COPAC is a not-for-profit section 21 Company.
Our vision is to build human solidarity to sustain
life and a grassroots driven, just transition for
system change
COPAC is a not-for-profit section 21 Company.
Our vision is to build human solidarity to sustain
life and a grassroots driven, just transition for
system change
Facing the Heat In South Africa: Workshop on how to use the photobook
OFFICIAL OPENING: ‘Facing the Heat in South Africa’ Photography Exhibition and Book Launch
OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE ‘FACING THE HEAT IN SOUTH AFRICA’ PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION AND BOOK LAUNCH. Through ten years of photographic documentation, this exhibition and book bring into focus unfolding climate shocks, injustice and resistance post a 1 °C overshoot at the global level. The photographic medium echoes the warnings of climate science but also amplifies the case for climate justice solutions to secure a livable, just and democratic future for all. The launch featured a panel discussion with Professor Vishwas Satgar, moderated by Mandla Nkomfe (Deputy Chairperson, Ahmed Kathrada Foundation), alongside the discussants Prof. Francois Engelbrecht (Climatologist, Wits) and Jessica Ngwenya (Lead Campaigner, Climate Justice Charter Movement). It was followed by a dialogue and a tour of the exhibition.
FACING THE HEAT EXHIBITION: CULTURAL CREATIVES DIALOGUE CIRCLE
collaboration.
Book Launch
Where: Ike’s Bookshop
48a Florida Road, Durban
Monday 2 March
Phone: 031 303 9214
Email: ikesbooks@iafrica.com
BOOK LAUNCH INVITATION | Worker Cooperatives and Deep Democracy | Wits Humanities Graduate Centre, Johannesburg | Thursday 5 February 2026 @ 4pm
Join us tor the launch of a new book – Worker Cooperatives and Deep Democracy : Transformative Politics and Planetary Care from Below.
Worker Cooperatives and Deep Democracy : Transformative Politics and Planetary Care from Below is in many ways the authors Vishwas Satgar and Michelle Williams’ manifesto – drawing on decades of scholarship, activism, and engagement with movements from the Global South.
It confronts the crises that ae defining our time: climate breakdown, inequality, and democratic erosion. It speaks not only to specialists but to thoughtful readers searching for credible and hopeful alternatives to a failing status quo. Retired trade unionist, Dinga Sikwebu will be in conversation with the authors.
About the book
Capitalism’s crisis is planetary. It is a system upending nature and society, causing many to live and work in despair. In Worker Cooperatives and Deep Democracy, Vishwas Satgar and Michelle Williams map a new transformative politics arising from inspiring worker cooperative systems that advance planetary care from below and that have the potential to undermine the capitalist status quo.
Based on extensive research across 15 countries, the authors examine case studies that explore transformative approaches to social reproduction, public power, nature, and territorial expansion in opposition to global hegemonic power.
Satgar and Williams show that, against all odds, people are experimenting with deep democracy and building systems of care that offer living alternatives to the planetary crisis.
About the authors
Vishwas Satgar is Professor of International Relations at the University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He is the editor of the Democratic Marxism series
and is the principal investigator for the Emancipatory Futures Studies in the
Anthropocene project.
Michelle Williams is Professor of Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg. She has co-edited with Vishwas Satgar various volumes in the
Democratic Marxism series. Her publications include Building Alternatives: The
Story of India’s Oldest Worker Owner Cooperative.
