By Pat Tarantino
More than a century ago, radical labor organizer Lucy Parsons declared: “Anarchists know that a long period of education must precede any great fundamental change in society.”
Today, Parsons’ revolutionary message lives on only minutes away from Northeastern at the Lucy Parsons Center, a nonprofit, collectively-run radical bookstore and community meeting space located at 549 Columbus Ave.
Curious visitors find the center stocked with periodicals from an array of leftist ideologies and interest groups – from “CounterPunch”, a D.C.-based muckraking newsletter, to “2600,” a self-described “hacker quarterly,” to dozens of homemade zines.
The center also offers a comprehensive book selection packed tightly onto shelves adorned with radical posters and slogans. Topics include biographies of revolutionaries, critiques of the current administration and guides offering information on demonstration tactics.
“It’s really important to have a space like this, where we have a really different selection of books you can’t find in most other stores,” said Molly Adelstein, a 25-year-old Boston resident and member of the center. “It’s interesting reading; [there are] things that you don’t see all the time.”
The center first opened its doors as a one-room shop in Central Square amid the flowering social movements of the 1960s, offering information and meeting space to Boston’s activist community. It moved several times throughout its history before coming to rest in the South End in 1992.
While the center has seen considerable change during its history, the collective mentality that governs its operations has remained the same, members said.
“It’s group decision making, theoretically no hierarchies,” said Jay Schiede of Cambridge, a 58-year-old musician and 12-year center member. “We try to be non-hierarchical by law, by our own guidelines.” Although historically tied to anarchist and Maoist groups, the collective displays a broad spectrum of political ideologies. Schiede described the center as “non-sectarian.”
It serves as a meeting place for a wide range of activist groups, notable among them are The Industrial Workers of The World and the Socialist Party of Boston, both of which gather for monthly debates and exchanges.
“We like to use the word radical,” Schiede said. “I’m not sure all the groups qualify as ‘radical,’ but most of them are for sure.”
The center is governed by a bi-weekly steering committee made up of volunteers with at least six weeks of volunteer experience. During these meetings, members take turns directing the conversation and recording notes in an attempt to share responsibility with new members, discuss the operation of the store and review requests for use of the space from outside organizations.
Unlike many volunteer organizations, the collective allows all members to vote on any policies, or events, regardless of age or experience. The collective welcomes newcomers to try a three-hour training shift where the inner workings and ideology of the store are outlined.
“It’s one of the few places I’ve volunteered where we’ve got a real sense of community,” Adelstein said. “It’s not something you do once a week.”
Adelstein, who has only recently reentered Boston’s activist scene, recalled, “It’s been a good way for me to get exposed to all the things that are going on thanks to all the meetings. I don’t know everything, but it helps.”
Although the center hosts many regular meetings, collective members also offer the space to smaller groups for informational and fund-raising events. Recently, the center played host to a Mardi Gras benefit organized to aid a Boston activist on his volunteer trip to the Common Ground Collective, an anarchist group working to rebuild neighborhoods devastated by Hurricane Katrina through medical, legal and construction aid.
The event included costumes, pizza and several local folk music acts. About 30 people who attended sat on the floor to watch a movie projected onto the center’s back wall describing the ongoing challenges still faced by New Orleans residents.
The next day, still wearing her Mardi Gras beads, over a Dead Kennedys T-shirt, during an interview with The News, Adelstein said these solidarity meetings are critical to local grassroots radical campaigns.
“It’s great to have free space to use,” she said. “People can come for free and do a show to raise money for their cause without most of the money going to the venue.”
Despite the variety of views expressed by the Lucy Parsons Collective, the need for education and expression in the community continues to unite its members.
“The primary thing is information,” Schiede said, from behind a desk covered in leaflets. “As (Noam) Chomsky said, ‘The steel trap mind isn’t wrong very often.’ It’s up to us, really.”
