LPM members urged to put theory into practice

Landless People’s Movement (LPM) leader Bernardus Swartbooi has encouraged members at the second People’s Assembly to put theory into practice.

Swartbooi emphasised that in order to achieve change, the LPM must be willing to do the legwork.

LPM started off with its policy conference on Thursday and is now holding the People’s Assembly.

The movement, Swartbooi says, is a leftist one, reminding the delegates at the assembly that their conscience should be directed to ensuring equal distribution of all the country’s resources.

“How do we move away from a one-party state to a people-centric multiparty democracy? We must therefore stop philanthropizing only the material and political conditions of our country, and we undertook an uncertain and, in fact, dangerous journey of turning ourselves into critical thinkers and actors for change.”

Swartbooi also touched on opposition parties forming coalitions with the aim of unseating the ruling Swapo party.

Such formations would be senseless, stressed the leader, if opposition parties do not have theories that can be put into practice.

“We must agree that there are strategies and tactics that must be applied in relation to directly dealing with contradictions. Once we agree on the theory, we can now say, Let us put our agreement into practice and have coalitions.”

Strong theories inform strong policies, he emphasised, blasting the draft commercial farm resettlement criteria, for which the Ministry of Agriculture is still conducting public consultations.

It is Swartbooi’s view that the requirement of N$1.2 million required under the Low Value Model is discriminatory against the poor who are in need of land.

“If you do not have assets of two million, you can’t qualify. You see, how can you have a symbolic attachment to a theory if the practice of theory does not connect to the policy pronouncements that you make?”

The Movement, in its seven years of existence, has maintained the unity of practice and theory and says that the Movement is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to advocating for change.

The People’s Assembly will conclude on Sunday.