The History Workshop, based at the University of the Witwatersrand, has been involved in conference organising since its founding in 1977. In the 1990s, the History Workshop was involved in organising more than ten conferences.

The History Workshop, in conjunction with the Sociology of Work Unit, also based at the University of the Witwatersrand, are currently organising an international conference for 2006:

"Rethinking Worlds of Labour: Southern African labour history in international context."

A conference from Friday 28th to Monday 31st July 2006
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,
South Africa.

The aims of the conference are to:

Promote a transnational and regional view of labour history, with reference to southern Africa, and to comparisons of the less developed and semi-peripheral regions of the global "South"

To reflect on the implications of the "first" globalisation of the 1870s to the 1930s for the "second" globalisation that started in the 1970s

To foster collaborative work between scholars, particularly those based in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The conference will be opened with a public meeting and a lively public debate on "Labour Internationalism and Worker Rights: trade unions, China and Zimbabwe."

The conference will include an unique, optional, labour history tour of Johannesburg and its environs, open to delegates at an additional charge.