About Us
What it is
The Anarchist is an anti-capitalist, anti-colonial cafe, shop, and radical community space on the stolen territory of many indigenous nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples.
The Anarchist is a one person business, founded by an a broke barista, hoping to grow into a worker owned and operated co-op. It came about by chance, with no concrete plan for the quintessential radical business, ideologically pure and beyond criticism. As such, it makes absolutely no claim to being any of those things. It's a messy, organic experiment in what a small business can become while trying to be informed by anarchist ideas. I fundamentally count on the questions, suggestions, criticisms, and collaboration of the community, especially future worker-owners, to turn the place into more than any one person could imagine.
The Cafe
Founded on a huge amount of experience at the cafe level of the specialty coffee industry (harbinger of gentrification around the globe) I aim to serve the most delicious "third wave" coffee drinks and baked goods and trendy light roast beans, while constantly looking for ways to undermine the plethora of toxic, oppressive, exclusive parts of the standard formula. I hope to be a subversive alternative to what we're all used to, but it's a learning process.
No purchase or permission is required to use the washroom or hang out in the cafe.
The Shop
In addition to the the usual food and drinks, I carry a selection of radical books, art, stickers, pins, buttons, keychains, jewellery, clothing, tote bags, and hopefully much more in the future. Painfully aware of the danger of commodifying radical politics, I try to work with small, relatively ethical (it's all relative in capitalism) supplier-creators, keeping prices as low as possible, and focussing on getting radical ideas and messages into the hands of anyone who wants them.