I received a circular mail from the Australian National Anarchism activist Welf Herfurth a couple of days ago.  Essentially, he was making an appeal for funds for Andrew Yeoman’s outfit in the Bay Area.  The basis of the appeal was that Andrew’s prodigious energy has been richly rewarded.  But welcome as it is, success and political advancement needs to be funded:

Since he started to get active, Andy’s Bay Area National Anarchists group grew from a few people to the biggest alternative metapolitical group in San Francisco. Here are some of their major achievements in the past few years:

* 44,000+ website hits (http://www.bayareanationalanarchists.com/blog/)
* 22,000+ YouTube video views (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bay+area+national+anarchists&search_type=&aq=0&oq=Bay+area+national+)
* Regularly hosted meetings and recurring events (Monthly Meetings, White Cross Patrols, Folsom Street Fair Protest)
* Speaking events including Emeryville, Orange County, and Sydney Australia
* A large increase in support from groups across the nation and abroad
* Hosting foreign visitors for events and speeches
* The first unofficial BANA housing collective
* Media coverage by a local newspaper and the SPLC
* Flyering runs in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Petaluma
* A continuous presence at street protests
* The formation of sister networks in Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Inland Empire, and Orange County
* Our first online radio interview
* 22 videos produced and 3 more in production
* At least 4 blog posts a month
* A business plan
* An active Facebook presence
* PayPal subscribers (currently numbering at 5)
* A custom graphic banner on the website made by allies in the UK
* A private mail box

I think you agree with me that this is a very impressive list of achievements.

Our ‘friends’ from the SPLC wrote a very interesting article about the BANA that you can find here:
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=1058

And Spencer Sunshine wrote this for the Public Eye website:
http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v23n4/rebranding_fascism.html

Last, but not least, here is an interview with Andy with the well respected and valued ‘The Occidental Quarterly’:
http://www.toqonline.com/2009/08/interview-with-andrew-yeoman-part-i/

So you can see that he is not only promising political activism, but also he is delivering it too. The BANA are a group of dedicated and committed people. I know for sure that Andy not only spends every spare minute in organising events, making videos, networking with likeminded people, etc, but he also puts thousands of dollars of his own money into the cause ...

And what followed was the appeal for funds.  I shan’t copy that out.  But if you know Andrew’s work and want to offer him some support, here’s the link:

http://bayareanationalanarchists.com/blog/2009/09/bana-monthly-donations.html