Padkos

Afrikaans dictionaries translate padkos as ‘provisions’ in English. It is made up of two separate Afrikaans words: pad: meaning road; and kos: meaning food. So it describes food for the journey.

CLP’s padkos initiative began in 2010 as an email-list is an initiative to provide and share some resources for our journey. In the beginning, those resources were limited to written pieces that come from, or connect with, the thinking and reflection that is part of our praxis. Over time, padkos has expanded into a vibrant and varied programme. But the core aims have remained the same, and we’ve always tried to ensure that the padkos we share is seasonal, locally-grounded, and nutritious.

WHY?
CLP has often spoken of its work as a journey, and we are inspired by Paulo Freire’s phrase that “we make the path by walking”. The journey of our work is deeply rewarding, and our main guide and inspiration remains the rebellious struggles of the people. But it is also be a long and demanding journey. As we continue together, we all need padkos – sustenance and food-for-thought along the way.

CLP makes this padkos available because emancipatory action is always thought; because reflection strengthens struggle; and because we have been asked to! This initiative is one aspect of our response to requests from friends & members, colleagues & comrades to be ‘fed’: to hear from and learn with CLP about its thinking and work.

HOW?
Padkos began as a low-traffic email distribution list for people directly connected with CLP, as well as fellow travelers interested in and supportive of CLP’s work. In the beginning, we simply shared written pieces.

In response to the interest the readings generated, we created the ‘palaver’ where we could get together to focus on a particular issue or paper, and really discuss and digest the richness and challenges. In turn, the palaver then grew into a remarkable programme of padkos events that draws in friends and guests, from across the country and around the world, sharing their work and thinking in interactive discussions at our offices.

We also developed a programme showing films & documentaries that has been really stimulating and enlightening. Watching them together enables us to understand, to learn from, & to make connections with other struggles in other contexts – and also with diverse modes of emancipatory organisation and struggle around the globe. We called this aspect of padkos, the ‘bioscope’.

Another dimension of the evolving padkos menu incorporated culture as a rich and nourishing part of our ‘food for the journey’. Padkos ‘intermission’ has included creative events featuring, for instance, poetry & art, food & drink – and lots of live music.

In 2023 we introduced padkos ‘breakfast books’ where our padkos community were invited to join us as we read through selected books together, learning and sharing. Each ‘breakfast books’ session kicks off with a simple breakfast prepared by the padkos team and aims to finish by tea-time. The first series of these worked through Albert Nolan’s book called Jesus Today: A Spirituality of Radical Freedom.

From time to time we have collated the materials that have been shared via padkos into printed and bound digests which many have found really useful resources.

To try and ensure that padkos remains a nurturing and nourishing resource, we facilitate both the list and the events it enables, with care and a principled commitment to decency, dignity and deliberation. When we get together for padkos discussions, it’s never been simply a ‘public’ space and, while serious issues get debated and participants’ wide range of views and questions are always encouraged, we are not interested in regressive forms of ‘debating’ with those who are basically hostile to the thought of emancipatory work.

If you would like to be on the padkos list, please drop us an email briefly outlining your interest for us to look at. We value your feedback & comments in response to padkos offerings. Please feel free to respond to padkos, or indeed to unsubscribe from the list, by emailing us.

You can check out previous padkos servings here.

NEW POLICIES
In line with looking after the character, purpose, needs and principles of padkos:
Journalists and reporters may not attend padkos discussions for the purpose of reporting on them. People who happen to be journalists but are considered friends of padkos, of CLP, and of emancipatory thought, may attend discussions in their capacity as human beings but agree not to report on them. Journalists & others who want to find out more about, and report on, CLP or a particular padkos topic, visitor, or speaker, may approach the appropriate people and make arrangements with them.

CLP may make audio recordings of inputs from padkos sessions and upload them to our website but (a) this will be done unobtrusively; (b) will be done only if the presenter is comfortable and agrees; and (c) will only record the speaker or visitor’s opening input, and not the collective discussion thereafter.

Padkos 115: Gustavo Esteva- in memoriam

5 July, 2022

Padkos No 114: Gathering together, and being… here… now

5 July, 2022

Padkos No 114: SAVE THE DATE- 24 March- gathering together and being… here… now

5 July, 2022

Padkos No 113: Friends of padkos under attack in Ghana

5 July, 2022

Padkos No 112: Here we are now

5 July, 2022

Padkos No 111: The quiet power of being present, here and now

5 July, 2022

Creating being, here, now

21 February, 2022

Being…here…now…in the garden

21 February, 2022

Being…here…now…Part 2: mental health & well-being

21 February, 2022

Being…here…now…

21 February, 2022

Exciting Update: In, Against & Beyond Corona

28 October, 2020

Burning & Looting: ‘law enforcement’ in Maritzburg lockdown style

21 October, 2020

David Graeber 1961 – 2020

7 October, 2020

“A sustainable place where even the poorest can prosper”

24 August, 2020

In, Against, beyond Corona

24 August, 2020

Firoze Manji Podcast: Organising in the Time of Covid-19

2 July, 2020

Holloway “Doing against Labour”- We’re going further in-against-&-beyond!

