Mondragon Bookstore & Coffeehouse

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. Mondragon's name comes from a Basque town of the same name, known for its extensive network of worker's cooperatives. Mondragon is organized as a worker's collective. There is no hierarchy; all workers make the same wage. It is based on the economic structure, Parecon developed by Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert.

Mondragon Bookstore
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.

Vegan Restaurant
Mondragon also operates a full vegan restaurant, coffee house, and catering company.

Non-Hierarchical Worker-Run Collective
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. 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.

Political events
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. See Wikipedia for a list of these.

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.
 * Many of Mondragon's past collective members have gone on to help start other activist projects, or join existing ones, such as Winnipeg-based groups like Natural Cycle, G7 Welcoming Committee Records, Arbeiter Ring Publishing, Organic Planet Worker Co-op, Dada World Data (DWD), as well as AK Press and Seven Stories Press.