BAAM Update
by ADRIENNE MARIE NAYLOR
The Boston Anti-Authoritarian Movement (BAAM), a general anarchist union in Boston since 2001, has continued the printing of its monthly newsletter (as of this writing, we're working on issue #25!) and we are perpetually finding creative ways to distribute our humble publication.
Another project keeping us busy is the Boston Anarchist Education Working Group. So far we've held two book group discussions and hosted two events on workplace and unemployed organizing, bringing in a range of speakers with impressive experiences, and attracting new ears to listen.
Speaking of listening, did you know that people listen to podcasts? Perhaps you are one of them? Another BAAM working group has been recording and making available revolutionary essays and books cross-posted on iTunes. As of this writing, the project is one month old, 26 recordings are available, and well over a hundred people have subscribed to receive each new recording as it is posted.
A historically minded group, in late August we will be participating in the 4th annual commemoration of our martyred comrades, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. We invoke our local history not only out of reverence for Sacco and Vanzetti, but to demonstrate how little has changed in the 80 years following their execution. Nationalist fearmongering and the repression of dissidents is as prevalent today as it was during the Red Scare in the early 20th century. The way in which Arab, Caribbean and Latin@ immigrants are rounded up, detained and deported today under the pretext of the War on Terror and the War on Drugs is eerily similar to the Palmer Raids targeting immigrants in the 1920s. And whereas the overwhelming majority of developed nations have abolished the death penalty, the retention of capital punishment in the United States keeps the U.S. in alarmingly poor company with other countries notorious for human rights abuses. For these reasons and more, we will be on the streets on August 23. After all, we helped to found the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society!
Historically, BAAM has been a very loosely structured group. Lately, however, unmanageably large meetings combined with a steady influx of newcomers have exacerbated internal dynamic issues and rendered our old model of organizing inadequate for present circumstances. We are in the trial stages of restructuring and creating a core membership, comprising those who are consistently active and present, that hold closed business meetings. We do, however, want to remain open and welcoming, as we have for the duration of our existence in Boston, and will continue, as we always have, to hold open meetings on the first Tuesday of every month at the Lucy Parsons Center on Columbus Ave at 7 p.m.