The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF, also known as ZabFront or simply as Zabalaza), formerly known as the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (ZabFed), is an especifista-Platformist anarchist political organisation in South Africa, based primarily in Johannesburg. The word "zabalaza" means "struggle" in isiZulu and isiXhosa. Initially, as ZabFed, it was a federation of existing collectives, mainly in Soweto and Johannesburg. It is now a unitary organisation based on individual applications for membership, describing itself as a "federation of individuals".
The ZACF is rooted in the The Organisational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft), by the Dielo Truda group, but does not accept the document uncritically; it is also influenced by especifismo. The ZACF is also inspired by the pamphlet Towards a Fresh Revolution, written by the Friends of Durruti group of CNT members during the Spanish Revolution, as well as by Georges Fontenis' post-war pamphlet Manifesto of Libertarian Communism.
ZACF members are expected to be committed, convinced anarchist communist militants who must be in general agreement with the platformist principles of theoretical and tactical unity, collective responsibility, and federalism. Its activities include study and theoretical development, anarchist agitation and participation in class struggle activism.
As a platformist-especifist organisation, the ZACF subscribes to the idea of an "active minority". This means that the ZACF, unlike certain anarcho-syndicalist organisations, does not seek to build purely anarchist mass movements or unions; nor does it seek to turn existing social movements into anarchist-only movements. Rather, in the tradition of social insertion championed by the FARJ (Federação Anarquista do Rio de Janeiro, or the Anarchist Federation of Rio de Janeiro), the ZACF works within existing movements in order to fight for the "leadership of anarchist ideas" and the implementation of anarchist principles within such movements. This is because the ZACF holds that the strength of trade unions, social movements and other organisations of the working class lies in their ability to unite the greatest number of workers regardless of their political, religious or ideological affiliations.
Read more about Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front: History, Links To Other Organisations, Publications, Zabalaza Books
Famous quotes containing the words anarchist, communist and/or front:
“The anarchist and the Christian have a common origin.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Busy people begrudge the days being short.
I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“I am less affected by their heroism who stood up for half an hour in the front line at Buena Vista, than by the steady and cheerful valor of the men who inhabit the snow-plow for their winter quarters; who have not merely the three-o’-clock-in-the-morning courage, which Bonaparte thought was the rarest, but whose courage does not go to rest so early, who go to sleep only when the storm sleeps or the sinews of their iron steed are frozen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)