The Mondragon Bookstore & Coffeehouse was a political bookstore and

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...

cafe located in The Old Market Autonomous Zone at 91 Albert Street in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

, Canada. The name comes from the

Mondragón Cooperative Corporation The Mondragon Corporation is a corporation and federation of worker cooperatives based in the Basque region of Spain. It was founded in the town of Mondragón in 1956 by Father José María Arizmendiarrieta and a group of his students at a te ...

and other organisations in the

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

town of

Mondragón Mondragón (in Basque: Arrasate) officially known as Arrasate/Mondragón, is a town and municipality in Gipuzkoa Province, Basque Country, Spain. Its population in 2015 was 21,933. Toponymy The current official name of the municipality is Arrasa ...

Spain that is known for its extensive network of worker's cooperatives. Mondragon was organized as a workers' collective with no

hierarchy A hierarchy (from Ancient Greek, Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy ...

and all workers receiving the same

wage A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work (human activity), work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include wiktionary:compensatory, compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', ''prevailin ...

rate. This was based on the economic structure of Parecon, developed by

Robin Hahnel Robin Eric Hahnel (born March 25, 1946) is an American economist and professor emeritus of economics at American University. He is best known for his work on participatory economics with '' Z Magazine'' editor Michael Albert. Politically, Hahne ...

and

Michael Albert Michael Albert (born April 8, 1947) is an American economist, speaker, writer, and political critic. Since the late 1970s, he has published on a variety of subjects. He has set up his own media outfits, magazines, and podcasts. He is known for ...

. The firm closed on January 26, 2014, citing financial difficulties.

History

Mondragon was co-founded by Winnipeg activists Paul Burrows and Sandra Drosdowech, and opened its doors on July 15, 1996 with an initial collective of ten members.

Structure

Mondragon's internal structure, inspired by the participatory economic model, is part of a long tradition of workers' collectives. It aspired to complete non-hierarchy: there were to be no owners or managers other than the workers themselves. One of the co-founders of the workplace presented a paper at the

World Social Forum The World Social Forum (WSF, ) is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization. The Worl ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

on the practical difficulties of applying parecon principles to a workplace in the midst of capitalism. This paper was later published in the anthology '' Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century'' (

AK Press AK Press is a workers' self-management, worker-managed, independent publisher and book distributor that specializes in publishing books about anarchism and the Far-left politics, radical left. Operated out of Chico, California, United States, ...

, 2008) under the title "Parecon and Workers' Self-Management: Reflections on Winnipeg's Mondragon Bookstore & Coffee House Collective." Some commentators have also noted that regardless of the egalitarian workplace structure, in the final analysis, retail work is still largely

menial A menial job is a job that requires low skills, is low paid, involves repeating the same tasks, and is perceived in society as being of low value.https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/the-sunday-edition-february-11-2018-1.4528197/michael-s-essay-we-don-t- ...

and turn-over rates are comparable to more corporate counterparts.David Leibel, “Café Resistance,” This Magazine (July-August 2002)

References

External links

Mondragon Bookstore and Coffeehouse
- Paul Burrows outlining how ParEcon was implemented at the Mondragon Bookstore & Coffeehouse Independent bookstores of Canada Industrial Workers of the World in Canada Worker cooperatives of Canada Anarchist bookstores Anarchism in Canada 1996 establishments in Manitoba 2014 disestablishments in Manitoba Defunct companies based in Winnipeg Anarchist collectives Socialism in Manitoba {{canada-retail-company-stub

History

Structure

See also

References

External links