Education for Liberation

Programmes of Khanya College

The work and activities of Khanya College are organised into 9 programmes:

1. The Gender and Women’s Empowerment Programme
2. The Strategy Centre for the Practice and Theory of Social Movements
3. The Centre for Labour Education and Organising
4. The Khanya Working Class History Programme
5. The ICTs and Community Empowerment Programme
6. The Southern Africa and Solidarity Centre
7. The Khanya Journal Project
8. Khanya College Annual Winter School
9. The Administration, Resources and Infrastructure Building Programme

The Gender and Women’s Empowerment Programme

The Gender programme of Khanya College seeks to contribute to raising consciousness about gender inequality among progressive mass organisations and social movements, and to assisting these formations to develop approaches to overcome gender inequality.

The programme includes among its projects a basic course for gender activists in the mass organisations, a course on the role of women in the making of modern South Africa, workshops on gender and development, women and the economy, a course of gender violence, and so on. The college undertakes research and produces publications on gender issues and women’s struggles in the context of globalisation.

The transition to democracy in South Africa took place in the context of the integration of South Africa into a neoliberal global economic order. The effects of these policies, adopted by the new government, have been the lack of service delivery, a growing gap between the rich and the poor, and growing impoverishment among the majority of the population. In response to these developments a number of social movements have emerged in both rural and urban areas. These movements have initiated a number of campaigns around the effects of neoliberalism. The campaigns deal with a range of issues from environmental degradation, land and agrarian reform, service delivery, privatisation as well as other social, political and economic issues. The College set up the Strategy Centre as a response to the challenges posed by the emergence of these new movements.

The primary aim of the Strategy Centre is to assist activists in the rural and urban social movements in their struggle to build the movements through processes of continuous mobilisation, conscientisation and organisation building. The Strategy Centre undertakes this task through theoretical training and awareness raising, media training, facilitating solidarity between the new movements in Southern Africa and beyond, and through research and publications.
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The Centre for Labour Education and Organising

Cheap black labour lay at the heart of the apartheid system. Still, by the time of the first democratic elections of 1994, South Africa continued to boast the second biggest income disparities in the world. It remained notorious for its labour standards for the majority of its workers, most of whom were unorganised. Within the world of work itself, the processes of globalisation and workplace restructuring have led to the rise of atypical work, with a rapid growth in the use of casual and contract labour, as well as the emergence of home based work. In many instances labour standards and conditions of employment continue to deteriorate.

The primary aim of the Centre is to develop an understanding of the processes currently underway in the world of work, and to provide support for the numerous initiatives aimed at organising workers. This support takes the form of education and awareness raising, assistance with organising initiatives, research and publications.

While still continuing with support for traditional trade unions, the Centre focuses on supporting new forms of organising, especially among atypical workers.
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The Khanya Working Class History Programme

For many activists the history of the liberation movement and its various organisations is being lost or forgotten. As a product of that history Khanya College is aware of the importance of this history in rebuilding the traditions of solidarity and mobilisation within and among the social movements. A sense of history will also assist activists and the mass organisations in which they work to develop alternatives to the present global order.

Some of the projects of this programme are courses on South African labour history, courses on the economic history of South Africa, and courses on the history of women in the struggle against apartheid, social and economic injustice in South African. The programme also includes a project on the cultural history of working people in South Africa. In keeping with all Khanya programmes, this programme seeks to build regional solidarity in the Southern Africa region by raising awareness about the place of South Africa in the history of the region. Workshops, publications, research and various public events form part of the way this programme is delivered.
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The ICTs and Community Empowerment Programme

The last decade and a half has seen a major revolution in technology and in the power relationships that are underpinned by modern technology. For the majority of the world’s poor, the revolutions in technology have in many instances reinforced their lack of access to resources, and have thus been a factor contributing to the growing poverty the world over.

