The Lucy Parsons Center—originally opened as the Red Book Store in 1969 in Central Square, Cambridge but later renamed after the famed anarcho-communist and labor-organizer—is a non-profit, independent, cooperative radical bookstore and activist community center located in Jamaica Plain, Boston. As they write on their website: for years, the Center…
has been truly a community project of Boston’s radicals. Dozens and dozens of people have worked in the store over the years, mostly as volunteers, but some for pay (low pay). Boston’s progressive community has rallied again and again to keep it in existence. It was never affiliated with any one party or group, but was an independent radical bookstore. Its bulletin boards and shelves were open to all the many groups in the radical movement, very broadly defined. It seriously tried to represent all tendencies on the left.
However, since the offset of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been forced to substantially downscale their activities and focus their efforts on helping operate the Solidarity Supply Distro mutual aid project. As they account, “while we’ve been able to stay afloat thus far due to a few generous monthly donors, our ability to remain solvent long-term and continue to provide an organizing and educational space for the Boston activist community depends on being able to return to regular store hours, and expand our services to offer online sales.”
Therefore, they are asking for donations to help pay their part-time staff so that they can open for consistent hours, rebuild their website and develop an online store, and return to regular programming such as radical movie nights and study groups once the pandemic has subsided. Any donations not budgeted toward paying staff members will, as they say, “go directly to keeping the store open, including replenishing our stock of radical literature, replacing our door (and otherwise restoring the space), and helping to cover our other monthly costs.” Please consider donating through this link HERE. It’s time to help the Lucy Parsons Center!