Day 2: Exploring the commons in the everyday as part of accelerating the deep just transition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNJx1h91wf0&t=2s
Day 1: Exploring the commons in the everyday as part of accelerating the deep just transition
Learning from international UBIG experiences: Spain/Europe, Brazil/Latin America and Canada
Public Talk: The Case for Basic Income in a Time of Pandemics (Guy Standing)
Book launch: BRICS and the New American Imperialism: Global Rivalry and Resistance
Public Webinar: Learning from Kerala’s Covid-19 response
Discussion with Dr T. M. Thomas Isaac (Minister of Finance, Kerala Government)
Public Webinar: The worsening food crisis: Exploring possibilities for partnership between Government, the Solidarity Fund and progressive civil society
Panel: Anokhi Parikh (Solidarity Fund), Dorah Marema (GenderCC – Southern Africa), Tim Abaa (Ubuntu Project), Desmond D’Sa (SDCEA) and Mervyn Abrahams (PMBEJD)
Public Webinar: Unpacking the Covid-19 Stimulus Package
Panel: Busi Sibeko (IEJ), Michael Sachs (Wits, SCIS) and Duma Gqubule (CEDT)
Webinar recording: Advancing food sovereignty pathways: How subsistence fishers, community gardens, small-scale farmers and community feeding schemes can feed our communities
Panel: Magda Campbell (Beacon Organic Garden), John Nzira (Ukuvuna Harvests), Desmond D’Sa (SDCEA) and Jane Cherry (COPAC)
Webinar Recording: Where is our water, Minister Sisulu? #WaterForAll to confront Covid-19
Panel: Chriszanne Janse Van Vuuren (SCLC), Nosintu Mcimeli (Abanebhongo Persons with Disabilities), Davine Cloete (WCFSSF), Ferrial Adam (COPAC) and Caroline Ntaopane (WoMin)
Webinar recording: #BIGNow: Covid-19, Unemployment and a Basic Income Grant
Panel: Rosheda Muller (SAITA), Ayanda Kota (UPM), Dominic Brown (AIDC), Marcus Solomon (CRC), Duma Gqubule (CEDT) and Isobel Frye (SPII)
Webinar Recording: Covid-19 and food crises: Solidarity buying, pantries and grassroots supply networks
Panel: Dorah Marema (GenderCC Southern Africa), Tatjana von Bormann (WWF), Susanna Coleman (PHA Campaign)
Democratic Marxism Volume 2 Workshop
Contributors to the second volume in the series presented their chapters for review and discussion from the 15th to 16th August 2014
Food Sovereignty Campaign Assembly
The Assembly took place in Johannesburg on 28 February-1March 2015 to deliberate on and launch a programme of action of the South African Food Sovereignty Campaign. Over 50 organisations were present, and a Declaration was issued which set out the intentions of the campaign.
Solidarity Economy Movement (SEM) Assembly, 4-5 December 2014
After an intense activist school on worker cooperatives, activists of the SEM deliberated at an annual Assembly, which planned the future direction and activities of the SEM in order to consolidate the movement in South Africa. Exciting times lie ahead!
World Food day
Marikana Food Sovereignty Workshop
Members of Sikhala Sonke participated in a food sovereignty workshop from 23rd to 26th June 2014
Inter-provincial Right To Food Dialogue
Various civil society and community based organizations from North West, Limpopo and Gauteng came together to participate in the Inter-provincial Right to Food Dialogue to discuss challenges faced around the right to food in their communities, and alternatives and solutions to these challenges.
Food Sovereignty and Agroecology Activist School
5 Day training focusing on Food Sovereignty and agroecology. Grassroots activists from 16 communities from all over the country came together to learn and share their skills on food sovereignty and agroecology.
2nd National Solidarity Economy Conference
5 Day training focusing on Food Sovereignty and agroecology. Grassroots activists from 16 communities from all over the country came together to learn and share their skills on food sovereignty and agroecology.
1st Solidarity Economy Conference – ‘Beyond the Social Economy – Capitalism’s Crises and the Solidarity Economy Alternative’
Date(s): 26 October, 2011 – 10:00 – 28 October, 2011 – 13:00
Location: WITS University
COPAC will be hosting the 1st international solidarity economy conference in South Africa. Participants include leading solidarity economy activists and thinkers from Brazil, Argentina, USA, UK and Italy. This conference will provide a platform for local movements and activists to engage in a comparative dialogue and learning process. The conversation will span discussion on the nature of the capitalist crisis, the importance for transformative alternatives like the solidarity economy, national experiences of solidarity economy and movement building, worker cooperatives and factory occupations and food sovereignty. The conference will discuss a national strategy for advancing and building the solidarity economy movement in South Africa and it will launch the South African solidarity economy forum. On the evening of the 26th from 6.30 pm there will be a public event. There will be a documentary screening on factory occupations in Argentina followed by a discussion. On the 27th October from 6.30pm there will be a second public event; a panel discussion on climate jobs. All are welcome to attend these public events. See attached.
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Promoting the Solidarity Economy Movement at the Gauteng Consulative Conference of the Democratic Left
Date(s): 20 March, 2010 – 14:00
Location: WITS University
COPAC together with the Gauteng unemployed peoples movement and local community based cooperative movements will introduce the concept of the solidarity economy to the Conference of the Democratic Left. The panel on the Solidarity Economy will speak to case, approach and content of the solidarity economy alternative.