Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation
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- For the album by Thandiswa, see Zabalaza (album)
Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (ZACF or ZabFed) is a federation of anarchist communist groups in South Africa. ZabFed was inspired by the Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists.
ZabFed consists of
- Anarchist Black Cross [1]
- Bikisha Media Collective
- Black Action Group
- Zabalaza Action Group
- Zabalaza Books [2]
- and range of individual anarchist militants from townships across SA
ZabFed 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 starts with The Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists 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.
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[edit] Membership
In a Black Flag interview this was said about the class/social composition of ZabFed's membership:
- The Federation's groups are made up of both blacks and whites who are majority working class, some of whom are unemployed or students. 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 suburbs. A typical member would be in their early 20s, casually employed and male. We expect female membership to climb as our community projects prove their worth and also hope to attract indigenous*, Asian and coloured activists. (*NB: "indigenous" refers to Bushmen, Griquas, Khoekhoen 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 is comprised of "black" and "white" members in roughly a 50/50 mix, with a presence in the "black" townships of Motsoaledi (Soweto), Dlamini (Soweto) and Umlazi (Durban). We do not currently have any "Indian" membership. As for our activities on the ground, I refer you to our announcement, posted today to this forum entitled "ZACF restructured."
[edit] Links to other organisations
From the Black Flag interview:
- In Africa we have had intermittent contact with the Awareness League in Nigeria although this is hard to maintain, as is the case throughout the third world, due to the lack of access to communication. We have also recently established contact with the ACCK in Kenya and anarchists in Uganda as well as members of the SWAYOCO in Swaziland. Internationally the ZACF is a member of the International Libertarian Solidarity (ILS) network and has links with other ILS affiliates across Latin America, North America, Europe and the former USSR. Historically, our closest international links have been with the Workers Solidarity Movement (WSM) of Ireland, with the Swedish Workers Central Organisation (SAC), with both the CNT-AIT, the CNT-Vignoles and the Francophone Anarchist Federation in France and the CGT in Spain. In recent years, closer ties have been established, often via the ILS, with the Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC) of the USA/Canada, the Anarchist Communist Federation (FdCA) in Italy, Rebel (Auca) of Argentina, the Gaucha Anarchist Federation (FAG) and their associates in Brazil, Tinku Youth of Bolivia, the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (FAU) and the CIPO-RFM of Mexico. We are in contact with the Cuban Libertarian Movement in Exile (MLCE) in Mexico and in France, with the Iranian underground and the Iraqi exile movement -and with numerous other organisations - including ABCs - spanning the globe from Costa Rica to New Zealand, from Chile to Russia.
[edit] Zabalaza Books
Zabalaza Books is an organisation within Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation. It is an anarchist literature mail order project that publishes and distributes classic and contemporary anarchist books, pamphlets, music, and videos in the Southern African region. It originated as underground collective a decade ago 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.
[edit] Zabalaza journal
ZabFed is publishing "Zabalaza, A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism". So far three issues have been printed:
