Emile Vandervelde was an educated, middle class man who lived in Belgium. He had a tremendous impact on the labor movement in both Belgium and the Congo. The followers towards the end of the nineteenth century were those who were poor and had no say in government or politics. They were forced to work in terrible conditions and get paid very little. The leaders were the upper class and Liberals who made the decisions about how the economy should operate. Vandervelde spoke out against the injustices imposed upon the lower class for both his country and African countries. The lower class was not entirely composed of followers. Those who were willing to strike against the government had felt so strongly about rebelling they were willing
to die for their cause. Those who were once followers had now demanded revolution, thus transforming themselves into leaders by altering the Socialistic society, thus making it a more equal and peaceful state.
One general strike proved to have gotten the attention of parliament. The lower class demanded the right to vote and have a say in politics. They somewhat accomplished this goal through the strike on April 11th 1893. This uprising resulted in plural suffrage (Polasky, 29). This meant that the lower class would get the right to vote, however, the upper class which included priests, property holders and qualified voters would be granted extra votes (Polasky, 29). To the people of the poor class this meant a bigger gap between the classes and was not see
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