The Black First Land First (BLF) movement is an anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist movement that supports the return of the stolen land in Africa by any means necessary. BLF follows the ideas of Frantz Fanon who teaches us about the justness of the return of the land to its rightful owners by any means necessary and that land is the foundation to liberation.
BLF honours the Zimbabwean liberation fighters who took up arms against the colonisers and liberated Zimbabwe. Furthermore, BLF is inspired by the radical stance the government of President Robert Mugabe took to take land back to the it’s rightful owners.
BLF rejects the lies told in London by Economic Freedom Fighters Commander in Chief, Julius Malema and his delegation, that the Zimbabwean government used violence against innocent people in its land reclamation process. To paint the government of Zimbabwe as the aggressors in its quest to return the stolen land is to serve colonialism.
BLF is not surprised by the EFF and Malema’s attack on the government of President Mugabe for taking back the land. The EFF has already given guarantees to white land thieves in South Africa that the land they stole from blacks shall not be returned. This attack on radical land redistribution is consistant with the imperialist agenda pursued by the EFF which is now exposed through the London trip. This attack on the Zimbabwean government for giving blacks their land must be seen as part of the EFF’s commitment given to representatives of imperialism and white monopoly capital in London. The EFF is merely carrying out the instructions of imperialism by criticising the revolutionary land redistribution in Zimbabwe; which was carried out peacefully. The only violence that was perpetrated was by the settlers in defence of the stolen land. It’s a lie and a distortion of history to equate action for decolonisation with violence.
BLF defends the Zimbabwean land redistribution process and salutes the government of Zimbabwe for returning land to the people.
Speaking about land reclamation at Oxford University yesterday Malema said, “You ought to pass legislation through parliament in line with your constitution that will take land back to the hands of people.”
BLF rejects the lie that land redistribution can only be done through waiting for politicians to make laws. It’s a lie to say that the South African constitution allows for land expropriation without compensation. The only realistic means left to blacks to get their land back is through land occupations. The land was stolen and must be taken back without anymore delays.
Malema’s current engagements with white monopoly capital are about allaying white fears and donating people’s power (the recent march to the JSE was to demonstrate people’s power controlled by him) to the highest bidder to perpetuate landlessness. Hence, the resolution of the land question by Zimbabwe, which is a black first approach, has to be rejected by the EFF for it to get any favours from white capital. The EFF is now unashamedly declaring it’s disruption of any revolutionary endeavours in this regard.
We call on all the revolutionary people to defend Zimbabwe, to reject imperialism and it’s agents, and to reclaim the stolen land.
ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL COORDINATING COMMITTEE OF THE BLACK FIRST LAND FIRST MOVEMENT
26 November 2015
Contact Details
Black First Land First Mail: [email protected]gmail.com
Zanele Lwana
(National Spokesperson)
Cell: +27 79 486 9087 Mail: [email protected]m
Lindsay Maasdorp
(National Spokesperson)
Cell: +27 79 915 2957
Mail: [email protected]om