I currently teach at Rhodes University, the Eastern Cape, where I direct the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU). I am 10th generation South African, and my work focuses on South Africa; I have also done research in Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. My main areas include the neo-liberal restructuring of state-owned corporations; trade unions and other working-class movements, including labour and left history; anarchism and syndicalism. I have a long history of involvement in working-class movements, and in workers and popular education.
I have taught at three universities, for the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF), DITSELA and the Global Labour University (GLU), and have taught in (and been a coordinator for) the NUMSA/ Wits short course programme, merSETA/ Rhodes/ metalworkers’ unions short courses, and the Vuyisile Mini Workers Schools.
My writings have been translated into quite a few languages, among them Croat, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Romanian, Sotho, Spanish, and Zulu.
Lucien van der Walt, 2022, “Are Unions Still Relevant in 2022? Power, Prospects and Pitfalls,” presentation to general secretariat, South African Society of Bank Officials (SASBO – The Finance Union), SASBO House, Four Ways, Johannesburg, 6 September.
Lucien van der Walt 