About ILRIG

The International Labour Research and Information Group (ILRIG) is an NGO dedicated to research, education, training and the production of popular materials for the labour and social movements in South and Southern Africa. The main focus of our work is globalisation, and is informed by the view that globalisation is not a heightened form of international integration but an attempt to restructure class relations so as to restore capitalist profitability. Globalisation is neither neutral nor inevitable. There is an alternative!

ILRIG was founded in 1983 as a labour service organisation in the interests of advancing unions and worker power. For many years ILRIG was linked to the University of Cape Town's sociology department, but became an independent trust in 2003. ILRIG's constituency has changed in recent years, as our orientation is now jointly towards emerging community and worker formations, with a view to facilitating greater unity between these initiatives within the working class. Over the years we have built a reputation for high-quality publications and education programmes which are accessible and useful to social movement activists and trade unionists. All our work stresses democratic participation and interaction, and is geared towards supporting strong, principled working class organisations able to develop alternatives to the neoliberal agenda.