On the other hand, however, this widening wealth and power gap has been met with resistance from many communities and movements from all over the world. The new technologies have been useful as means to facilitate this resistance. Khanya College’s ICTs and Community Empowerment Programme is aimed at educating activists in the social movements about the role of these technologies in the process of globalisation, and to develop an understanding of how these technologies can be used to build the movements. The programme encompasses three projects:

1. Provision of access to ICT resources through setting up an Internet Center,
2. Provision of capacity building in the use of ICTs for the constituencies that the college works with and services, and
3. The development of ICT applications that are useful and relevant for the building of social movements in South and Southern Africa.

The Southern Africa and Solidarity Centre

Over the years we have witnessed the acceleration of the processes of globalisation and regional integration. At the political level, we have seen the formation of regional political blocs where states have sought to build regional governance institutions. At the economic level, we have seen increasing integration and interdependence of economies. The social and cultural effects of these processes have been profound and far-reaching.

For many years, the oppressed people in South Africa have been recipients of solidarity from many peoples and organisations around the world. The peoples and governments of Southern Africa occupy a special place in this solidarity movement. The processes of regional integration and globalisation pose special challenges to the striving for regional solidarity. The Southern Africa and Solidarity Centre constitutes Khanya’s response to these challenges.

The primary aims of the Centre are:

1. To facilitate the building of links between various social movements, community based organisations, non-governmental organisation, trade unions and other advocacy groups in the Southern African region.
2. To conduct research on, and monitor, various aspects of the process of regional integration, and the impact of globalisation on the region.
3. To initiate, and participate in, advocacy and campaigns within South Africa on issues relevant to regional solidarity.

The Khanya Journal Project

The emergence of the anti-globalisation movement internationally, and of the social movements within South Africa has revitalised the search for alternatives to the present global social and economic order. In many parts of the world debates and discussions about these alternatives are intimately linked to the resistance to globalisation and its negative effects on working people. To this extent, these debates are also concerned with developing perspectives on how to build movements for social change in the context of globalisation. The Journal Project of Khanya College seeks to contribute this search for alternatives by providing a space for debate and theoretical discussion on the many challenges facing the social movements. The aims of the Journal Project are:

1. To revitalise theoretical approaches to social analysis that form an important inheritance of egalitarian social movements all over the world.
2. To develop new theoretical approaches to better understand new developments in the world today
3. Building a culture of critical debate among the emerging layer of activists.
4. Creating spaces for activists to publish, and have access to the work of other activists.

The Journal Project includes the publication of a quarterly journal for activists, seminars, position papers, conferences, publication of Study Notes, and so on.
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Khanya College Annual Winter School

Every July the College hosts a Winter School for activists in the social movements and other mass organisations. The Winter School was launched in 1999 and represents an important aspect of Khanya’s response to the changing political and economic environment within which social movements have to work. In particular, the aims of the school are:

1. To provide the space for activists to critically reflect on their organising and mobilizing work in the present national and global context.
2. To provide the space for activists to develop their theoretical understanding of present developments, debate topical issues, and exchange experiences with each other.
3. To provide the space for building of regional social movements by bringing activists from the sub-region together.

The theme of the Winter Schools, "Mobilise and Organise for Social Change”, reflects these aims. Various educational events are delivered in the form of workshops, seminars, lectures, as well as cultural events and public speeches. An activist forum is also held and provides space for debates on strategy and tactics in the building of social movements.
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The Administration, Resources and Infrastructure Building Programme

One of the key challenges facing social movements today is how to mobilise resources needed in the struggle for social and economic justice. These resources are many and varied, and range from access to IT, meeting spaces, learning resources of various kinds, printing and publishing resources, and so on. Within the College’s primary mission of providing support to the social movements and the communities within they operate, the College undertakes a number of initiatives aimed at facilitating social movements’ access to these resources. Khanya College has entered into a partnership with the Workers Library and Museum with the aim of providing these resources.

As part of the College's commitment to operate democratically, accountably and efficiently, this programme seeks to create a transparent and efficient administration in within the College. The programme seeks to create a stable resource and infrastructure base so that the various programmes the College offers to our primary constituencies can be delivered effectively.
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