In these politically uncertain times we need
to continue to gather strength by exploring new ideas and the
potential for change. At the IAS we have been doing just that and
there are quite a few things to report.
I want to first mention a very important
organizational change. This June the IAS board voted to make me
the General Director of IAS. I am very excited to take on this
role and I am inspired by the challenges this position presents
and the contributions I can make to the growth of the IAS. Chuck
Morse (the founder of the IAS) has held this position since the
organization’s inception more than three years ago. It was
agreed that this administrative change would help bring new
perspectives to bear on the direction of the IAS and also help
Chuck devote more time to fundraising and other IAS activities.
Chuck will, of course, continue as a member of the IAS
administrative staff, co-editor of the newsletter, and a member of
the board.
We have also been working to develop the
principles and structure of the IAS. For the last six months three
local board members met regularly to address IAS developmental
issues. We have focused on reevaluating our grant priorities,
board development and finances in light of the current weakness of
radical theory and politics. We feel the main purpose of the IAS
is to cultivate and help re-build a radical movement and we are
working to refine our principles and strategies accordingly. In
addition, the board passed a proposal to strengthen the percentage
of local board members based in New York City so that there will
be more of a support network and radical milieu around the IAS
headquarters in. We have also set ourselves the task of rewriting
the brochure and translating it into several languages. Please see
page 10 for a detailed report of our endeavors over the last six
months.
The IAS continues to award grants to
exciting projects and see the results of previous grant awards. It
has always been our hope to support foreign language projects and
we recently took a step in that direction. We are very excited to
give out our first grant for a non-English language project to
Fernando Lopez for his Spanish-language study of the Federación
Anarquista Comunista Argentina, an Argentinean anarcho-communist
organization. We have also given a grant to C.W. Brown who will
address American right-wing activities through an anarchist
analysis. (Read more about our June 1999 grant awards on page 3).
Also, we were excited to receive a finished copy of Mark Bonhert
and Richard Curtis’ project, Passionate and Dangerous:
Conversations with Midwestern Anti-Authoritarians and Anarchists.
(See page 3 to read more about the project and find out how to
obtain a copy.)
We are also in the middle of our 1999
fundraising campaign, whose success will allow us to continue
awarding grants, publishing Perspectives, and add $10,000 to the
IAS endowment. We will be able to add $10,000 to the endowment
thanks to a combination of two sources: last November 1998, a
generous IAS supporter pledged to donate $8000 to our endowment
upon the success of the our 1999 fundraising campaign and we will
add $2000 to that amount, bringing the total to $10,000 (see page
11 for more details). We have set big goals for ourselves this
year but we anticipate success with the generous help of longtime
supporters, new friends and those who have already donated.
Perennial Books has changed their name but
not their commitment to the IAS and radical literature. Perennial
has become Raven Used Books (located in Amherst, Massachusetts)
and continue to help the IAS by making forty-eight titles
available to IAS donors (please see the insert enclosed in this
issue for a listing of the exceptional books they are offering).
The IAS has been in existence for three and
a half years, we have given away $17,000 to eighteen projects, we
have published six issues of Perspectives (including this
issue), and we are settling in our new home in NYC. What is
especially encouraging is that the IAS has taken root in the
widespread anarchist and radical community and is appreciated by
activists and writers both nationally and internationally. All of
these accomplishments and the growing support for the IAS are
inspiring us to continue and improve our work.