Pink Peacock (

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

: , ) is a

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-c ...

and

infoshop Infoshops are places in which people can access anarchist or autonomist ideas. They are often stand-alone projects, or can form part of a larger radical bookshop, archive, self-managed social centre or community centre. Typically, infoshops offer ...

in the

Govanhill Govanhill ( gd, Cnoc a' Ghobhainn) is an area of Glasgow, Scotland, situated south of the River Clyde between Pollokshields, the Gorbals, Strathbungo, Crosshill, Glasgow, Crosshill, Polmadie and Queen's Park, Glasgow, Queen's Park. Shires of Sco ...

area of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

. Described by its founders as "the only

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the l ...

Yiddish

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessar ...

vegan pay-what-you-can café in the world" and "

anti-Zionist Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palesti ...

", it opened physically in 2021 after being delayed by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Establishment

Pink Peacock was founded by Morgan Holleb and Joe Isaac, both active participants in Irn-Ju, a

Jewish anarchist This is a list of Jewish anarchists. Individuals See also * Jewish anarchism Notes References * * * * * * * Further reading * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Jewish Anarchists Jewish * Anarchists Anarchism is a political ...

collective in Scotland. The founders formed plans to open a

and

café in 2019. They chose the name Pink Peacock, or () in Yiddish, after the

golden peacock Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall *Golden Cap, Dorset * Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucesters ...

that is a traditional Yiddish symbol. They were motivated by the lack of queer and Jewish spaces in

, and the lack of Yiddish spaces in Scotland; the café is the country's first physical Yiddish-focused space to open in decades. In July 2020, Pink Peacock campaigned to

crowdfund Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

£10,000 to cover the costs of running the café for three months. They successfully raised a total of £15,885 by the end of the campaign in August 2020. The

disrupted the planned opening of the café. During the

COVID-19 lockdowns Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of non-pharmaceutical interventions colloquially known as lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar societal restrictions) have been implemented in numerous countri ...

, Isaac and Holleb distributed packages of food in Govanhill and organized various queer and Jewish online events.

Operation

Pink Peacock operates on a pay-what-you-can model, telling customers the break-even price but allowing them to pay any amount. The café is alcohol-free and

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...

, and has a community fridge outside the café stocked with food. In addition to food, they sell what ''

Jewish Currents ''Jewish Currents'' is a progressive, secular Jewish quarterly magazine and news site whose content reflects the politics of the Jewish left. It features independent journalism, breaking news, political commentary, analysis, and a "countercultur ...

'' described in 2021 as "Jewish lefty merch". The café is run as a

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

by workers and community members.

Use of Yiddish

Pink Peacock maintains a Yiddish version of its website, and uses the language on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, unlike many other Yiddish-focused organizations. In a 2020 article for the

Jewish Telegraphic Agency The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) is an international news agency and wire service, founded in 1917, serving Jewish community newspapers and media around the world as well as non-Jewish press, with about 70 syndication clients listed on its we ...

, Holleb explained that "Yiddish is a way of connecting with a Jewish language that isn’t modern Hebrew. There isn’t Yiddish nationhood. It is a diasporic language."

Anti-police policy and tote bags

In June 2021, Pink Peacock was the subject of reporting in the tabloid ''

The Scottish Sun ''The Sun'' is a British tabloid newspaper, published by the News Group Newspapers division of News UK, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. It was founded as a broadsheet in 1964 as a successor to the '' Daily Her ...

'', which criticised their policy of "no cops, no terfs". Subsequently, the café's storefront was vandalised when a man painted over it. The cafe had also experienced vandalism a month prior to these events, in May 2021 when a window had been smashed in an incident which also saw windows broken in adjacent branches of

Farmfoods Farmfoods is a British frozen food and grocery supermarket chain based in Cumbernauld, Scotland. It is owned by Eric Herd, and has over three hundred shops in the United Kingdom, of which more than a hundred are in Scotland. History The compa ...

and Semichem. Additionally, the coverage led to a complaint about the café displaying in its window a pink

tote bag A tote bag is a large and often unfastened bag with parallel handles that emerge from the sides of its pouch. Totes are often used as reusable shopping bags. The archetypal tote bag is made of sturdy cloth, perhaps with thick leather at its handl ...

with the words " fuck the police" in English and Yiddish, which in turn led

Police Scotland Police Scotland ( gd, Poileas Alba), officially the Police Service of Scotland (), is the national police force of Scotland. It was formed in 2013, through the merging of eight regional police forces in Scotland, as well as the specialist service ...

to visit Holleb and Isaac's home. Holleb was subsequently charged with

breach of the peace Breach of the peace, or disturbing the peace, is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries and in a public order sense in the several jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It is a form of disorderly conduct. Public ord ...

, and Glasgow police seized one of the tote bags from Pink Peacock as evidence. After the seizure, which was publicized in local media and on Pink Peacock's Twitter account, the café sold out of the bags.

Handcuff key sales

On 30 September, the café launched the sale of universal handcuff keys. They were met with criticism online as this coincided with the sentencing of a police officer convicted of the

murder of Sarah Everard On the evening of 3 March 2021, 33-year-old Sarah Everard was kidnapped in South London, England, as she was walking home to the Brixton Hill area from a friend's house near Clapham Common. She was stopped by off-duty Metropolitan Police offic ...

after falsely arresting her and restraining her in handcuffs. The café later issued a statement claiming the keys had been promoted with the upcoming

2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP26, was the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, from 31 October to 13 November 2021. The ...

protests in mind and not the Sarah Everard case and said the timing was insensitive.

References

External links

* * *
why we say 'fuck the police': a statement from pink peacock די ראָזעווע פּאַווע
, Av 5781 (July 2021) {{Authority control 2019 establishments in Scotland Anarchist collectives Anarchist organisations in the United Kingdom Bilingualism Crowdfunded projects Govanhill and Crosshill LGBT anarchism LGBT culture in Glasgow LGBT collectives LGBT Jewish organizations Infoshops Jewish anarchism Jewish anti-Zionism in the United Kingdom Jewish organisations based in the United Kingdom Jews and Judaism in Scotland Restaurants in Glasgow Worker co-operatives of the United Kingdom Yiddish culture in the United Kingdom Coffeehouses and cafés in the United Kingdom Vegan restaurants Veganism in the United Kingdom