Perhaps the banner covering the entire back wall of Mondragon sums it up best: “Labour is entitled to all it creates”. This radical bookstore and (vegetarian and vegan) coffeehouse first opened in 1996, starting out with ten original members, and has become a mainstay for Winnipeg’s activist community. Operating under the ParEcon model developed by Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert, the worker co-operative functions without a manager and divides wages equally amongst all the workers/members. Despite functioning under the auspices of a capitalist market economy, Mondragon has proven to be a sustainable and democratic model of economic (social and political) organization.
Noam Chomsky
Michael Albert
Proudhon
Email: mondragon@a-zone.org
Phone: 204-946-5241
Fax: 204-956-1505
Mailing Address:
91 Albert St.
Winnipeg, MB
R3G 1G5
Hours of Operation: Monday 8AM – 2PM, Tuesday-Saturday 8AM – 9PM,
Sunday Closed
Web-site: http://www.a-zone.org/mondragon/
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Mondragon is a political
bookstore and vegan restaurant located in Winnipeg's historic exchange district.
The word Mondragon comes from the Euskadi (Basque) town of the same name meaning
"Dragon Mountain" in English. Located in Northern Spain, Mondragon
– or Arrasate in the Basque language – is known for its extensive
network of workers' cooperatives, and has been the subject of numerous books
and articles.
Inspired by this and many other examples of alternative economics and workplace
democracy, our bookstore and coffeehouse is organized as a workers collective.
We have no manager, and all worker members, regardless of starting skill or
seniority, earn the same rate of pay. We call ours a "participatory"
workplace – after the participatory economic model developed by co-authors
Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert – and we feel that this structure is consistent
with anarchist and libertarian socialist principles.
Mondragon functions under the principles of a Participatory Economics (Par Econ) model developed by Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert, which is consistent with anarchist and libertarian socialist principles. Organized as a worker co-operative, the Mondragon Bookstore and Coffeehouse operates as a democratic workplace without a manager, in which all workers earn the same rate of pay and take equal parts in deciding how the establishment is run. As Michael Albert highlights in his support of Par Econ, “we want cooperative, self-managed allocation that expands social well being, development, and justice… Participatory Economics is an economic alternative to capitalism and also what has in Russian, China, and other countries opportunistically been called socialism” (http://www.parecon.org/writings/albert_lac.htm).
ParEcon: Life After Capitalism by Michael Albert http://www.parecon.org/pelac.htm
Looking Forward: Participatory Economics for the Twenty First Century by Michael
Albert and Robin Hahnel http://www.parecon.org/lookingforward/toc.htm
The Political Economy of Participatory Economics by Michael Albert and Robin
Hahnel
http://www.zmag.org/books/polpar.htm
Global Exchange http://www.globalexchange.org/
Oxfam America http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/campaigns/coffee
Make Fair Trade http://www.maketradefair.com/en/index.htm
Transgroup http://www.transfair.com/
Par Econ http://www.parecon.org/
ZNet http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm
This Magazine (write up on Mondragon)
http://www.thismagazine.ca/issues/2002/07/caferesistance.php