New Zine on Balagoon Boxing Club in Philadelphia

Announcing a new zine publication on the Balagoon Boxing Club in so-called Philadelphia, PA. Originally posted to Bash Back! News. 

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Growing out of the strong antifascist movement in Philadelphia, anarchists have been fight training together here for the better part of a decade. The current iteration grew out of a group that would meet about once a week prior to the pandemic. A few people in Philly had taken advantage of some financially feasible trial periods at Muay Thai gyms or were more consistent in their Muay Thai training generally. People would take drills that stuck with them to the anarchist group, we would drill, and then finish out with sparring.

Post-pandemic and George Floyd uprising, some people continued to train with friends in parks. This would wax and wane as Covid spiked up and down. Motivated by the changing reality of the political context in a post-Floyd uprising U.S., people continued to meet in parks and basements to train together three days a week. Factors such as the development of the Rise Above Movement and other fascist fight groups, increases in general xenophobic sentiment, the explicit right-wing fixation and pervasiveness of anti-queer and anti-trans hatred, and the need to defend oneself from police and counter-attack attack with frequency and intensity of rioting in the U.S.

Eventually, the gym moved into various indoor spaces. Our current, and most long running space, is one which we split with some other folks who do raves. We fight in the day, they party at night! After years of come-ups, licks, and scamming we have a pretty fully outfitted gym. We hang two heavy bags, but have more than we know what to do with. We have floor mats we got from for free from a gym that was closing (that double as a cushiony dance floor). We have focus mits, thai pads, belly pads, extra gloves, extra shin guards, extra wraps, extra mouth guards, kick shields, jump ropes… really anything a normal gym would have.

Trainings now happen four times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday where anyone is welcome. Tuesdays are non-cis men days, which are quite popular. For the longest time we did not have a name, we did not desire to be legible as some kind of organization, playing into the mystique and humor of being an iykyk meetup colloquially called “fight club,” Recently, we’ve decided to take on the name Balagoon Boxing Club, after the New Afrikan Anarchist Kuwasi Balagoon.