A-Infos (en) US, BAAM #36 of the Boston Anti-Authoritarian Movement - A History of BAAM, Part 1 By Jake Carman

On September 24th, 2001, less than two weeks after the September 11th attacks, this brief 
statement (below) entitled “No War Against Nations, No Peace Between Classes,” announced 
the formation of the Boston Anarchists Against Militarism (BAAM): ---- “In response to the 
impending military aggression of the United States, a number of class struggle anarchists 
have come together to form the Boston Anarchists Against Militarism (BAAM!) coalition. 
BAAM is opposed to nationalism, racism, and war hysteria, and is organizing against the 
current war efforts. For more information on how to get involved...” ---- In this first 
incarnation, BAAM was more of an open, ad hoc coalition of various anarchist groups and 
individuals than it was a specific organization.

It was formed through the initiative of a few local collectives of the Northeastern 
Federation of Anarchist-Communists (which formed in 2000) — including the Sophia 
Perovskaya collective and the Barricada collective — as a place where anarchists of all 
sub-ideologies could work together. Through BAAM, the participating collectives and 
individuals coordinated their work in confronting the march of US militarists at the 
beginning of the War on Terror. According to Jamey Lionette, who joined BAAM a few weeks 
after September 11th, “it certainly was a group of anarchists with a specific task, a 
preemptive attack against war before war began.”

Matt Carroll — who has been involved in BAAM for almost the entirety of its nine-year 
existence — says BAAM “formed in the wake of Sept 11th, because, well, we all expected to 
wind up going to war.” Indeed, it was a time when millions of US residents sat glued to 
the television, thoroughly consuming the onslaught of anti-Muslim, nationalist war 
propaganda. To the anarchists in Boston, says Lionette, it seemed the USA would attack 
“anyone and everyone. I think it was obvious Afghanistan was the first target, and it 
seems like Iraq was just around the corner.” During this period of fear and rage, BAAM 
gathered anarchists together to formulate a revolutionary opposition to the impending wars.

Rather than cower before the nationalistic onslaught, the BAAM coalition participated in 
early demonstrations against the invasion of Afghanistan. The meeting before the first 
demonstration was quite tense, Lionette remembers: “Someone said, ‘If some dude jumps out 
of the crowd and punches us, just take the blow and do not hit back.’ We all agreed, no 
fighting back. The mood of the country made us feel that we could easily get our asses 
kicked by jackass vigilantes while the cops allowed it to happen.” On October 7th, 2001, 
United States military forces and their British allies invaded Afghanistan, launching 
“Operation Enduring Freedom,” which, as of June 7th, 2010, has been the longest war in 
United States history.

BAAM’s first demonstration, however, came earlier, falling on September 20th, 2001. While 
the anarchists had been planning a march of their own, the Student Labor Action Project 
Anti-War Coalition planned a “Don’t Turn Tragedy into War” march as part of “a nationally 
coordinated day of anti-war campus action.” So, says Lionette: “we joined forces, there 
were lots of BAAM students who were involved in that coalition.” Indeed, in the call for 
the march, the coalition listed its members as “individuals and groups from Boston 
College, Boston University, Emerson College, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern University, UMass 
Boston, Sabate Anarchist Collective, Barricada Collective, S.P. Collective,” the final 
three being NEFAC collectives.

“I recall hearing that our anti-war march was the first in the country,” said Lionette, 
adding, “I can not verify that.” Meeting in Copley Square in surprisingly large numbers, 
anarchists marched as a contingent with black flags and banners, including one that read 
“Solidarity with Revolutionary Afghan Women,” taking over Boylston Street and then Mass 
Ave. on the way to the anti-war demonstration in Harvard Square, where, remembers 
Lionette, “I feel like our march doubled the crowd.” Though a heavy police force followed 
them the entire way, the feared incidents of violence never manifested.

In fact, according to Lionette, the burgeoning anti-war movement was quite diverse and 
lively, with many rallies and marches in the months that followed, and BAAM played an 
important role. Due to the momentum and influence anarchists held at the time, only two 
years after the successful World Trade Organization protests in Seattle (1999), Lionette 
remembers, “it seemed at first that anarchist critiques were relevant to a broad array of 
society, and I do honestly feel that many people looked to BAAM as leaders in the Anti-war 
movement.”

On October 2nd, 2001, less than one month after September 11th and at the height of the 
ultra-patriotic wave of violent and fearful jingoism, in a statement posted to anarchist 
websites entitled “Basis of Unity,” the Boston Anarchists Against Militarism defined 
themselves as “a coalition of social anarchists committed to building an anti-war 
resistance movement in the greater Boston area.” The statement was also released in the 
October issue of the Barricada publication.

