| Type | Worker cooperative |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1996 |
| Headquarters | Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
| Website | mondragon.ca |
The Mondragon Bookstore & Coffeehouse is a political bookstore and vegan cafe located in The Old Market Autonomous Zone at 91 Albert Street in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The name comes from the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation and other organisations in the Basque town of Mondragón Spain that is known for its extensive network of worker's cooperatives.
Mondragon is organized as a workers' collective: there is no hierarchy and all workers receive the same wage rate. This is based on the economic structure, Parecon developed by Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert.
Contents |
Mondragon Bookstore carries books related to anarchism, ecology, indigenous issues and resistance, Marxism, feminism, human and animal liberation, queer issues, sexuality, health, vegetarianism, economics, labour, media, activism and social change. Mondragon also carries zines, alternative children's books, political posters and t-shirts.
Mondragon also operates a vegan cafe, and catering company.
Mondragon also operates a full vegan grocery store entitled Sacco & Vanzetti's, after the two notable anarchists of the 1920s. It specializes in local and organic fare.
Mondragon's internal structure, inspired by the participatory economic model, is part of a long tradition of workers' collectives. It aspires to complete non-hierarchy: there are 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 in Brazil on the practical difficulties of applying parecon principles to a workplace in the midst of capitalism.[1] This paper was later published in the anthology Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century (AK Press, 2008) under the title "Parecon and Workers' Self-Management: Reflections on Winnipeg's Mondragon Bookstore & Coffee House Collective.".[2] Some commentators have also noted that regardless of the egalitarian workplace structure, in the final analysis, retail work is still largely menial, and turn-over rates are comparable to more corporate counterparts.[3]
Mondragon has also been a venue for social and political events since opening its doors in 1996. A partial list of activists and speakers who have given talks or participated on panels at Mondragon over the years includes: