A Just Transition from Coal: implications for coal workers and coal affected communities

The Society, Work and Politics Institute will host this breakfast seminar.

This seminar will question whether increasing resistance to coal mining and burning could drive a socially and environmentally just transition in South Africa. Oppositional agency in three social spaces will be discussed; mining affected communities, the environmental justice movement and the labour movement. In many cases resistance is a response to the dispossession of land and livelihoods, as well as access to clean water and air. This will be demonstrated with reference to Phola township in Mpumalanga. The research suggests a shift is necessary from the dominant view of coal as a source of energy, jobs, and foreign exchange to coal as a driver of inequality, social dislocation and environmental damage.

Speakers: Jacklyn Cock, Dineo Skosana and Victor Munnik

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