Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation
Encyclopedia
Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF, also known as ZabFront), formerly known as the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (ZabFed) is a federation of anarchist communist
organizations in South Africa
. The ZACF is inspired by the Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft)
.
The ZACF consists of
and range of individual anarchist militant
s from townships
across South Africa.
ZACF members share a basic agreement in terms of theoretical
and tactical unity, collective responsibility, and federalism
as suggests by the "Platform". In historical terms the platformist tradition started with The Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft) written by Nestor Makhno
, and includes the Friends of Durruti grouping of CNT
members during The Spanish Revolution
who wrote Towards A Fresh Revolution. In the post-war period many include documents like the Georges Fontenis' pamphlet Manifesto of Libertarian Communism.
In a Black Flag interview this was said about the class
/social
composition of the ZACF's membership (it was at the time still known as ZabFed):
Later on the Zabalaza Debate Forum it was stated that:
The ZACF is also part of the Anarkismo.net
network, which groups over 30 anarchist organizations worldwide.
mail order project that publishes and distributes classic and contemporary anarchist books, pamphlets, music, and videos in the Southern Africa
n region. It originated as underground collective in the 1990s
at the end of apartheid. The topics covered include: anarchism
, revolutionary unionism (anarcho-syndicalism
), women's liberation, anarchism and ecology, revolutionary history
and many others. It distributes much of the literature in a PDF
format on its website.
Anarchist communism
Anarchist communism is a theory of anarchism which advocates the abolition of the state, markets, money, private property, and capitalism in favor of common ownership of the means of production, direct democracy and a horizontal network of voluntary associations and workers' councils with...
organizations in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. The ZACF is inspired by the Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft)
Platformism
Platformism is a tendency within the wider anarchist movement originally theorised by Nestor Makhno and is mainly based on his concept of anarchism and the organisational theories in the tradition of Dielo Truda's Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists ...
.
The ZACF consists of
- Anarchist Black CrossAnarchist Black CrossThe Anarchist Black Cross is an anarchist politics support organization. The group is notable for its efforts at providing prisoners with political literature, but it also organises material and legal support for class struggle prisoners worldwide...
- Bikisha Media Collective
- Black Action Group
- Zabalaza Action Group
- Zabalaza Books
and range of individual anarchist militant
Militant
The word militant, which is both an adjective and a noun, usually is used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier"...
s from townships
Township (South Africa)
In South Africa, the term township and location usually refers to the urban living areas that, from the late 19th century until the end of Apartheid, were reserved for non-whites . Townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities...
across South Africa.
ZACF members share a basic agreement in terms of theoretical
Theory
The English word theory was derived from a technical term in Ancient Greek philosophy. The word theoria, , meant "a looking at, viewing, beholding", and referring to contemplation or speculation, as opposed to action...
and tactical unity, collective responsibility, and federalism
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
as suggests by the "Platform". In historical terms the platformist tradition started with The Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft) written by Nestor Makhno
Nestor Makhno
Nestor Ivanovych Makhno or simply Daddy Makhno was a Ukrainian anarcho-communist guerrilla leader turned army commander who led an independent anarchist army in Ukraine during the Russian Civil War....
, and includes the Friends of Durruti grouping of CNT
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions affiliated with the International Workers Association . When working with the latter group it is also known as CNT-AIT...
members during The Spanish Revolution
Spanish Revolution
The Spanish Revolution was a workers' social revolution that began during the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and resulted in the widespread implementation of anarchist and more broadly libertarian socialist organizational principles throughout various portions of the country for two to...
who wrote Towards A Fresh Revolution. In the post-war period many include documents like the Georges Fontenis' pamphlet Manifesto of Libertarian Communism.
Membership
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
/social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
composition of the ZACF's membership (it was at the time still known as ZabFed):
- The Federation's groups are made up of both blacksBlack peopleThe term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
and whites who are majority working classWorking classWorking class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
, some of whom are unemployedUnemploymentUnemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
or studentStudentA student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
s. Current membership is pretty equally divided between black and white, but there are far more black people living in "squatter camps" and townships who have expressed a genuine interest in anarchism than white people living in suburbSuburbThe word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
s. A typical member would be in their early 20s, casually employed and maleMaleMale refers to the biological sex of an organism, or part of an organism, which produces small mobile gametes, called spermatozoa. Each spermatozoon can fuse with a larger female gamete or ovum, in the process of fertilization...
. We expect femaleFemaleFemale is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova .- Defining characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...
membership to climb as our community projects prove their worth and also hope to attract indigenous*, AsianAsian peopleAsian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...
and coloured activists. (*NB: "indigenous" refers to the KhoisanKhoisanKhoisan is a unifying name for two ethnic groups of Southern Africa, who share physical and putative linguistic characteristics distinct from the Bantu majority of the region. Culturally, the Khoisan are divided into the foraging San and the pastoral Khoi...
