From  September 05-07, 2023, the GLU South Africa branch at Wits University will be hosting the annual GLU International Conference. The theme of the Conference will centre on the contested concept of the Just Transition. The event will include a range of presentations on this topic by GLU Alumni, GLU academics from the various GLU campuses and invited academics and guests representing workers’ and labour support organisations.

The theme, Just Transition, pivots around intertwined economic, ecological, social and political poly-crises facing the world today. As such, the event conceptualises the Just Transition in a broad manner, and asks how decent jobs and decent lives can be secured for all in the transition away from fossil fuels, in the context of persistent social inequality, poverty and unemployment (including worker, immigrant and community vulnerability)- in all parts of the globe, but most particularly in the Global South.

In other words, what is “Just” in the Just Transition, and how can we prevent corporate capital (in collusion with uncaring states) from stamping its imprint onto this transition, in the form of a green capitalism that renders such a transition “Unjust” for the working class and marginalised (particularly in countries of the Global South)?

The Thematic Conference will take place at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. This international convergence will culminate in a meeting of the GLU International Steering Committee at the end of that week.

Interested parties can also attend the thematic Global Labour University International Conference via  Zoom.