User:Buster/sandbox:Belgium

Source

 * https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&u=wikipedia&id=GALE|CX3273300032&v=2.1&it=r&sid=GPS&asid=75908169

1830: Freedom of languages and linguistic correction
A factor in the Belgian Revolution of the 1830s was the increasing dominance of the Dutch language in the southern provinces of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. A conflict arose between the citizenry of the Flemish provinces who wished to engage with the authorities in Dutch rather than French, and the largely francophone aristocracy of the southern provinces which would soon became modern-day Belgium. While the Belgian Constitution guaranteed "freedom of language", in practice the authorities, including all government institutions such as the courts, were dominated by the French-speaking upper classes, and operated completely in French. '''This bias drastically disadvantaged the largely Flemish North and, to a lesser degree, the Walloons of the South and the mainly German- or Luxembourgish-speaking environs of Arlon. Remarkably, as universal education developed in Belgium, the French language was initially the sole medium of instruction, alienating the northern half of the country'''. There was a similar sense of alienation in other areas such as justice, as the trial and conviction of two Flemish labourers, Jan Coucke and Pieter Goethals, in 1860 demonstrated. The pair were sentenced to death for the murder of a widow without having understood one single word of their trial, and were executed, and then found to be innocent.

Territoriality
For the first time, the language laws of the 1930s had demarcated language areas quite precisely. As a result, they anchored monolingualism in Flanders and Wallonia. They were therefore based on the principle of territoriality. That principle binds the use of a particular language to a particular territory. In education, justice and administration, the official language of the language area will then apply. French-speaking and Dutch-speaking people have shaped the principle of territoriality together. It is enshrined in the Belgian Constitution and is recognized by the highest national and international judicial institutions. Incidentally, it is not only the Belgian federal model that is built around the principle of territoriality. It has also found traction in Switzerland and Canada. There, the underlying reasoning is the same as in Belgium. A living language is inextricably linked to a territory and to the people who live in that territory. A language can only survive if it is spoken by a community; A community can only survive if it has a territory.
 * 

Flanders v Wallonia -July 1, 2024

 * Belgian society became increasingly divided in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries owing to linguistic, political, and economic differences between French-speaking Wallonia and Dutch-speaking Flanders. These divisions led to the enforcement of an official linguistic border beginning in the 1960s and the formation of Flemish and Francophone cultural councils in 1970. To this day, Belgium's three main economic regions—Wallonia, Flanders, and Brussels—continue to maintain a certain level of political, cultural, and linguistic autonomy.
 * Over the past several decades Flanders has experienced rapid economic development while Wallonia's steel and coal industries have suffered. Consequently, Flanders and its Flemish inhabitants have gained more economic and political power than ever before. Belgium underwent a political crisis beginning in 2007 caused by growing tensions between the Flemish and the Walloons. Powerful Flanders accused the Walloons of being dependent on Flemish economic assistance, while the Walloon community accused Flanders of having a segregationist language policy. The crisis resulted in the dissolution of both houses of parliament in May 2010 after the parliament adopted a declaration that called for constitutional review. Although the crisis subsided after prolonged formal negotiations in 2011, political divisiveness within the country remained high, and there was soon renewed talk of Belgian partition.

Belgian-American Club - Chicago, Il

 * Belgian Hall on Fullerton Ave. https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130910/logan-square/belgian-american-club-hopes-save-historic-belgian-hall/
 * Many Belgian immigrants became janitors and helped others get janitorial jobs: spreading throughout the city and suburbs. Many of these jobs provided living quarters and a fair wage for families. The early officials of the janitors union Janitors' Union Local 1 were all of Belgian heritage. This provided many many job opportunities for New Americans arriving from war-torn Europe in the mid 1950's. It also meant that Belgians would not establish a dominant presence in any ONE neighborhood as other nationalities had done. The janitors union of Chicago was a founding component of the Service Employees International Union, SEIU, which is now the second-largest union in the United States.
 * Jerry Horan Flat Janitors' Leader, Is Dead," Chicago Daily Tribune, April 28, 1937. was an organized crime figure and President of the Building Service Employees International Union from 1927 until his death in 1937. Whereby George Scalise would eventually loot the union treasury of millions of dollars in member dues.
 * Horan dies on April 27, 1937. Afternoon his funeral, the BSEIU board of directors met to elect the next president of the union. At the meeting were First Vice President William McFetridge; Second Vice President Gus Van Heck; Third Vice President Burke; Fourth Vice President Charles Hardy; Fifth Vice President Scalise; Secretary-Treasurer Paul David; and International Union Trustee Elizabeth Grady. Also in attendance was Oscar Nelson, now a circuit court judge. Nelson put forward Scalise's name, and George Scalise was elected president of the Building Service Employees International Union.


 * The SEIU was founded on April 23, 1921 in Chicago as the Building Service Employees International Union (BSEIU); its first members were janitors, elevator operators, and window washers.

Archival and historical materials
The official repository of SEIU is the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University in Detroit. The Reuther Library holds the most complete collection of primary source materials regarding SEIU covering 105 years of history (1905-2010). The relationship between SEIU and the Reuther Library began officially in 1992 and the collections have since been maintained by a dedicated SEIU Archivist on staff at the archives. Notable collections include SEIU Executive Office: John Sweeney Records, the District 925 Records, and materials documenting the Justice for Janitors campaign from SEIU's numerous local affiliates.


 * Additional archival collections can be found at the Special Collections Library of the University of Washington (Building Service Employees' International Union, Local 6 Records and Service Employees International Union, Local 120 Records ). The records of SEIU's United Service Workers West, including the Justice for Janitors campaign are held by the UCLA Library Department of Special Collections.