Orthosocialist Focus

Orthosocialist Focus
ዬማዘዚሶሻሊሲቲ ትኩሬቲ
Also known as	OSF Masoti Second Focus (post-2016)
Leader	Warada Alula # (1952-1965) Betul Wube X (1965-1986) Haile Gebre X (1986-1988) Merso Wellemercha # (1988-2000) Temru Kassa X (2000-2006) OSF Vanguard Conclave (2016-present)
Dates of operation	1952 (1952)–2007 (2007) 2016 (2016)–present
Country	Kembesa
Motives	Overthrow of the Kembesan monarchy, establishment of a planned socialist state
Active regions	Southern and eastern Kembesa
Ideology	Orthosocialism Focus theory Wernerism-Ulwazism Internationalism Revolutionism Anti-monarchism
Status	Active
Size	30,000-40,000 (2020 est.)a 100,000-120,000 (2022 est.)b a Official estimate from the Kembesan government b Collated estimate from the international associated press
Opponents	Empire of Kembesa
Designated as a terrorist group by	Kembesa Latium Mesogeia Yisrael
Flag
Colours	Green   Red

Orthosocialist Focus (Meharic: ዬማዘዚሶሻሊሲቲ ትኩሬቲ; Yemazezisoshalīsiti Tikureti), alternatively known by the initials OSF (Meharic: ማሶት; Masoti), is a militant orthosocialist movement active in Kembesa. Originally founded in the mid-20th century, the organization seeks to overthrow the Kembesan monarchy and install a popular government with a centrally planned economy. OSF has engaged in both nonviolent and violent forms of political activism. By 2006-2007, the organization effectively disbanded. However, it ultimately reemerged a decade later in 2016.

Orthosocialist Focus has been designated a terrorist organization by the Kingdom of Kembesa and numerous other countries worldwide. Since its reemergence, the organization has primarily resorted to violent means to achieve its ends. OSF attacks on political figures, public buildings, and cultural monuments associated with the monarchy have intensified. Bombings and crossfire ambushes are among the most common violent acts committed by OSF members. The organization often claims responsibility for major attacks, but has at times denied involvement in other attacks. Investigators have noted that the focus theory utilized by OSF creates a disjointed network of insurgents that may or may not act independently in furthering the organization's goals.

The organization's membership is frequently disputed. The Kembesan government considers OSF the greatest domestic threat that the Kingdom of Kembesa faces. Official estimates place the number of members between 30,000 and 40,000. Independent journalists collating a variety of sources have placed the estimate much higher; between 100,000 and 120,000. The latter estimate considers individuals who hold orthosocialist sympathies or may occasionally work or provide services for the organization without acting as full members while the official government estimate claims to be inclusive.

History

In the latter half of the 19th century, socialist movements and political advocacy were officially outlawed in Kembesa. Despite repressive measures, socialist discourse remained current through to the 20th century. In 1964, the foundation of the Democratic People's Republic of Iqozi in Malaio solidified planned socialism as the major stream of leftist theory in Kembesa to the exclusion of anarchism and syndicalism, following which OSF assimilated other leftist movements. Orthosocialists were among the agitators of popular revolt leading up to the 1948 constitutional reform. In the anticipation of an absence of meaningful changes from the government in response to the clamour, Kembesan socialists began to import and develop revolutionary techniques appropriate for the Kembesan context. In doing so, core elements of focus theory were imported and further developed as a variant of Wernerist-Ulwazist vanguardism.

The organization of Orthosocialist Focus itself has undergone two separate but related phases. The first phase, from 1952 to 2006-2007, was characterized by the leadership of a series of charismatic leaders and big tent support among many opponents of the 1948 constitutional reforms. While focus theory remained core to the structure of the organization, numerous alternative avenues for activism were practiced. By the 1980s, the OSF began to decline in influence and with the death of Chairman Milikit Jakali in 2006, the organization quickly fell. In 2016, Orthosocialist Focus reemerged with a sudden bombing campaign. Thus far, the new iteration of the organization has been characterized by enigmatic leadership and a strictly revolutionary programme.

1952-2007

The most direct origin of Orthosocialist Focus is the Kima Underground. The Kima Underground was a predominantly student-led organization that was founded in 1948 by Warada Alula, Dammaqach Engida, and Dinqnash Sahay. Members of the Underground were resistant to the proposed concessions of the 1948 Constitution, seeing it as an ineffective document that would fail to bring about popular representation in government. In July of 1949, the Kima Underground organized a series of protests in Hawas and Xawiliye. Alula and other leaders of the movement were present in Hawas when police began a crackdown on the demonstrations. Alula, Engida, and Sahay were each arrested and sentenced to five years of hard labour. While in prison, Alula was radicalized by other imprisoned dissidents. After reconnecting with Sahay in 1951, the two ultimately arranged a prison break, thereafter fleeing to an undeveloped region near or possibly beyond the border between Kembesa and M'biruna.

