A-Infos (en) US, Boston, BAAM #36 - A History of BAAM (2001-2010) Installment 1: Post-911 War Mongering, and the Boston Anarchists Against Militarism 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 indi-
viduals coordinated their work in confronting
the march of US militarists at the beginning
of the War on Terror. According to Jamey Li-
onette, 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 revolution-
ary 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 re-
members: “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 Octo-
ber 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 lon-
gest war in United States history.
BAAM’s first demonstration, however,
came earlier, falling on September 20th,
2001. While the anarchists had been plan-
ning 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 Univer-
sity, UMass Boston, Sabate Anarchist Collec-
tive, 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 num-
bers, 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 burgeon-
ing 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 Orga-
nization protests in Seattle (1999), Lionette
remembers, “it seemed at first that anarchist
critiques were relevant to a broad array of so-
ciety, 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 Bos-
ton 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 is-
sue of the Barricada publication.
November 1st, 2001, BAAM released an-
other statement, “Why Anarchists Oppose
Militarism and Nationalism,” defining them-
selves 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 Bos-
ton Anarchists Against Militarism on Novem-
ber 4th, 2001 at Spontaneous Celebrations in
Jamaica Plain. Four punk bands, The Spitzz,
The Profits, Leon Czolgosz, and Guardia Ne-
gra performed.
Boston Anarchists Against Militarism pub-
lished another statement, entitled “Why Anar-
chists Oppose War and Nationalism,” in the 3rd
issue of the Northeastern Anarchist, the quar-
terly of the Northeastern Federation of Anar-
chist-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 dif-
ferent 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; Radi-
cal 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 Ecol-
ogy); Anarchism & Collective Organizing
(Sabate Anarchist Collective, NEFAC); Patri-
archy & War; and Anarchism, Nationalism,
& Patriotism.
BAAM’s early success in presenting their
ideas meant that the demonstrations they
planned were attended by many people, in-
cluding City Councilors. Lionette recalls, “ I
felt other cities really were looking to our ac-
tions. I remember being almost amazed, be-
cause 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 Ameri-
ca 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 coali-
tions for marching permits and numbers of
participants.
Various socialist factions began sending
people to anarchist workshops and presenta-
tions, 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 co-
alitions of liberals and leftists soured quickly.
As anarchist positions and thought devel-
oped, and the political differences between
anarchists and their allies widened, BAAM’s
own internal debates sharpened. “There be-
gan 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 Organi-
zational Platform of the Libertarian Commu-
nists, written by Nestor Makhno and other
exiles of Ukraine’s anarchist revolution, who
believed a unified platform would help anar-
chists 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 con-
federations 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 anar-
chists from around the area, but then they—
and by they, I actually mean mostly Barrica-
da—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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