Our Eastern Cape Worker Education Project has evolved from a broad commitment made at the launch of NALSU to an annual workers school and an approved short course for trade unions.

Vuyisile Mini Workers Schools

NALSU has been central to the organisation and delivery of the Vuyisile Mini Workers Schools since their launch in 2015. Funded by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), each workers school brings together approximately 40 participants from a range of unions – mainly from East London, Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage – for four days of discussions and debates. The participants are fully-funded, and reside in Makhanda for the duration. The workers school is named after Vuyisile Mini, a well-known Eastern Cape trade unionist who was particularly active in Port Elizabeth and who was executed in 1964 for his role in the anti-apartheid armed struggle.

For more information on the workers schools, please click here.

Short course on Policy, Theory and Research for Labour Movements

The NALSU team has been working on the idea of an accredited short course for unions and allied working class civil society organisations in the Eastern Cape since the launch of the Vuyisile Mini Workers Schools. Our proposal for such a short course – to be offered jointly by the Departments of Sociology and NALSU – was formally approved by Rhodes University in late 2017 and a module was piloted in 2018 in Port Elizabeth. The full rollout started in 2019 in partnership with the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Education and Training Authority (merSETA). We have obtained input from trade union federations at national level and are engaging further within the Eastern Cape. 

For more information on the short course, please click here.