, Griquas and other self-described "yellow" First Peoples who lived in South Africa before black people arrived).
Later on the Zabalaza Debate Forum it was stated that:
- The ZACF has "black" and "white" members in roughly a 50/50 mix, with a presence in the "black" townships of Motsoaledi (SowetoSowetoSoweto is a lower-class-populated urban area of the city of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships...
), Dlamini (Soweto) and UmlaziUmlaziUmlazi is a township on the east coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The wider Umlazi area has a population of 750,000. The township is located south-west of Durban....
(DurbanDurbanDurban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
). We do not currently have any "IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n" membership. As for our activities on the ground, I refer you to our announcement, posted today to this forum entitled "ZACF restructured."
Links to other organisations
From the Black Flag interview:- In Africa we have had intermittent contact with the Awareness LeagueAwareness LeagueThe Awareness League is a Nigerian anarchist organisation active since the 1990s, estimated to have had several thousand members at one time in its history. The Awareness League has gone through several periods of repression, making its own organizational efforts and continuity sporadic, as well...
in NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
although this is hard to maintain, as is the case throughout the third worldThird WorldThe term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
, due to the lack of access to communicationCommunicationCommunication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
. We have also recently established contact with the ACCK in KenyaKenyaKenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
and anarchists in UgandaUgandaUganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
as well as members of the SWAYOCO in SwazilandSwazilandSwaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland , and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique...
. Internationally the ZACF is a member of the International Libertarian SolidarityInternational Libertarian SolidarityInternational Libertarian Solidarity was an international anarchist network with over 20 participating organizations from North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa....
(ILS) network and has links with other ILS affiliates across Latin AmericaLatin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, North AmericaNorth AmericaNorth America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Europe and the former USSR. Historically, our closest international links have been with the Workers Solidarity MovementWorkers Solidarity MovementThe Workers Solidarity Movement is an anarchist organisation in Ireland broadly in the platformist tradition of Nestor Makhno. It was set up in 1984 and publishes the paper Workers Solidarity and the magazine Red and Black Revolution....
(WSM) of IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, with the Swedish Workers Central Organisation (SAC), with both the CNT-AIT, the CNT-Vignoles and the Francophone Anarchist Federation in FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and the CGTConfederación General del Trabajo (Spain)The General Confederation of Labour of Spain is an Anarcho-Syndicalist trade union, arisen from the 1979 split of CNT/AIT after the arrival of democracy and the following reorganization and restructuring process of the trade unions....
in SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. In recent years, closer ties have been established, often via the ILS, with the Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-CommunistsNEFACNEFAC is a platformist anarchist communist organization based in the northeast region of the United States...
(NEFAC) of the U.S.United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
/CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the Federation of Anarchist CommunistsFederation of Anarchist CommunistsThe Federation of Anarchist Communists , or FdCA, was established in 1985 in Italy from the fusion of the Organizzazione Rivoluzionaria Anarchica and the Unione dei Comunisti Anarchici della Toscana . In 1986, the Congress of ORA/UCAT adopted the name FdCA...
(FdCA) in ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Auca (Rebel) of ArgentinaArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, the Gaucha Anarchist Federation (FAG) and their associates in BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Tinku Youth of BoliviaBoliviaBolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, the Uruguayan Anarchist FederationUruguayan Anarchist FederationFederación Anarquista Uruguaya, commonly known as FAU or Uruguayan Anarchist Federation, is a Uruguayan anarchist organization founded in 1956. The FAU was created by anarchist militants to be a specifically anarchist organization. The FAU was the first organization to promote the organizational...
(FAU) and the CIPO-RFM of MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. We are in contact with the Cuban Libertarian Movement in Exile (MLCE) in MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and in France, with the IranIranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian underground and the IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i exileExileExile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
movement -and with numerous other organisations - including ABCAnarchist Black CrossThe Anarchist Black Cross is an anarchist politics support organization. The group is notable for its efforts at providing prisoners with political literature, but it also organises material and legal support for class struggle prisoners worldwide...
s - spanning the globe from Costa RicaCosta RicaCosta Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
to New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, from ChileChileChile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
to RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
The ZACF is also part of the Anarkismo.net
Anarkismo.net
Anarkismo.net is an international anarchist-communist, platformist and especifista news and discussion website. Its news service is one of the select publishers included in the Google News aggregator...
network, which groups over 30 anarchist organizations worldwide.
Zabalaza Books
Zabalaza Books is an organisation within Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front. It is an anarchist literatureLiterature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
mail order project that publishes and distributes classic and contemporary anarchist books, pamphlets, music, and videos in the Southern Africa
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...
n region. It originated as underground collective in the 1990s
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...
at the end of apartheid. The topics covered include: anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
, revolutionary unionism (anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism
Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...
), women's liberation, anarchism and ecology, revolutionary history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
and many others. It distributes much of the literature in a PDF
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
format on its website.