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NEIL AGGETT LABOUR STUDIES UNIT (NALSU): Annual Neil Aggett Labour Studies Lecture, Rhodes University, South Africa
WEBINAR: Thursday (not Wednesday), 11 November 2021, online via Zoom (details below), 3 pm (not 4 pm)
TOPIC & SPEAKER: Noor Nieftagodien, Wits, "Worker-Community Unity: Historical Reflections for Future Struggles"
South Africa's labour movement has experienced a number of crises for several years, reflected in the fracturing and weakening of trade unions. Despite regular community-based protests, social movements have also reached an impasse. One important manifestation of this dual crisis has been the widening chasm between labour and community movements that, in turn, has contributed to the further weakening of struggles in both spheres. This moment of crisis offers an opportunity for activists critically to reflect on both the multiple causes of this malaise and the possible ways out of the impasse. Rather than be overcome by despair and paralysis, we should seize the moment to think about how to reimagine and rebuild these movements, and the relationship between them, in a context of deepening capitalist crisis and relentless attacks on the working class and poor, especially women. One contribution to this process should be a review of historical experiences of the intersection between labour and communities that not only produced important alliances but also shaped the character of labour organisations. Herein lies possible lessons for reviving current and building new movements.
SPEAKER: Professor Noor Nieftagodien is South African Research Chair in Local Histories, Present Realities, and Head of the History Workshop, the University of the Witwatersrand. He has published widely, ncluding ge books "Orlando West, Soweto: An Illustrated History" (with Sally Gaule, 2019), "Alexandra: A History" (with Philip Bonner, 2018), "Students Must Rise: Youth Struggle in South Africa Before and Beyond Soweto '76" (co-edited w.Ann Heffernan, 2016), "The Soweto Uprising" (2015), "Ekurhuleni : The Making of an Urban Region" (w. Phil Bonner & Sello Mathabatha, 2012) and "Kathorus: A History " (with Phillip Bonner, 2001). He was active in youth and union movements against apartheid, and part of the editorial team for the "Congress Militant" in the 1980s and 1990s, remains involved with worker and student movements and is part of the "Amandla" magazine team. He serves on several boards, including those of the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI), the Society, Work and Development Institute (SWOP), the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) and the journal "African Studies,"
JOINING: register in advance for the seminar, which will use Zoom, by going to:
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAud-uspzgvHdMhwWaFcKLVYgNY4rhK1VBN
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
HOSTS: The Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU) hosts the Annual Neil Aggett Labour Studies Lecture as part of its programme of seminars and annual Vuyisile Mini Workers School, partnering with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES). NALSU, based in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, is engaged in policy, research and workers' education. Built around a vibrant team from disciplines including Economics, History and Sociology, it has active partnerships and relations with a range of advocacy, labour and research organisations. It draws strength from its location in a province where the legacy of apartheid and the cheap labour system, and the contradictions of the post-apartheid state, are keenly felt. We are named in honour of Dr Neil Hudson Aggett, a union organiser and medical doctor who died in 1982 in an apartheid jail after enduring brutality and tortu//re.
MORE: https://www.ru.ac.za/