Orthosocialist Focus was officially founded in the fall of 1952. The ideological core centered around Alula, Sahay, and their band of fellow escaped convicts, but rapidly expanded to include poor and disgruntled students and agricultural workers in Kembesa's south. Through 1954, the group was primarily concerned with establishing itself. Dinqnash Sahay would depart Kembesa to build ties with other orthosocialist groups around the world, leaving Warada Alula to head the organization. Several decades later, OSF claimed responsibility for a number of operations during this era including thefts from military bases and work actions against local landowners.

In 1955, OSF made its presence known to the vast majority of Kembesans after claiming responsibility for the simultaneous bombings of three police stations and two woreda administrative centres in Masara. Alula attempted to publish a letter in several national and regional newspapers demanding the abolition of the monarchy and the aristocracy. The letter was ultimately heavily censored by all publications and subsequent addresses from OSF to the public were done via pamphlets and word of mouth. Despite the censorship, the OSF rapidly grew, attaining roughly 10,000 members by 1960. By this point, the focus theory of the organization had been fully deployed, with members of the organization effectively leading individual cells in villages and neighbourhoods across Kembesa, but largely concentrated in Masara and Janubia.

Emperor Hailu I Yemata, c. 1970

Warada Alula died in the Spring of 1965, possibly from an existing lung condition, cancer, or tropical disease. He was succeeded in his role as leader by Betul Wube, once a young student who joined OSF and became a career revolutionary. Wube repurposed the central structure of the organization into a mobile training camp, moving through the country and training vanguards who would return to their homes and create new foci of revolution in their own communities. In addition to armed confrontations and bombing campaigns, the cells engaged familiar locals in work actions, pamphleteering, and social advocacy. This aggressive process of recruitment and training led to an explosion of the on-paper membership of the organization. While large-scale cooperative operations between cells had effectively ceased, the overall frequency of strikes led to the rapid rise of the organization's notoriety.

A failed Officers' Coup in 1981 presented a major setback to the organization as thereafter the Imperial Gendarmerie was able to act with greater authority as a secret police force. Wube was the target of numerous assassination attempts and allegedly had earned the personal ire of Emperor Hailu. Wube ultimately succumbed to a raid by Kembesan security forces in September of 1986. Wube's successor, Haile Gebre, was also killed in a raid in 1988.

From 1986 to 2006, the activities of the central organization diminished, seeking to maintain a low profile and protect the ideological core. Membership subsequently declined sharply over the next two decades as recruitment was neglected. However, several local foci continued to antagonize Kembesan authorities, despite numerous attempts at purges.

Photograph of alleged OSF members, c. 2006

In 2006, the central leadership under Temru Kassa was facing a crisis due to a wave of crackdowns afforded by internet tracing. Entire cells and networks that had been built on internet communication had become suddenly compromised. On June 13, 2006, Kassa and several key members at the centre of the organization attempted to flee to Bemiritra and were shot down by Kembesan military aircraft. By 2007, OSF was considered completely dismantled.

2016-present

The origins of the resurgent OSF are uncertain. Kembesan authorities have speculated that the organization is wholly new, having taken up the mantle of the destroyed OSF. Investigative journalists have proferred the alternative explanation that the new OSF arose from one or several foci that survived the government purges. Regardless of their origins, the new organization became known to the public after a new series of attacks on January 8 and 9, 2016. These attacks were accompanied by the publication of a new manifesto, proclaiming the return of Orthosocialist Focus and reiterating their demands.

The new OSF has marked differences in its approaches to both its conduct and its structure. While the organization continues to engage in the focus theory of organization and warfare, it has abandoned non-violent methods. The organization has also moved away from a single figurehead as a leader. Instead, all communications are authored collectively by the OSF Vanguard Conclave, a central body that acts as a collective leader. Furthermore, members of the organization refuse to have their pictures taken and only appear in videos or photographs wearing masks or with their faces blurred.

In the past five years, OSF has grown rapidly and largely resisted government crackdowns. Despite the rapid growth, however, the organization has largely only been active in eastern Masara and Janubia. The authorities have thus far been unable to locate any of the Vanguard Conclave's members or their central base. However, counter-terrorism operations since 2021 have yielded some measures of success, leading to the eradication of a number of cells in urban areas.

Size and composition

At its height in the 1980s, Orthosocialist Focus officially claimed to have more than 200,000 members. However, the historical consensus holds that the overall membership was likely half as much. From the 1980s onward, membership declined steadily, with no more than 30,000 members by 2000. The decline in membership is also comparatively greater when accounting for the large population boom that Kembesa experienced over the same period of time.

