Hlanganani Basebenzi - Educators guide

This guide for educators is based on the SAHA portable exhibition kit entitled Hlanganani Basebenzi: Commemorating South Africa’s Labour Movement, in which artefacts from the archives provide a lens into decades of the labour movement’s resistance to apartheid.

On the first of May each year, workers throughout the world celebrate International Workers Day. In South Africa, Workers’ Day is a day to remember and honour the significant role played by the trade union movement in the history of our country.

This guide is intended to help educators to use the exhibition as a starting point to commemorate this day with their learners by considering:

• How the trade union movement historically not only secured better working and living conditions for black workers, but also played a central role in the struggle against apartheid.

• The struggles still faced by South African workers in a democratic society, from extremely low wages tohardships in the workplace - and the fractured state of the trade union movement in the country today.

Download Hlanganani Basebenzi : Exhibitions in the classroom booklet (2MB)

ACCESSING THE EXHIBITION ONLINE

There is also an online version of the Hlangani Basebenzi exhibition that includes downloadable copies of many of the primary sources – posters, photographs, pamphlets, reports, speeches - that appear in the exhibition panels.