Workers' Library and Museum
The Workers' Library and Museum was a non-profit labour service organisation (LSO) active in Johannesburg, South Africa between 1987 and the early 2000s. History. It was founded in 1987 as an alternative to the racially segregated public library system under apartheid. In 1994, it was relocated to premises in the Newtown district, adjacent to Mary Fitzgerald Square, and near the Market Theatre, MuseumAfrica and the national offices of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA). Its buildings were a refurbished municipal compound (hostel) for black African migrant men workers, part of which was  converted to a museum, and a few cottages for skilled white workers. The buildings, a National Monument, were redesigned into meetings rooms, a museum, offices and a library space by architect, anti-apartheid activist and radical Allan Robert Lipman in association with Henry Paine, for which they were awarded the South African Institute of Architects Award (SAIA) for Excellence. Activities. In the late 1990s, the Workers' Library and Museum hosted numerous workshops, provided meeting space for unions and the new Anti-Privatisation Forum, attended the Johannesburg Local of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and ran tables at  union events, and also launched a bookshop and t-shirt printing project Closure. In the early 2000s, the Johannesburg Municipality withdrew its previous subsidies to the Workers Library and Museum which had taken the form of rebates on service charges, rent and taxes, and the project closed. The book collection is now housed at the offices of Khanya College, while the premises are now the Workers' Museum, run by the municipality for tourists and schools. This was part of a larger decline in the LSO movement, and of left spaces and infrastructure countrywide post-apartheid. Workers' Library and Museum The