The size of the revived OSF has been the subject of great discussion. The OSF Vanguard Conclave rarely communicates with the press and is secretive regarding OSF's total strength. Despite this, numerous journalistic investigations have corroborated a number between 100,000 and 120,000. This would make the present size of the organization a historic high. Relative to the total population of Kembesa, it remains proportionally lesser than during the height of the first iteration in the early 1980s. Since 2016, the government of the Empire of Kembesa has maintained that the strength of OSF has wavered between 20,000 and 40,000 members. The alleged sources for these figures are classified military intelligence reports. Foreign journalists have critiqued this claim, alleging that the number underestimates the size of the organization and its capabilities as a tool of propaganda.

Regardless of the size of the organization, the composition of the organization is widely accepted by most reporters. The major bastions of orthosocialist support are predominantly found in Masara, specifically in the southern cities of Kima and Oomuu. The broad demographic composition of the membership is suspected to be primarily of Masaric ethnicity. Some Kembesan outlets have suggested that Janubi, Swahili, and Gharib minorities make up a disproportionate element of the organization.

The Kembesan government has repeatedly levelled accusations against Phansi Uhlanga that the Uhlangan military has provided funding, training, and weapons to OSF.

Ideology

Orthosocialist Focus is an orthodox revolutionary Wernerist-Ulwazist organization. As such, the organization opposes monarchical and capitalistic influences on society and seeks to socialize the means of production to liberate the working class from oppression. The organization also holds that revolution is the only way to achieve these ends as reformist methods are either ineffectual or poisoned by capitalist influence. As with other Wernerist-Ulwazist organizations, OSF believes in a two-step revolutionary process. The first step requires the overthrow of capitalist and monarchist government forces by a revolutionary vanguard. The vanguard could subsequently direct changes in society to create an emancipated society.

"Orthosocialism" is a portmanteau of orthodoxy and socialism, referencing the anti-revisionist philosophy of the movement and strict adherence to vanguardism. However, its revolutionary methods are divergent from traditional Wernerism-Ulwazism. Orthoscialist theory holds that a strong central body is necessary to bring about emancipatory changes. This generally manifests in the form of a centrally planned economy and strong government institutions, albeit anti-capitalistic and anti-monarchist. Orthosocialists generally hold that more libertarian socialist societies, including syndicalist, communalist, and cooperative liberal states, have historically struggled to expel capitalistic influences and therefore will fail to form genuinely classless societies.

Methodology

Bombing of the Zema Woreda Police Service headquarters, c. May 11, 2003

The revolutionary programme of OSF calls for violent resistance against the capitalist and monarchist state. The primary form of resistance conducted by OSF is bombing, though small-arms assaults and work actions are also common. OSF also utilizes a distinct organizational methodology known as focus theory.

Bombing campaigns have been a mainstay of OSF's methodological inception since its creation. Warada Alula allegedly befriended an explosives handler while imprisoned and a number of mining technicians who were experienced in blasting were among the earliest recruits to the organization. Bombings have been a preferred method of attack for a number of reasons. Firstly, a bomber does not necessarily have to be present at the moment of the attack and thus can more easily evade identification or capture. Secondly, bombings are highly visible (and audible). As such, they are difficult for the public to ignore and can galvanize pressure against the government. Thirdly, while expertise is necessary for the fabrication of bombs, the materials can often be sourced more easily than large quantities of ammunition and less specialized equipment is required for the manufacturing process.

Common targets for bombings include government buildings. These include courthouses, military bases, police stations, ducal palaces, and occasionally service buildings. Infrastructural bombings are less common but include bridges, toll road stations, railway stations, and power stations. In principle, OSF has stated that it avoids bombing targets at times where the civilian population would be at risk. However, over the past half-century since its inception, between 1,500 and 1,750 civilians have been killed in OSF bombings. Of the approximately 3,200 Kembesan security forces killed by OSF, over 93% were killed in bombings as well.

Focus theory

The primary organizational methodology of Orthosocialist Focus is focus theory. Focus theory is a divergent approach to constructing a revolutionary vanguard in Wernerist-Ulwazist theory. The orthodox approach typically involves the formation of a vanguard army that seizes power on behalf of the proletariat in a traditional military campaign. Guerrilla warfare may constitute an element of the vanguard's strategy, but on the whole, the army maintains a traditional military organization.

In the case of focus theory, the vanguard is a specialist group of revolutionaries who independently enter into proletariat communities and galvanize revolutionary support. In effect, each member of the vanguard constructs a revolutionary cell, also known as a "focus". The foci independently engage in revolutionary activities, launching attacks and fomenting dissidence in a broader region. Members of the vanguard may be inducted by their local cells or by a central coordinating body. Ultimately, the foci act independently to create numerous fronts, blurring the lines of the battlefield for the government.

See also

• People's Army for the Revolution
• International Democratic Revolution