

Culture and Working Life Project
Culture and Working Life Project (CWLP) started in 1985 to train workers in drama, music and literature. Based in the Sociology Department at the University of Natal, CWLP worked closely with the trade unions to organise cultural events for May Day and other important political occasions. They also helped establish cultural structures and document cultural activity.
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Culture and Production.The contradictions of working Class Theatre in South Africa – Ari Sitas – pdf (5mb)
The records of Culture and Working Life Project are stored at Killie Campbell Collections, University of KwaZulu-Natal. The index appears below.
Culture and Working Life Project (CWLP) | |||
File Number | Description | Year | Details |
06/01/1 | Constitution; Structures and Working Conditions | [1991?] | |
06/01/2 | Annual Reports;Organisational profile; | 1985; 1986;1987;1991-1993 | Additional various pages, years unknown |
06/01/3 | Activity Reports | 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994 | Office Report, July-Oct, 1989; Audiovisual Documentalist Report, 1991; Creative Development Report 1992 and undated; Overall Assessment of Education Programme, undated; Education and Training Programme Report, First Quarter, 1994 and April-June 1994; Two year Training Programme, Durban; Music Course Progress Report, March 1994; A.T. Qabula’s Report May to Oct (no year); CWLP Report to Sociology Review Committee |
06/01/4 | Minutes of Committee/Board;Minutes of Meeting of Projects in Industrial Sociology | 1985-1987; June-Oct 1993one, undated; 29.7.1986 | |
06/01/05 | Correspondence: General | 1986-1991; 1994; 1997 | |
06/01/06 | Correspondence: Financial and Funding, including Broederlijk Delen | 1984-1998 | Incomplete |
06/01/07 | Correspondence: Funding,Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference [European Economic Community] | !993-1995, incomplete; some undated | File also includes some Meeting minutes (Church and Work Commission); Joint project funding request, 1988; Outline of programme conditions [1989]; Guide to EU Support for Development Projects (June, 1994); Review of Labour: Funding for Labour Sector in South Africa 1994 and 1995, and related correspondence. |
06/01/08 | Funding Proposals and Reports | 1992-1994; 1993; 1993-1994; 1994-1996 | Accompanying documents and hand-written notes; Report to Ford Foundation, 1989-1991; Proposal for the feasibility of establishing Workers Cultural Facilities, Aug 1991 |
06/01/09 | Photographs; CWLP brochures; theatre programme; Scrapbook. | 1993 | Unidentified photographs from workshops, showing artwork, publications and authors; unidentified theatre scrapbook – showing youth theatre; Theatre programme for Mbube, a play by SAWCO Cultural Group. |
06/01/10 | Culture Course: General, Minutes, Programme, Evaluation; Correspondence. | 1990-1993 | Cultural work course – requirements, code of conduct etc; Minutes of Staff, Education, Music; Facilitator and Steering Committee meetings; Course structure; participants evaluation; fragments of correspondence 1990, 1991. |
06/01/11 | Culture Course: Modules; | Modules: Ways of Learning; Visual Arts; Drama; Culture & the Labour Movement; Creative Writing; Music. Contain outlines, content, notes, projects, assignments | |
06/01/12 | Culture Course: Creative writing and other assignments; culture course mini open day brochure, 1992 | English and Zulu | |
06/01/13 | Culture Course: Attendance Registers; travel subsidies | ||
06/01/14 | RDP Play Project:Correspondence; Planning; Activity and Financial Reports; Programmes and Photographs | 1996 | |
06/01/15 | Cultural Rights and Workers Cultural Facilities Project | 1992 | A4 poster; newsclipping; handwritten notes; Reports; Correspondence. |
06/01/16 | Record of Video usage; and information on Book Sales | 1991, 1992 | |
06/01/17 | Secondary material and essays on culture | ||
06/01/18 | Northern Natal Training Programme; Eshowe Culture Course | 1994, 1996 | Financial, correspondence and activity reports |
06/01/19 | CWLP Income and Expenditure Statements | 1985-1989; 1991-1997 | |
06/01/20 | Interviews with women for the ‘Speak’ Project. | undated | Valley Trust area?; in English. |
06/01/21 | Miscellaneous documents of organisations associated with CWLP; | undated | includes handwritten notes on of a planning exercise? of CWLP?. |
Accessioned in Campbell Library collection | Audio tapes and slides (unlabelled) | Mandini Strikers cassette label; May Day culture Natal – HowardCollege; Clermont; Justice Hall; | |
Publications in book collection at Campbell Library | “Poetry for Peace”; “A Star from Nowhere”. |
Frank Meintjies, An explosion of worker creativity in Natal: The catalytic role of the Culture and Working Life Project, (ASAI, 2021).
Mario Pissarra, Tasneem Wentzel and Scott Williams, with Nise Malange, Owning your Liberation History: Nise Malange on the work and lessons of the Culture and Working Life Project, (ASAI, 2017).
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