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 launched a Rhodes University-based short course for unions and other working-class organisations from 2017, in partnership with the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Education and Training Authority (merSETA). It includes modules on labour history, political economy, state institutions and labour law, and workers' organisations. The focus is on unions in merSETA-covered sectors in the Eastern Cape. The next cycle of the programme begins in 2024.
For more information on the short course, please click here.