14 Facts About Ludo Martens

Ludo Martens was a Belgian far-left activist who founded and served as the first leader of the Workers' Party of Belgium.

Ludo Martens wrote several works on the political history of Central Africa and the Soviet Union.

In 1968, Martens founded the group Alle macht aan de arbeiders, which became the Workers' Party of Belgium in 1979.

Ludo Martens served as president of the Workers' Party until 2008.

Ludo Martens was the last foreigner to meet North Korean president Kim Il Sung before his death on 8 July 1994.

Ludo Martens was born in 1946, as the eldest son of a furniture manufacturer.

In 1965, Ludo Martens entered the Louvain University to study medicine and during that time he became active in the Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudentenverbond.

Ludo Martens got expelled from his university after writing an article about pedophilia within the church on Our Life, the magazine which he ran in the university.

Ludo Martens was influenced by the student movements in 1968.

In 1971, Ludo Martens founded the Alle macht aan de arbeiders party, which renamed itself into the Workers' Party of Belgium in 1979.

Ludo Martens was the last communist leader to meet Kim Il Sung, two weeks before the latter's death.

In 1999, Ludo Martens requested his party to relieve him of the post of party president, a position he had held since the founding of the party, as he wished to pursue his passion for work in the Congo.

Ludo Martens died on the afternoon of June 5,2011 after a long illness.

In 1994, Ludo Martens published Another View of Stalin, a work that holds an apologetic view of collectivisation in the Soviet Union and the Great Purge under Joseph Stalin.