Toronto’s supposedly ‘anti-capitalist’ cafe, The Anarchist, has announced that it would be permanently shutting down after just over a year in business.
In a “nobody saw that coming” moment, a Toronto cafe that describes itself as an “anti-capitalist, anti-colonial cafe, shop and radical community space on stolen land,” announced that it would be shutting down permanently by the end of the month.
To counter the idea that the business was itself a capitalist enterprise, the cafe introduced a “pay what you can” coffee, which the owner said cost the business money, but was supposedly subsidised by more expensive drinks on the menu.
Yet, this was seemingly not enough to keep the coffee shop afloat, with owner Gabriel Sims-Fewer writing this week: “Unfortunately, the lack of generational wealth/seed capital from ethically bankrupt sources left me unable to weather the quiet winter season, or to grow in the ways needed to be sustainable longer-term.”
“It’s been an amazing experience, connecting with so many great community members, sparking desperately needed debate, raising the blood pressure of Conservatives (that includes you, “anarcho-capitalists” and “Libertarians”), fulfilling the dream of most service workers by not having to tolerate the presence of professional class-traitors (pigs and military), and experimenting with living and working in ways that don’t enthusiastically embrace the pure misanthropy of Capitalism,” he continued.
“Fuck the rich. Fuck the police. Fuck the state. Fuck the colonial death camp we call ‘Canada’,” the statement concluded.
The Anarchist, which opened for business in March of 2022, went viral last year, with internet users mocking the leftist cafe for charging high prices for its “speciality” coffee as well as selling “radical” art, books, clothing, jewellery, tote bags, and stickers.
“Rest in peace Marx and Engels you would have loved the anarchist coffee shop in downtown Toronto that is charging 4 dollars for a coffee in your name,” one Twitter user said.
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