Boston Anti-Authoritarian Movement
It is generally agreed that the Boston Anti-Authoritarian Movement (BAAM), having existed in some form or another since 2001, functions best as a propaganda group and a means of plugging new people in to projects that best suit their inclinations and strengths, as well as a means of generating successful, ongoing, autonomous projects. We continue producing and distributing our monthly publication. At this writing, we are working on Issue #34. You can check out current and archived issues at our Web site:.
Perhaps you listen to podcasts? On both iTunes and our site we have thus far recorded over 30 hours of anarchist and revolutionary material that has been downloaded and subscribed to by an astounding number of Internetians.
We have kept our Greek comrades up to date on our Greek solidarity work. At their invitation, BAAM has recently affiliated with the Greek Anti-Authoritarian Movement, AK. The affiliation statement and more information can be found in Issue #34 of our newsletter.
Another invitation to participate came from the No Layoffs Campaign (NCL), a project of Harvard's Union of Clerical and Technical Workers. The world's richest university is manifesting its cartoonish greed with waves of vicious layoffs, frequently targeting the few people of color on the job. While BAAM members have been known to support labor actions as individuals, NCL organizers encourage us to come as BAAM, to bring our black flags and bandanas, and to distribute flyers explaining who anarchists are and why we care about Harvard workers.
BAAM helped organize the festive and theatrical red-and-black contingent on May Day, celebrating our history, mourning our dead and fighting for the living with the Bread and Puppet collective from Vermont—now home to a treasured former BAAM member! As their brass band played anarchist anthems, we carried banners, flags and the magnificent puppets of the Haymarket martyrs and of our local anarchist martyrs, Sacco and Vanzetti. We marked the 124th anniversary of the Haymarket bombing on the Common by setting up a soap box and doing dramatic, costumed readings of the Haymarket martyrs' final speeches to the court after condemnation.
Speaking of Sacco and Vanzetti, August 23 will mark the 83rd anniversary of their execution by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Check saccoandvanzetti.org to stay abreast of related events, which BAAM and the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society (a BAAM-generated project!) have been organizing annually since 2006.
Because BAAM strives to unite anarchists working on a variety of projects, BAAM's members are themselves involved in a variety of other efforts, engaging in activities as diverse as Food Not Bombs, bicycle repair, prisoner support, the Papercut Zine Library and Indymedia. Summers can be kind of slow in Boston, given the annual exodus of a huge chunk of the city's college-age population, but we always look forward to the fall!