Winter School 2005 July 4 to July 8

GENDER, NEOLIBERALISM AND THE SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Mobilise and Organis e for Social Change

The Khanya College Annual Winter School was launched in July 1999. 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 Annual Winter School provides the space for activists from various social movements to work together across different sectors and interests. This is an opportunity for activists from the different sectors to exchange views and share experiences.

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, mostly to the benefit of South African corporations, makes the building of Southern African solidarity among the social movements an immediate challenge. 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.

1. Aims of the Winter School

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

2. The Focus of Winter School 2005

Winter School 2005 will focus on “Gender, Neoliberalism and the Social Movements”. Over the last few years the issue of gender and of the status of women has received increased attention. In many programmes by international development and financial institutions, national governments, and even local governments the issue of the status of women has received high profile. Within South Winter School 2005 Africa the new constitution has entrenched gender equality, new laws to promote and enforce gender equity in the workplace have been passed, and the South African parliament boasts one of the highest numbers of female delegates in any parliament in the world, and certainly in Africa. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development has also identified the promotion of gender equality as one of its main aims. Within mass organisations of the working class and the poor the issue of gender equality has also received attention. Many organisations have put gender equality in society as well as within the organisations as one of their main goals.

The increased profile of gender issues, however, has been accompanied by an actual decline in the conditions of life of women, and in the actual decline in their status. Women have carried the burden of the privatisation of services, of the reorganisation of work and the massive retrenchments that have accompanied it, of rampant unemployment, and of casualisation, and the mushrooming of the informal sector. Further, women are now increasingly subject of violence, rape and other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment.

Many working class and poor communities have responded to this deterioration in their living standards. New movements and community organisations have emerged to respond to globalisation and to neoliberalism. In many of these movements women are in the forefront of the struggles, and form the majority of members. However, their voices are not being heard, their demands are not heard, and they are not leading these organisations and movements.

Winter School 2005 will explore the position of women today, and will look at the sources of the deterioration in their living standards and in their status in society. The school will look at a number of issues as part of developing our understanding of the relationship of gender, neoliberalism and the new social movements. Some of the issues that will be discussed include:

• Patriarchy and the oppression of women
• The impact of neoliberalism on the lives and status of women
• Nepad and Gender
• Women in the Informal economy
• Gender in Social movements / CBOs etc
• Experiences of women’s resistance and organisation, including the issue of a women’s movement

3. The activities of Winter School 2005 will be:

• A series of two-day workshops on the themes of the School.
• An activist forum on “Gender and Social Movements”

• A Cultural Festival
• Exhibitions and Screening by various social movements and NGOs, and
• A range of other activities aimed at promoting exchange of views and networking

The cost of the School is R2500 per participant, all-inclusive of accommodation, meals, educational materials, transport and facilitation fees. For further information on Winter School 2005, please contact: Nerisha Baldevu at Khanya College, + 27 11 832 2447. Or you can email: info@khanyacollege.org.za