Seward Community Cafe
Encyclopedia
The Seward Community Cafe is a collectively-run cooperative
restaurant in the Seward
neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota
, notable for being the oldest worker-run
restaurant in the United States. Since its founding, the cafe has been owned and managed by a worker-owner collective of about 10-16 people, all of whom start at the same wage and are given the option of becoming a co-owner within six months of starting work. Management is structured in a non-hierarchical manner, and decisions are made by consensus
. The cafe is open for breakfast and lunch, and, with the exception of a side dish or two, serves an all-vegetarian
menu.
The cafe was embroiled in the "co-op wars" of the 1970s, where warring factions within the Twin Cities cooperative
business community clashed, sometimes violently. A group of radical Marxist-Leninist cooperative member/workers known as the Co-operative Organization
, or C.O., accused other cooperatives of adhering to bourgeois hippie ideals and ignoring the working class. After attempting and failing to take over the People's Warehouse (a distributor serving many of the cooperative businesses in the Twin Cities, run by representatives of various cooperatives) through negotiation at a board meeting, they simply walked into Warehouse offices and grabbed the checkbook and financial records. The C.O. then confronted their rivals at the Seward Cafe, announcing that "The People's Warehouse now belongs to The People!" Attempts to retake the warehouse resulted in physical confrontation, and cooperative businesses all around town, including the Seward Cafe, organized an effort to boycott the now-C.O.-controlled warehouse. Eventually, the warehouse was retaken through legal means, and the C.O. dwindled into apparent nonexistence, though rumors of their presence in the political underground persisted.
The cooperative movement dwindled throughout the '80s, and by 1993 the Seward Cafe was one of only five worker-run cooperative businesses in the Twin Cities. (The total number of cooperative businesses was larger, around 20 or so, but the majority had more hierarchical management structures and were not worker-run). The cafe remained committed to its business model, however, and in 2004, collective member Tom Pierson helped organize a national conference of worker-run businesses.
Today, the Seward Cafe is one of four worker-run cooperatives in the Twin Cities, along with the Hub Bicycle Co-op shops, the Hard Times Café
, and the Matchbox coffee shop. Seward provided financial assistance to Hard Times in 2007 when circumstances conspired to shut down the Riverside diner.
Worker cooperative
A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and democratically managed by its worker-owners. This control may be exercised in a number of ways. A cooperative enterprise may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which...
restaurant in the Seward
Seward, Minneapolis
The Seward neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., is geographically southeast of downtown and defined by the triangle of land bordered by Hiawatha Avenue to the west, Minneapolis Midtown Greenway to the south, the Mississippi River to the east, and Interstate 94 to the north...
neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, notable for being the oldest worker-run
Workers' self-management
Worker self-management is a form of workplace decision-making in which the workers themselves agree on choices instead of an owner or traditional supervisor telling workers what to do, how to do it and where to do it...
restaurant in the United States. Since its founding, the cafe has been owned and managed by a worker-owner collective of about 10-16 people, all of whom start at the same wage and are given the option of becoming a co-owner within six months of starting work. Management is structured in a non-hierarchical manner, and decisions are made by consensus
Consensus decision-making
Consensus decision-making is a group decision making process that seeks the consent, not necessarily the agreement, of participants and the resolution of objections. Consensus is defined by Merriam-Webster as, first, general agreement, and second, group solidarity of belief or sentiment. It has its...
. The cafe is open for breakfast and lunch, and, with the exception of a side dish or two, serves an all-vegetarian
Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism encompasses the practice of following plant-based diets , with or without the inclusion of dairy products or eggs, and with the exclusion of meat...
menu.
History
The Seward Cafe was founded in 1974, originally as an all-volunteer operation. In order to offset costs, worker-owners were given coupons for free food (known as "Burger Bucks") and some of the original collective members purchased a house to live in cheaply. Eventually, the cafe began to make enough money that workers could be paid minimum wage.The cafe was embroiled in the "co-op wars" of the 1970s, where warring factions within the Twin Cities cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
business community clashed, sometimes violently. A group of radical Marxist-Leninist cooperative member/workers known as the Co-operative Organization
The O (political group)
The O., short for "the Organization", also known as the C.O. or Cooperative Organization, was a Marxist-Leninist political group which grew out of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul food cooperative movement in the 1970s.-Origins:...
, or C.O., accused other cooperatives of adhering to bourgeois hippie ideals and ignoring the working class. After attempting and failing to take over the People's Warehouse (a distributor serving many of the cooperative businesses in the Twin Cities, run by representatives of various cooperatives) through negotiation at a board meeting, they simply walked into Warehouse offices and grabbed the checkbook and financial records. The C.O. then confronted their rivals at the Seward Cafe, announcing that "The People's Warehouse now belongs to The People!" Attempts to retake the warehouse resulted in physical confrontation, and cooperative businesses all around town, including the Seward Cafe, organized an effort to boycott the now-C.O.-controlled warehouse. Eventually, the warehouse was retaken through legal means, and the C.O. dwindled into apparent nonexistence, though rumors of their presence in the political underground persisted.
The cooperative movement dwindled throughout the '80s, and by 1993 the Seward Cafe was one of only five worker-run cooperative businesses in the Twin Cities. (The total number of cooperative businesses was larger, around 20 or so, but the majority had more hierarchical management structures and were not worker-run). The cafe remained committed to its business model, however, and in 2004, collective member Tom Pierson helped organize a national conference of worker-run businesses.
Today, the Seward Cafe is one of four worker-run cooperatives in the Twin Cities, along with the Hub Bicycle Co-op shops, the Hard Times Café
Hard Times Café
Hard Times Cafe is a collectively owned restaurant in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota that is cooperatively-owned by its workers. It is known for its punk and hippie ideology, its gritty ambiance, and its large selection of vegan and vegetarian food...
, and the Matchbox coffee shop. Seward provided financial assistance to Hard Times in 2007 when circumstances conspired to shut down the Riverside diner.
External Links
- Official website
- Facebook page
- Seward Community Co-op: Finding Aids: MNHS.org: description of materials pertaining to the Seward Cafe and the Seward Community Co-Op held at the Minnesota Historical Society.