November 1st, 2001, BAAM released another statement, “Why Anarchists Oppose Militarism and 
Nationalism,” defining themselves as anarchists, dispelling the myth that anarchists are 
terrorists or in any way support the 911 attacks, identifying the ruling class as the 
causes, benefactors, and aggressors of war (in particular, “the oil barons and arms 
dealers who helped shape the Middle East as it is today,”) and differentiating between 
wars of capital and patriotism, and wars for freedom. The statement ends with a slight 
variation on the title of BAAM’s original statement, and one that would soon be found on 
banners and signs, and heard in chants and songs: “No War Between Nations, No Peace 
Between Classes!” Beyond the student and anti-war movement, BAAM was also active within 
the local subcultures, like the punk scene. There is a record of a benefit for Boston 
Anarchists Against Militarism on November 4th, 2001 at Spontaneous Celebrations in Jamaica 
Plain. Four punk bands, The Spitzz, The Profits, Leon Czolgosz, and Guardia Negra performed.

Boston Anarchists Against Militarism published another statement, entitled “Why Anarchists 
Oppose War and Nationalism,” in the 3rd issue of the Northeastern Anarchist, the quarterly 
of the Northeastern Federation of Anarchist-Communists (dated Fall/Winter 2001). This 
statement was also widely distributed as a leaflet through the years that followed.

As the anti-war movement developed, the BAAM coalition began to see how anarchist 
perspectives on the war were remarkably different then their liberal and socialist allies. 
To help define and popularize anarchist anti-war positions, on November 10th, 2001, from 
noon until seven BAAM hosted an event at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
entitled “Anti-War Teach-In: An Anarchist Perspective.” The schedule, as advertised in a 
November 7th posting on an MIT website (3), was as follows: Why Anarchists Oppose War 
(BAAM); Radical Art Workshop; Radical Labor’s Response (with Jon Bekken of the IWW); 
Voices from the Afghan Community; Diversity of Tactics in Anti-War Activism; Implications 
for Immigrants (Paromita Shah, National Lawyers Guild); State Repression in Wartime; 
Anarchist Response to Terrorism (Cindy Milstein, Institute for Social Ecology); Anarchism 
& Collective Organizing (Sabate Anarchist Collective, NEFAC); Patriarchy & War; and 
Anarchism, Nationalism, & Patriotism.

BAAM’s early success in presenting their ideas meant that the demonstrations they planned 
were attended by many people, including City Councilors. Lionette recalls, “ I felt other 
cities really were looking to our actions. I remember being almost amazed, because I felt 
we were not as big as people from other cities thought we were. People were coming up from 
Providence and New York City to see what BAAM was doing. People around the country were 
emailing us for info. For years afterward I would find anarchist publications in East 
Europe and South America and see pictures of BAAM demonstrations (people loved the No War 
Between Nations, No Peace Between Classes banner).” BAAM demonstrations were even large 
enough to compete with the big leftist and liberal coalitions for marching permits and 
numbers of participants.

Various socialist factions began sending people to anarchist workshops and presentations, 
attempting to disrupt the meetings or to try and push their party’s line. Relations with 
anti-war allies, first the sectarian socialists — with whom, “less than comradely words” 
were exchanged, says Lionette — and then the coalitions of liberals and leftists soured 
quickly.

As anarchist positions and thought developed, and the political differences between 
anarchists and their allies widened, BAAM’s own internal debates sharpened. “There began 
to be philosophical differences between anarcho-communists. Pretty much everyone at the 
time identified to one degree or another as anarcho-communists,” said Lionette. The 
disagreements developed around the Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists, 
written by Nestor Makhno and other exiles of Ukraine’s anarchist revolution, who believed 
a unified platform would help anarchists build cohesive enough organizations and 
strategies to successfully navigate the rough waters of revolution. Some anarchists, like 
NEFAC, agreed with this concept and worked in international federations and confederations 
based around the platform. Strong tensions developed between platformist and anti-platform 
anarchists in Boston.

A real fracture soon began as some of the individual participants of BAAM pushed to 
solidify the coalition as its own open and non-platformist anarchist group. According to 
long-time BAAM member Rob Dalton, “They had gathered together all these anarchists from 
around the area, but then they — and by they, I actually mean mostly Barricada — started 
to get worried about their own creation... people like myself wanted it to be an 
organization in and of itself.” The debate over the political nature and future of BAAM 
had begun.

Look for the next installment, “The Death of BAAM, the Birth of BAAM! next month.
_________________________________________
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