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Open letter to the AJ Muste Memorial Institute, the Libertarian Book Club, the Workers Solidarity Alliance , and any and all friends and comrades associated with room 202 in the AJ Muste Building, the "Peace Pentagon", NYC.

From several friendly comrades of the New York Metro Alliance of Anarchist (NYMAA).

Anyone alive on planet earth today knows well the high price of NYC real estate. Adequate office space is difficult if not out of reach for most political organizations wishing to remain in the city, not to mention those with little or no wealthy benefactors or members. It was no surprise then that NYMAA, an active and new anarchist political organization, would jump at the chance to share a small office space in the heart of Manhattan, after being approached in the fall of 2006 by a member of the Libertarian Book Club (and incidentally a member of NYMAA) with such an offer of mutual aid and collaboration.

The office space in question is located in an area of Manhattan called NOHO, easily accessible from many subway trains and centrally located enough to be convenient for many throughout the 5 boroughs. The building, called the AJ Muste Memorial Institute, at 339 Lafayette Street, houses many radical, left leaning organizations, including the War Resisters League, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the Socialist Party, and Paper Tiger Television Collective, among others. Its a real gem in the belly of the beast, one of the last hold outs from a time when spaces like it were much more available New York.

The particular room NYMAA was offered to share has been a habitat of a few anarchist and libertarian organizations since the early 1980s. The LBC in particular has been in the space since 1987, and shares the room with a slim list of other groups, notably the Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA), groups that in recent years are comprised of merely a handful of individuals, due to the aging and changing nature of the particular groups memberships. Because of this fact, the office space has become a sort of aging "storage space for memories", an infrequent home away from home for a few individuals and their belongings (bags of old newspapers, yellowing anarchist journals, old files from the 80s, boxes of god knows what, etc), and the occasional afternoon nap, rather than a (much needed) center of activity for the local anarchist movement.

NYMAA, being a younger, far larger and more diverse crowd, recognized quite quickly the value of such a space to growing and building the anarchist movement, and almost immediately proposed a radical reorganization of the space that centered on a thorough house cleaning and construction of computer terminals and shelving units that could simultaneously accommodate both the large amount of detritus that could not be donated to the local labor library (or thrown in the recycle bin) as well enough floor space for more than 5 people to meet without sitting on piles of newsprint and rickety three legged chairs (and holding up the book shelves with their shoulders). Initially key members of the LBC and WSA were supportive of this attempt, and it seemed that movement was underway to this end, as the WSA became the critical group in facilitating such an undertaking.

Unfortunately the WSA was anything but proactive, and indeed dragged its feet from the beginning, regardless of repeated urgings of NYMAA's Nuts and Bolts working group (the group tasked with the carrying out of the collaboration to clean the space), including assurances that NYMAA people could and would perform any and all "heavy lifting" and most of the grunt work. Persistent attempts to open consistent and serious dialogue and communications were thwarted or simply ignored.

Suffice it to say NYMAA members had grandiose plans for the space that may have been a bit unrealistic given the long term atrophied occupation and territorial "ownership" of the space by WSA and LBC. However the WSA, while initially supportive of the spirit and perhaps some details of the informal plan (as scratched on the back of a pizza box during a meeting that took place at the space in the early months of 2007), delayed any movement by nearly half a year (and would eventually retreat on the agreement, after NYMAA stopped paying its share of the rent, ), even while NYMAA continued to hold small working group meetings in the space, and slowly needle away at the WSA for action.

And thus a stalemate has ensued. While there has been absolutely no change in the nature of this potential gem in the heart of NYC, the WSA has evidently moved on and made a similar offer to the NYC chapter of NEFAC (ironically a group with several members associated with NYMAA), without so much as a letter of explanation or candy-gram to NYMAA.

All of this would be yet another hilarious example of the lack of foresight and vision on the part of the anarchist crowd if it weren't such a tragedy that such a potentially valuable resource, a gift to the movement from the good folks at the Muste Institute, would remain a "hoarders paradise" (see attached photos). In this sense this dispute is hardly simply a disagreement between two organizations with two conflicting visions on the functions of room 202. Its an issue of movement resources, control, ownership, and the ability of anarchists to look past their personal nostalgia and envision a movement that looks decidedly different than it does today (or minimally 20 years past).

Looking forward, it would be our hope that the LBC, WSA and other occupants of room 202 recognize the importance of this room to the further building of a movement, as a collective enterprise, rather than a personal junk room for a few individuals sentimentally connected to a few stacks of worn out copies of the weekly newspaper of the Swedish anarchist-syndicalist federation. An alternative vision could entail a space cleared of its clutter, with several computer terminals and adequate phone lines, fax machine, a nice copy machine, and perhaps a working coffee maker (all equipment NYMAA has volunteered to donate, if the space could hold such machines). Space for the myriad of anarchist groups to store their flags, signs, and meeting paraphernalia, as well as a much more conducive space to hold small meetings. More importantly a space that new converts to the cause would feel as if the movement had its shit together, took itself seriously, and was concerned about its resources.

Many groups currently attempting to organize could utilize room 202 given the tight market in NYC for adequate meeting space. The space could be opened up in such a fashion that new groups that have formed or reformed over the past several years could share in the responsibilities of organizing and maintaining the space, including APOC, the IWW, Rockdove collective, the Anarchist Bookfair group, NEFAC / antithesis, Radical Homosexual Agenda, NYMAA of course, and other groups with a city wide membership. In its current state, the room is nothing but a joke. Such a situation should elicit indignation from anarchists that wish to see a viable movement grow and flourish.

It is indeed time to clean up.

For images of room 202, go here: http://www.tfgcasper.net/node/56

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This letter is not an official letter of NYMAA but the opinion of several members who have been engaged in the aforementioned negotiations.

Please direct all personal inquiries to moose [at] riseup [dot] net