This article will serve as a memorial page for our comrade Bill. If you would like to share a brief reflection on Bill’s impact in your life to be posted here, please email eec@blackrosefed.org
With mourning and sadness we report the passing of former Black Rose / Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation (BRRN) militant William “Bill” Bachmann of New York City at the age of 81. Bill is survived by his wife, Corine.
Bill will be remembered for his lifelong commitment to revolutionary politics and his years of dedicated organizing. Bill spent much of his career as a postal worker in New York, where he was a highly active rank-and-file member of the New York Metro Area Postal Union Local 10, an affiliate of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU). In the 1990s he became known to many for his work to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal, pushing his union to join the NYC Free Mumia Coalition. Bill remained an active member of his union into retirement.
Bill began political activity as a member of the Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL), a small Trotskyist group that became critical of Leninism in the late 1980s. A majority of RSL helped to found and eventually dissolved into the Love & Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation, which was active throughout the 1990s. After the dissolution of Love & Rage, Bill would go on to join the Open City Collective of the North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists (NEFAC) in the early 2000s. NEFAC later changed its name to Common Struggle / Lucha Común before merging with other regional organizations to found BRRN in 2014. Bill was a founding member of the NYC Local of BRRN and contributed consistently to discussions on anti-imperialism and workplace organizing within the federation. He was also part of the editorial board for The Utopian, a libertarian socialist magazine run by former members of RSL.
The William Bachmann Papers, a collection of Bill’s writing spanning his time in RSL, Love & Rage, and NEFAC is housed at NYU and available to the public.
Comments
Rest Easy
anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/04/2026 - 17:08
Rest easy, Bill. You were always down for it when it mattered and your memory will live on.
didnt know you, but much…
anonymous (not verified) Fri, 06/05/2026 - 09:01
didnt know you, but much love and respect from the Midwest (in southwest atm)
RIP Bill
Isaac Carmignani (not verified) Sun, 06/07/2026 - 00:38
Bill and I got a chance to work together a little bit as both electronic technicians at USPS and as shop stewards, with APWU in the early 2000s. Bill always had the reputation of being a good man. I think of him often, as recently as a few weeks ago. RIP my friend.
This dude being a literal …
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 06/07/2026 - 15:29
This dude being a literal "ex" marxist is representative of a lot of the criticism that's sent BRRN's way.
Did bill understand that he was every bit as colonial a leftist as an israeli? Where did bill fall in the actual debates that led to the dissolution of all those groups?
Good Bye Bill
Wayne Price@ (not verified) Mon, 06/08/2026 - 16:13
I knew Bill Bachman for many years and feel very sorry that he is gone. As we Jews say, he was a Mensch, meaning not “man” but a good Person. When we both were ill (he more than me) he made it a point to call me regularly to see how I was doing. Despite difficulties in our later years, he remained my good friend, as he and Corine were good friends to many people. Bill was famous for his ability to get along with a wide range of people, despite various personal, racial, or political differences.
Bill was a political activist and militant for all the years I knew him, as well as a theoretician. Going through a series of revolutionary socialist organizations, and finally revolutionary anarchist ones, he kept on fighting for a better world. For years, he fought for a more militant and democratic postal union. He was a leader in the struggle to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, among the many other causes he fought for. He inspired many of us.
Good bye good comrade.
Wayne Price
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