With the dissemination of information, true or not, being easier than it ever was before the Internet, it’s reasonable to ask whether print media has the same impact as it did in the past.
But according to Alex, a volunteer with the collective running the Lucy Parsons Center who declined to give his last name, it’s also reasonable to expect print media to soldier on, certainly within the realm of radical media. “I actually think it’s more important because it’s clear that things can just disappear off the Internet,” he said.
This is not to say that this is the LPC’s official stance — Alex emphasized that he spoke only on his own behalf — but it is true, he points out, that print media is not traceable the way information on the Internet is. It is much easier to stamp out information and its sources online than it is to burn every single copy of a book or magazine a given authority considers subversive or dangerous.
Despite the stigma, the Lucy Parsons Center does not shy away from the “radical” label. Its website describes the LPC as “an independent, non-profit, radical bookstore and community space.” But according to Alex, the LPC does not see itself as exclusively dedicated to communism, socialism, anarchism, or any other specific branch of radical left politics — it considers itself dedicated to a cross-section of leftist ideals and ideologies, and seeks to inform rather than encourage dedication to one particular movement.
“We are a non-sectarian, leftist space,” Alex said.
UMass Boston has chapters of radical political groups, including the Young Communist League and the Young Democratic Socialists of America. The leaders of both characterize their respective groups as radical.
“The YCL UMB is a radical organization, as far as one sees advocating for a future where society is run for social ends, rather than profit, as radical,” YCL President Ryan Fisher, who is also the group’s co-chair, wrote in an email.
Fisher echoed Alex’s concerns about digital media being stamped out. “With the ever-expanding nature of mass surveillance, particularly digitally, acquiring print media will always be a reliable way to engage with and share literature that may be deemed ‘too radical’ by the powers that be,” he wrote.
Fisher agrees that the radical cause is larger than one particular branch of American leftism.
“Showing solidarity, as a part of the broad movement for the liberation of the working class and oppressed, is valuable because having physical locations in communities where this movement is represented and has a place to organize is a net benefit,” he wrote.
The center has its roots in the social turmoil and change of the 1960s. It was founded in Cambridge in 1969 as the Red Book Store. It has called itself the Lucy Parsons Center since 1992. Parsons was a labor organizer active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in Chicago. Sources on her origins and activities sometimes contradict one another. According to Alex, the center was named after her in part because of her refusal to be pinned to any one branch of the American left.
“She’s someone that moved across sectarian lines building popular power,” he said.
The LPC functions as a meeting place for different groups, not just as a bookstore. This is its primary appeal to UMB YDSA chair Nicolas Arcalas. Arcalas is not as positive about the future of print media as Alex and Fisher are.
“I think we should shift away from print media,” he said. “What has value is the information. I’ve tried to get away from hoarding these tomes and more towards downloading digital copies online.”
Whatever concerns there might be about any bookstore’s ability to survive in the digital age, Alex is more concerned with the current political climate than he is with revenue. The LPC is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. It also has a large Palestinian flag painted on one of its outer walls. With the current administration’s executive order enabling crackdowns on what it defines as “left-wing terrorism” or support thereof, he is concerned about the LPC being shut down as part of a political vendetta.
But even in the current climate, organization on behalf of leftist causes continues. The YDSA at UMass Boston is currently involved in a campaign to lower rates for parking on campus and increase MBTA subsidies for students. Though the LPC can’t legally get involved in electoral campaigns, its broader promotion of literacy is part of a desire to inform readers of leftist struggles.
“Controlling who can read and who can write has always been about class struggle,” Alex said. “The skills of reading and writing have to be universal. Being able to understand your conditions and advocate for yourselves, you have to have those skills.”
