Ludo Martens (12 March 1946 – 5 June 2011) was a Belgian activist who founded and served as the first leader of the Workers' Party of Belgium.

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

[4] In nearly a decade, following 1999, he wrote his book on Laurent Kabila and the Congolese revolution, while at the same time helping to lay the foundations of a communist party in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"[5] Martens referred to the notion of Stalinist crimes as a 'myth' and claimed that the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, in which the Soviet Union agreed to invade Poland in conjunction with Nazi Germany and divide Poland, Romania, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia between one another into respective "spheres of influence",[6] was "a key for victory in the anti-fascist war".

[5] The leadership of the Workers' Party of Belgium, particularly president Peter Mertens in 2016, distanced from Martens' vision on Stalin, whom they call "a dictator.