The fundamental aim of the Trust is to foster critical intellectual thinking, writing, debate and discussion on themes related to social, political, economic and cultural conditions, including their historical genesis and their change, development and transformation. In pursuit of this aim, the key objectives of the Trust are:

• To create the intellectual space for policy makers, academics, non-governmental organisations and civil society to conduct a critical dialogue, exchange ideas, and debate and discuss key issues
• To publish and disseminate the ideas and outcomes of this dialogue and exchange of ideas, and
• To support and partner projects committed to a tradition of critical inquiry and debate.

A fourth objective of the Trust is to create a sustainable organisation that is capable of contributing towards the broader aim in the future.

Follow the links on the left to read more about the history of the Trust, and about Harold Wolpe.

Vision and mission statement

The Harold Wolpe Memorial Trust is committed to the creation of an equitable, humane and democratic society based on the principles and values of non-racism, non-sexism, freedom of expression, open and honest intellectual engagement and other basic human and social values and rights.

The Trust takes cognisance that it operates within the context of social transition in South Africa, where a social reconstruction and development and nation building project is underway under the pressures of political and economic globalisation. To this end the Trust is committed to:

• Fostering critical thinking, writing and engagement between intellectuals, decision-makers and opinion leaders in government and civil society, and scholars.
• Promoting thinking, writing and debate on the nature of critical intellectual engagement within the context of the transition in South Africa and the relationship between rigorous progressive scholarship and a transformative political engagement.
• Promoting thinking, writing and debate on issues of social structure and race, class and gender, the State, government and politics, social justice, social stability and cohesion, the relationship between the local, the regional and the global, the new identities and social relations emerging within a changing society and polity and the theoretical frameworks and methodologies appropriate to socially engaged scholarship.
• Stimulating publication on the issues identified above, on progressive scholarship and the products of the critical, philosophical and intellectual engagement sponsored by the Trust.
• Promoting thinking and debate on critical issues and omissions and silences in contemporary intellectual discourse

The Trust believes that such initiatives would be congruent with Harold Wolpe’s lifelong passion for and commitment to a radical politics based on critical scholarship that is as rigorous as it is engaged. It commits itself to the public and private pursuit of these initiatives on its own and in partnership with other bodies that share its commitments and in so far as its resources permit.

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