By Dan Sabater
I first got involved in left-wing politics in 1987 at the age of 15.
I became an Anarchist in 9th grade (1988) and started hanging out in the LES.
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THE ANARCHIST SWITCHBOARD (Spring 1988- Summer 1989)
The first spot I stumbled onto was the Anarchist Switchboard located in the basement of 324 East 9th Street between 1st and 2nd Ave. I think it was opened in 1986 by a guy from the Libertarian (aka Anarchist) Book Club. A girl from my high school took me down there. It was a damp and dingy one-room spot with couches, exposed light bulbs and red concrete walls. I liked it a lot, and gave them my birthday money to help out with the rent.
Some local @’s ran a small bookstall out of the place but it was hardly ever open. They also had speakers and hosted organizing meetings and poetry/ folk performances. There was lots of activity in NYC and on Long Island that came out of that place, including NYC’s first Food Not Bombs (from people who had visited San Francisco and saw their F’n’B in action). The Switchboard also produced 11 issues of a zine (Black Eye) and a pamphlet (“Bakunin on Violence”).
Eventually the Switchboard (which was started as a “free space” experiment) was taken over by a mob of junkies. They slept there and stank the tiny place up. Everybody stopped going there, and there was an outcry from the neighborhood to shut the place down. And down it went.
SABOTAGE (Fall 1989- Summer 1990)
A crew of people from the Switchboard wanted to start a more professional- style bookstore. They quite ambitiously rented a storefront on St. Mark’s Place (96 St. Mark’s Place btwn 1st & 2nd Ave). Sabotage opened Fall ‘89.
I was a great place. They had shelves and shelves of awesome books, the place was always abuzz with activity (often too much!). Lots of activities related to the squatters movement and the height of the struggle against a curfew in Tompkins Square Park.
In March 1990 a punk rocker was killed (stabbed to death) by right-wing skinheads just up the street from Sabotage. July 4, 1990 an Anarchist picnic was attacked by this same mob of right-wing skins.
Sabotage crashed and burned. The neighborhood was hot because of lots of clashes with the police around the park and in the squats. There was a lot of aggro and pressure. Eventually the collective that ran the place split in two. The bookstore got taken over by an assortment of LES crazies and didn’t last a minute. The more level-headed Anarchist element dropped out and put out a pamphlet explaining their side of things (“What Ever Happened To Sabotage?”).
@ CENTRAL was started after SABOTAGE. They were located east of Tompkins Square Park at 208 East 7th Street between Ave B and C. I remember the collective having a lot of punk women involved with it. They had regular film showings and vegan café events. To tell the truth I didn’t spend much time there.
BLACKOUT (Spring 1995- September 2000)
I recall Blackout growing out of the editorial collective of the Anarchist newspaper LOVE & RAGE, but don’t quote me on that. Located at 50 Ave B between 3rd and 4th Streets. Probably the most professional of all the Anarchist bookstores. Definitely the best stocked with Anarchist books. Not really sure why it closed- it had probably just run its course and the neighborhood also changed a lot due to gentrification. Blackout saw Anarchism move from being an LES phenomena to getting more associated with the next generation of activists: Reclaim the Streets, Critical Mass, anti-globalization activists, etc.
MAYDAY BOOKS (Winter 2000-Current/ 2005)
Out of the ashes of Blackout came Mayday Books. NYC’s current Anarchist infoshop is located in the entrance to Theater For a New City at 155 First Ave. A good source for Anarchist reading material, and a good place to get plugged in to what’s going on with NYC Anarchists
MAYDAY BOOKS closed under contentious circumstances in Feb 2007.
Check the story from the NY Times here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/nyregion/18east.html?_r=0
Lots of memories, the Animals Film especially. I remember that flier very well.
ReplyDeleteI've got to correct two points.
ReplyDelete1. The stabbing murder in 1990 had nothing to do with politics and was not by a right wing skinhead.
Yes, the stabbing was by a skinhead... a black skinhead named Scott Ebanks... and it was over a personal grudge.
Ralphie who used to book Squat or Rot shows was the target.
Ralphie and Scott worked together at the Relativity Records warehouse. When Scott got fired he blamed Ralph.
Scotty saw Ralph downtown and went after him. Two of Ralph's friends came to his aid and Scott stabbed them.
this had nothing to with skins, punks or politics... though that is how a lot of people played it back then.
2. The July Fourth, 1989 incident.
Yes, skins attacked some anarchists in the park for burning flags, but that's not why they went after the people at the bookstore.
I used to hang out there and got along with a number of people in the collective. Donny the Punk and a couple of other people started holding NAMBLA meetings at the bookstore on the first Tuesday of each month.
A lot of people, myself included, thought this was a bad idea, but the people running the bookstore were true believers in allowing all voices and organizations a space and allowed it.
Skins hit the bookstore to bust up a NAMBLA meeting.
Scott Ebanks did NOT murder him.
Delete1) I don't agree 100% with your first point, but I understand your perspective. It's obviously a much larger and more complicated discussion with a lot of personal issues behind the scenes. 2) As for the July 1989 incident, I vaguely remember hearing that about Donny the Punk/ NAMBLA meetings, but why attack the space on July 4th? And far as I know none of the 6-12 people that were beaten up that day (a few pretty severely) none had anything to do with NAMBLA. The victims seemed to be anyone that talked back.
