The Landless People's Movement (LPM) is an independent social movement in South Africa. It represents rural people and people living in shack settlements in cities. [1] The LPM boycotts parliamentary elections[2] and has a history of conflict with the African National Congress.[3] The LPM is affiliated to Via Campesina[4] internationally and its Johannesburg branches to the The Poor People's Alliance in South Africa.
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On 24 July 2001 provincial representatives of local landless formations met with regional organisations to unite their grievances and collectively seek change in order to relieve their struggles. The LPM was formed out of this meeting[5]
Its stated aims were to:
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The movement was initially formed and support by an NGO, the National Land Committee (NLC), but in 2003 it broke with the NLC and has since operated autonomously.[7]
On 13 November 2003 the movement issues a Memorandum to then President Thabo Mbeki asking "why is development brought to us through guns and the terror" and demanding an immediate halt to all evictions on farms and from urban squatter camps.[8]
In 2008 the Protea South branch in Johannesburg won a landmark court order against the city of Johannesburg.[9]
The Landless People's Movement currently is building its infrastructure, leadership and credibility.[10]
It has been successful in linking the commonalities between both rural and urban land dispossession.[1]
The Johannesburg Landless Peoples' Movement currently has branches in the following shack settlements:
The movement claims to have been subject to severe repression in Johannesburg in 2010[11], including arrest, arson and murder.[12][13]
In April 2004 57 members of the movement were arrested on election day for marching under the banner of 'No Land! No Vote!'.[14][15] Some of the arrested activists were subject to torture[16][17] and this was later taken up in court action against the police.
In September 2007 the Freedom of Expression Institute reported that at a peaceful protest by the Landless People's Movement:
"SAPS members fired at random towards the protesters, leaving the pavement covered with the blue casings of rubber bullets. Police also deployed a helicopter and water cannon, and we saw at least two officers using live ammunition. One Protea South resident, Mandisa Msewu, was shot in the mouth by a rubber bullet, and several other residents were attended to by paramedics due to police violence."[18]
In February 2009 the movement reported that eight LPM activists from Protea South were arrested following a peaceful protest.[19]
The Landless People's movement was found guilty in 2004 of hate speech by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). Mangaliso Kubheka, at that point the National Organizer of LPM, was found guilty of having uttered the slogan "kill the farmer, kill the boer" during a speech[20]. Kubheka is now a land owner and an ANC councillor.
In September 2008 the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, together with Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Johannesburg branches of the Landless People's Movement and the Rural Network (Abahlali basePlasini) in KwaZulu-Natal formed the Poor People's Alliance.[21][22] The poor people's alliance refuses electoral politics under the banner 'No Land! No House! No Vote!'.[23]
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