War Van Overstraeten

Eduard (War) Van Overstraeten (8 May 1891, Wetteren – 9 December 1981, Bruges) was a Flemish communist activist and painter. He was one of the founders of the Communist Party of Belgium.

At the end of the First World War, he was a member of the Young Socialist Guard. In 1920 he attended the 2nd World Congress of the Comintern where he defended Left Communist positions.^[1] He participated in the founding of Kultintern

He also attended the 3rd World Congress of the Comintern in 1921, where he was elected to the Executive Committee of the Communist International.^[1]

In 1923 he was imprisoned for four months for his opposition to the occupation of the Ruhr.^[2] In 1925 he was elected as a Communist deputy to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives.^[2] However in 1927 he organised a majority of the Belgian Communist Party in opposition to the expulsion of Trotsky and Zinoviev. He was then purged in 1928 as a trotskyist. He remained active for a few years as a dissident communist before giving up political activity in the thirties.^[2]

He subsequently focussed on painting and retired in Bruges.^[2]

References

1. Lavitch, Branko (1986). Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press. p. 348.
2. Drachkovitch, Milorad M. (1973). Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern. Hoover Press. ISBN 9780817984038. Retrieved 11 May 2018.