ReplyDeleteFAILURE TO ACKNOWLEDGE MITIGATING FACTORS/CULPABILITY
ReplyDeleteAt the age of 15, Ebanks left his home after being shuffled between his parents and experiencing abuse at the hands of his mom’s spouse. He was a young man who became a victim of the streets. He was homeless. He did what he had to survive. He slept in an abandoned building with 10 other kids who became his family. He stopped attending school .
The instant offense occurred during a group fight and an individual was stabbed to death. These were young men, acting in a group being influenced by peer pressure. Scott takes responsibility for starting the fight. He was accused of this crime by a co-defendant who was offered a plea deal. Scott did not enter a plea and went to trial. He was offered a plea of (8 1/3-25) but turned it down to have his day in court in hope the truth would come out that he started the fight but didn’t stab any one. Scott was 19 years-old when the instant offense occurred. He is imprisoned 24 years when he returns to the Parole Board in January 2016.
The criminal justice system in NYS is set to get convictions by any means necessary. The system is slighted against poor defendants who are forced to accept sub-standard legal representation. Prosecutors get cooperation from whoever rolls first and then builds a case against whoever is left. Criminal Justice should be based on the truth not on who the DA can get a guilty conviction on first. Reforming the plea-bargain system and providing adequate defense will make the scales of justice equal. Prosecutors rely on the plea bargain system to move their calendars along. The truth is this is not justice this is securing a conviction by any means necessary and in Scott Ebanks case, this means someone who did NOT perform the deadly act being convicted of such. This is a travesty of justice!
SECRETIVE PROCESS REGARDING OPPOSITION TO RELEASE
Under the auspices of providing safety and security, the NYS Board of Parole operates under a secretive process wherein victims, DA’s, judges and anyone else who wishes to write letters to the Board of Parole opposing someone’s release are allowed to do so in confidential files. This serves as a problem because the information cannot be verified for accuracy. There is no review of the material and it may even provide false material to the Parole Board. In the case of Scott Ebanks, it is believed there are secretive materials which were filed by advocacy groups/victim groups against his release but it is believed they are mistaking him for another offender.
SOLUTION PROPSED
We as the action committee to “Free Scott Ebanks” seek to gain Mr. Ebanks release from prison at the next Parole Board in 2016. We seek criminal justice reforms so that others are protected from falling victim to this corrupt system which rewards people who cooperate and punishes those who do not. We seek to make fairer criminal justice policies which take into account an individual’s culpability in a crime and examine their rehabilitative efforts when evaluating their suitability for release.
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DeleteFAILURE TO ACKNOWLEDGE MITIGATING FACTORS/CULPABILITY
ReplyDeleteAt the age of 15, Ebanks left his home after being shuffled between his parents and experiencing abuse at the hands of his mom’s spouse. He was a young man who became a victim of the streets. He was homeless. He did what he had to survive. He slept in an abandoned building with 10 other kids who became his family. He stopped attending school .
The instant offense occurred during a group fight and an individual was stabbed to death. These were young men, acting in a group being influenced by peer pressure. Scott takes responsibility for starting the fight. He was accused of this crime by a co-defendant who was offered a plea deal. Scott did not enter a plea and went to trial. He was offered a plea of (8 1/3-25) but turned it down to have his day in court in hope the truth would come out that he started the fight but didn’t stab any one. Scott was 19 years-old when the instant offense occurred. He is imprisoned 24 years when he returns to the Parole Board in January 2016.
The criminal justice system in NYS is set to get convictions by any means necessary. The system is slighted against poor defendants who are forced to accept sub-standard legal representation. Prosecutors get cooperation from whoever rolls first and then builds a case against whoever is left. Criminal Justice should be based on the truth not on who the DA can get a guilty conviction on first. Reforming the plea-bargain system and providing adequate defense will make the scales of justice equal. Prosecutors rely on the plea bargain system to move their calendars along. The truth is this is not justice this is securing a conviction by any means necessary and in Scott Ebanks case, this means someone who did NOT perform the deadly act being convicted of such. This is a travesty of justice!
SECRETIVE PROCESS REGARDING OPPOSITION TO RELEASE
Under the auspices of providing safety and security, the NYS Board of Parole operates under a secretive process wherein victims, DA’s, judges and anyone else who wishes to write letters to the Board of Parole opposing someone’s release are allowed to do so in confidential files. This serves as a problem because the information cannot be verified for accuracy. There is no review of the material and it may even provide false material to the Parole Board. In the case of Scott Ebanks, it is believed there are secretive materials which were filed by advocacy groups/victim groups against his release but it is believed they are mistaking him for another offender.
SOLUTION PROPSED
We as the action committee to “Free Scott Ebanks” seek to gain Mr. Ebanks release from prison at the next Parole Board in 2016. We seek criminal justice reforms so that others are protected from falling victim to this corrupt system which rewards people who cooperate and punishes those who do not. We seek to make fairer criminal justice policies which take into account an individual’s culpability in a crime and examine their rehabilitative efforts when evaluating their suitability for release.