BY FILIBERTO NOLASCO GOMEZ In a report entitled “Why Do Co-Ops hate Unions”, Marianne Garneau spells it out bluntly,   “Grocery co-ops not only inflict the same indignities on workers as corporate, for-profit stores – low pay, harassment, lack of benefits, etc. – but they are just as intolerant of unions. In fact, co-ops are arguably…

Tuesday, Jul 12, 2022 To: Aj Hess <aj.hess@mariposa.coop>Cc: Board Convener <convener@mariposa.coop>, Board Vice-Convener <vice-convener@mariposa.coop> Hello, Aj: This is a followup to our brief communications during the Mariposa Board meeting on July 5th, 2022.  Mariposa Liberation still wants to invite you to a community forum that we will sponsor very soon. That night, the date July…

Marianne Garneau spoke to workers in over a dozen grocery cooperatives across the U.S. and Canada to produce this report on coops’ exploitation of workers and history of union-busting. We like to think of grocery cooperatives as islands of progressivism in an otherwise ruthless capitalist world. First sprung up in the 1970s, these groceries are…

Interview with IWW organizer Daniel Gross where he discusses ‘solidarity unionism,’ the innovative organizing model that has made gains for Starbucks workers where bureaucratic unions have failed. Submitted by jrivera on April 30, 2007 In this wide-ranging interview with IWW organizer Daniel Gross conducted by the UK-based Now or Never!, Gross discusses the innovative worker-controlled organizing model,…

Register Here! for Tuesday Meetings This is the name of Mariposa Liberation’s series started on August 9th and running for eight Tuesdays at 6PM, which started with Mariposa Food Co-op’s CEO (formerly General Manager) Aj Hess. See: An open letter to CEO Aj Hess of Mariposa Food Co-op for some of the questions and concerns already on the table. All…

by Joel Sronce The Philadelphia Partisan In mid-May, Joel Sronce sat down at Buna Café with three workers from Mariposa, a food co-op in West Philly. In March of 2022, Mariposa workers on the floor-staff — non-managerial staff and non-administrative staff — successfully won a union contract and are now union-affiliated with UFCW Local 1776-KS.…

Breaking Unions With the Language of Diversity and Social Justice Lee Fang June 7 2022 JOHN MERRELL, speaking in a southern drawl, apologized for presenting over Zoom in such casual attire. The lack of a jacket and tie, he said, was intentional. He was on-site with a client. “I figured this group would appreciate as much…

by Will The combination of structural oppression based on race and class, the history of white supremacy and capitalism, and how that affects people’s interactions with one another, has led to a school of thought called Privilege theory.  Privilege theory recognizes structural and historical oppression, but has an undue focus on individual behavior and thoughts…

The following is a snapshot in time from a moment of struggle in the New Mexico Co-op Movement, courtesy of the Wayback Machine. Some things have changed, notably the notorious “CDS Consulting” has decided to rebrand itself as “Columinate” in 2019 for reasons that are not entirely clear. As you read this and other material,…

Whether or not there’s a union at your workplace, you have the right to engage in “concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” For instance, you have the right to:• file grievances• complain about contract violations• hold rank-and-file meetings• visit the boss in a group on non-work time• petition•…

Rachel Stafford takes on bosses who claim to be bullied by worker organizing. Who’s bullying whom? Nearly every organizer has some version of my story—supervisors rolling out crocodile tears at the slightest provocation, managers claiming they’re being harassed, attacked, threatened, bullied. I’ve heard of a boss claiming that workers airing their grievances made him feel like a…

August 20, 2014 Authors Carl Ratner A recent conflict between management and employees at North Coast illustrates how corporate cooperativism can harm genuine cooperation between management and workers. Years ago, the workers formed a union because previous management had been unwilling to address workers’ needs.  In mid-2013, the co-op management brought in its attorney to…

TRACY FRISCH OCTOBER 24, 2016 (Image: take​back​the​coop​.com) Django Zeaman and Dorothy Finnigan, say they are not activists, but when they saw what was happening to their co-op in Santa Fe, it hit too close to home for them to ignore. Together with others who are concerned about the fate of the co-op, they have collected the 1,600 signatures — 10 percent…

What holds people back from confronting the boss about workplace issues? Instead of blaming “apathy,” it’s important to find out the actual reasons. You have to diagnose the problem before you can write the prescription. This chart shows four common obstacles the boss relies on to keep us from getting organized—and how you can help…

by David Graeber Source: https://libcom.org/library/utopia-rules-technology-stupidity-secret-joys-bureaucracy 3. The Utopia of Rules, or Why We Really Love Bureaucracy After All Everyone complains about bureaucracy. The essays in this book have themselves largely consisted of such complaints. Nobody seems to likes bureaucracy very much—yet somehow, we always seem to end up with more of it. In this essay I’d…

by Bob St.Peter Nearly forty years ago small groups of eaters who were tired of crappy, industrial food began organizing into buying clubs and cooperatives to bring whole, organic, and local foods into their communities. But like the organic food movement generally, the food coops that were born out of resistance and a progressive vision…

Welcome! This site, Mariposa Liberation is dedicated to the collective struggle to build a better Mariposa Food Co-op in Philadelphia PA. All of us who are involved: workers, “member-owners”, and others, deserve more than we are currently getting at our co-op. A truly co-operative organization must start with informed consent and base itself in community…

Welcome to Mariposa Liberation! This site is sponsored by an informal network of community members in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who care deeply about our food co-op, Mariposa, built up through decades of loving effort by many, many people, known and unknown, to create the food distribution resource we use today. Mariposa has grown greatly since…