LST at a glance ·

This is an English summary of the LST movement.
››› For the full version, see the website in French.

LST is a resistance movement which, through the use of permanent education, participates in the struggle against poverty. Since the beginning of its creation, LST has been gathering the poorest families and those sympathetic to their plight together, to participate in this movement of solidarity.

LST is currently present in different areas of Wallonia (Belgium), including Namur, Andenne, Ciney-Marche and Tubize. These local associations gather around a common charter and meet regularly. This gathering together is called the activists’ assembly.

LST is a pluralist and independent movement.

• LST holds regular « Basement meetings » : the name given to meetings amongst people who live in great poverty and others from various backgrounds who want to participate in joint solidarity. The name comes from the ATD Fourth World movement, which has been the initiator of a similar kind of meeting some 30 years ago. The ATD movement currently uses the expression « grassroots university » for the same kind of meeting. Within the LST movement, we kept the original word « basement », not only because the first gatherings took place more than 25 years ago in basements, but also in order to remember that these meetings constitute the foundations of the LST movement. Through these meetings, we take up the gauntlet: to achieve the right to associate the poorest, who are usually surrounded by divisions, distrust and contempt. Thus, once every two weeks in the evening, we gather together to share what we live, such as our struggles and projects. The « basement meetings » are a place of expression and sharing, where listening to and respecting each other are fundamental objectives. These meetings have progressively given birth to the actions and activities of the movement... and even to its name.

• LST is also a newspaper, Hand in Hand, produced by fourth-world people and families with more than 1,000 copies distributed regionally.

• LST is an open and welcome place for everyone and has been situated in Namur since 1982, and in Andenne since 1992. It has also been a mobile organization that organizes meetings in campgrounds in the area of Ciney-Marche since 1996 and has a contact address in Tubize.

• LST is a training project, that is putting people back to decent work. In 1985 it led to the creation of the LST Cooperative, a cooperative in the building sector that pursues the challenge set as early as 1983, that is: « Through our labour, we will escape dependence! ».

• LST is also the creation of gathering places to express oneself and be creative, from the perspective of the poorest, including:
  • a street library that, every Wednesday afternoon, gathers children around books in the Balance district in Salzinnes (Namur) and in the Peu d’Eau district in Andenne;
  • the youth group in Namur and;
  • weekly creative workshops in Andenne and Namur;

• LST's thematic workshops include family and youth help, housing, training, work and incomes, sustainable development,... among others.

• LST is a place to conduct political lobbying in partnership with other associations, particularly through the follow-up on the General Report on Poverty (at the national level). Activists gather at LST to prepare the follow-up of these various meetings.