secretary of the Committee of the Union of Workers (Socialists), from 1910 to 1914 Jacquemotte led a number of strikes, including the first strike of employees in Belgium. He led the revolutionary syndicalist opposition in the reformist trade unions, seeking to rebuild it along the lines of the General Confederation of Labor in France.

Being member of the Bureau of the General Council of the BWP, he headed the left wing of the party, the internationalist group Amis d'exploité ("Friends of the Exploited"), formed in order to support the leftist weekly L'Exploité ("The Exploited").

In February 1921, Jacquemotte voted to join the Communist International and was expelled from the PWP. In September, together with War van Overstraten and other revolutionary leaders, he formed the basis for the creation of the Communist Party of Belgium (CPB), in which Jacquemotte was elected a member of the Central Committee. At the same time, he was the editor of the party organ Le Drapeau rouge ("The Red Flag"), a member of the International Secretariat of the International Red Aid and the Executive Committee of the Communist International from 1924.