Education for Liberation

The Khanya College Annual Winter School

Mobilise and Organise for Social Change!

The Khanya College Annual Winter School was launched in July 1999, and has been held every year since. The Winter School represents an important step in Khanya College’s response to the changing political and economic environment within which social movements have to work. In many different ways Khanya College programmes seek to assist communities in the difficult task of developing their responses to globalisation and its various manifestations.

The post-1994 developments have posed new and difficult challenges for the organisations of the working class and the poor. At the same time, growing economic integration in the Southern Africa region makes the building of Southern African solidarity among the social movements an immediate challenge. The Annual Winter School provides the space for activists from various social movements and civil society organisations across the region to work together across different sectors and interests. This is an opportunity for activists from the different countries and sectors to exchange views, share experiences, strategise and develop linkages and alliances. Khanya College hopes that the Annual Winter School will contribute to regional responses that continue to emphasise social solidarity, popular democracy, organisation and mobilisation. This is what the theme of the Annual Winter School, “Mobilise and Organise for Social Change”, represents

The primary aims of the Winter School are:

1. To provide the space for activists to critically reflect on their organising and mobilising work in the present national and global context.
2. To provide the space for activists to debate topical issues and exchange experiences with each other.
3. To provide the space for the emergence and revitalisation of progressive perspectives on social change.
4. To assist in developing the conceptual, organisational and public speaking skills of activists from different social movements.
5. To provide the space for building of regional social movements by bringing activists from the sub-region together.
6. To provide activists with the opportunity to build links and alliances among their various movements.

Activities of Winter School

1. A series of plenary and parallel workshops
2. An Activist Forum, where activists can exchange information and experiences on the movements from which they come
3. A Keynote Address by an Activists from the regional or international social movements
4. A Cultural Day around the theme: “Building a culture of resistance to neoliberalism”. This involves activities by progressive cultural activists, and by Winter School participants themselves
5. Exhibitions by various social movements and NGOs
6. Public activities (like marches, distribution of flyers, and others) which are aimed at raising awareness around key issues facing the working class

In addition to these activities, a range of other activities aimed at promoting exchange of views and building solidarity among the various social movements are undertaken.