22 June, 2020

John Holloway: Nature, Politics & the State

22 June, 2020

From the last Holloway Palaver of 2019

22 June, 2020

Frantz Fanon and a ‘politics at a distance from the state’

22 June, 2020

STOP Corona Evictions!

22 June, 2020

STOP the Lockdown Evictions! Support the Campaign!

22 June, 2020

Padkos No 98: Jon Langdon- Protesting pipelines in Turtle Island & your first padkos podcast!

10 June, 2020

Padkos No 97: A Time of Great Uncertainty & a Dawn of Darkness

29 April, 2020

Padkos No 94: John Holloway on Hope & Creativity: Padkos Pakaver

21 November, 2019

Padkos No 93: John Holloway on Dignity: Padkos Palaver: 10 October, 10am

25 September, 2019

Learning “in-against-and-beyond” – Part 3

16 May, 2019

Learning “in-against-and-beyond” – Part 2

16 April, 2019

Learning from “The Civic Strike to Live with Dignity” with Patrick Kane

11 April, 2019

Movements & Meaning: School of Thought, 25 June from 10.30

13 June, 2018

Thinking about Paulo Freire theo(logically): Philpott & Butler

18 May, 2018

FIROZE MANJI ON FREIRE

27 March, 2018

Nigel Gibson: Fanon, Politics & Psychiatry. 30 March @ CLP & UKZN

14 August, 2017

Reminder: Nigel Gibson: Fanon, Politics & Psychiatry

14 August, 2017

Nigel Gibson: Fanon, Politics & Psychiatry

14 August, 2017

The Art of Listening

14 August, 2017

The Sweetness of Place

14 August, 2017

Extractive Industries: the current state of play

1 March, 2017

Trade School – Decommodifying Learning & Teaching

19 August, 2016

Padkos Event: John Langdon “Learning in Movements”

21 April, 2016

Dignity and Courage VS Barbarism and Cowardice

17 November, 2015

School of Thought: Part 4: Firoze Manji- What’s Left in Africa?

28 October, 2015

School of Thought: Part 3: Lewis R. Gordon – What Fanon Said

28 September, 2015

Richard Pithouse on Frantz Fanon opens the Padkos “School of Thought” on 3rd September

28 August, 2015

Fanon Lives: 1925 – 1961

19 August, 2015

Xenophobia

5 May, 2015

Our Land

5 May, 2015

Time to Digest your Padkos with Volume 2!

28 March, 2014

The churc/es and the evolving situation in South Africa: A conversation with Jacques Briard

13 February, 2014

What CLP Believes

27 November, 2013

Cutting edge analysis, lively discussion, great lunch, Oscar-winning documentary movie!

10 September, 2013

Food Sovereignty Now!

10 September, 2013

Food Riots

10 September, 2013

Final Reminder: Silvia Federici on Thursday! & a big thanks to Richa Nagar!

10 September, 2013

The Federici Event, 12 September

10 September, 2013

Padkos Event with Richa Nigar and Bioscope

19 August, 2013

Silvia Federici in PMB!

14 August, 2013

Oberdeck, Gibson, Federici- great Padkos events and materials

22 July, 2013

Raúl Zibechi on Popular Struggles in Latin American Shack Settlements

18 June, 2013

How many of us must die?

29 April, 2013

Learning from the ground up with Aziz Choudry

11 March, 2013

Double Bill + Lunch

11 March, 2013

Finding our Voice in the World

6 February, 2013

Crises in the Food Commons

5 February, 2013

Fighting for Justice in Rural KwaZulu-Natal

5 February, 2013

Out of this World

5 February, 2013

“We are the people who don’t count!”

5 February, 2013

2 Events and a Digest!

5 February, 2013

Mixed-grill ‘Itacate’ Padkos

5 February, 2013

John Holloway is coming to PMB: Message from the Director, Graham Philpott

5 February, 2013

Padkos with John Holloway

5 February, 2013

John Holloway: Coming to PMB!

5 February, 2013

A Fanomenal Padkos Event

7 November, 2012

A Fanomenal Event (3rd serving)

7 November, 2012

A Fanomenal Event (2nd serving)

7 November, 2012

A Fanomenal Padkos Event (4th serving)

7 November, 2012

A Fanomenal Padkos Event (5th serving)

7 November, 2012

A Fanomenal Padkos Event (final serving)

7 November, 2012

Take a break!

7 November, 2012

After the Fanomenal Event

7 November, 2012

After the acquittal of the Kennedy 12

7 November, 2012

Reclaiming the L-word

7 November, 2012

Solidarity

7 November, 2012

Dark corners of the state we’re in

25 October, 2012

Development without the poor

25 October, 2012

The Padkos Gig

25 October, 2012

Thinking emancipatory politics with Michael Neocosmos

25 October, 2012

People think! Neocosmos’s comments on democracy

25 October, 2012

Fast in Solidarity

25 October, 2012

Join us to hear S’bu Zikode and Marie Huchzermeyer

23 October, 2012

The Traditional Courts Bill

23 October, 2012

The Marikana Massacre

23 October, 2012