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Any Starbucks can serve up a good cup of coffee. But if you’re looking for something more substantial than a cup of joe, check out the offerings at Red Emma’s anarchist café and bookstore in downtown Baltimore.
I stopped by Red Emma’s for the first time recently and enjoyed perusing original literature as I sipped my morning brew. The library is extensive, covering small revolutionary movements in Middle Eastern countries, ideological conflicts in countries in North, West and Southern Africa, and America (including communism, the black power movement, and way more). They also carry many books that are relevant to the less academic among us; my favorite section was the DIY books, especially the instructional How and Why: A Do-It-Yourself Guide, which contains a wide range of incredibly detailed instructions on how to garden, build your own bicycle, homeschool your children, and much more. The stores well-stocked shelves hold fascinating reading for any visitor: anarchist, Marxist, or just plain curious. (My favorite was a children’s book that connected a different word from the vocabulary of anarchy to every letter of the alphabet.)
Trying to ascertain the philosophy of Red Emma’s is more complicated than one would think, especially considering that they aren’t shy about their views. They opened in November 2004, according to their website, and it is named for Emma Goldman, a political and social activist who wrote extensively before her death in 1940. Goldman was an avid political anarchist, preaching the evils of state societies and extolling the importance of individual rights, especially of sexual freedom and feminism. The ‘red’ in Red Emma’s, according to a member of the collective I spoke with on the phone, was actually a nickname given to anyone who was considered left of center politically, an attempt to associate all leftists with the Bolsheviks. However, Goldman was very clearly not communist; in their one meeting, Goldman chastised Lenin for jailing anarchists and other activists. (As the collective member put it on the phone, she was one of the few people who “talked smack to Lenin and lived.”)
This common tendency to throw all left-wing ideologies together is confusing, considering how varied their philosophies are. Communism and anarchism are examples of this phenomenon. Whereas anarchism as a movement calls for self-ownership and places the individual first, communism calls for society as the sole owner of resources. Where anarchism and communism run together is within the libertarian movement. Libertarian socialism, often called anarchist communism, is a fusion of the two, arguing for a stateless society that decentralizes power, putting it in the hands of the people through direct democracy. You can research the issues yourself in Red Emma’s comprehensive collection of political writings.
Red Emma’s is run as a collective. It is owned exclusively by the workers, and they are all self-managers. All decisions are made collectively, by consensus of the group. Everyone involved in the project has an equal stake and equal say in decisions ranging from adding a new piece of literature to adding a new dish to the menu. I found this appealing; it’s hard to imagine my local Starbucks asking their baristas before making decisions about which magazines to stock the coffeehouse with. Although the literature collection is what makes the place stand out, the enterprise doesn’t focus on the bookstore to the neglect of the coffeehouse; staffers say they make about equal profit from both. The profits are then reinvested into the collective, and are often given as a small stipend to those in the collective who dedicate their time to working behind the counter.
The place isn’t as large as one might expect a combination bookstore and coffeehouse to be, and all available space is used to pack in books, zines, bumper stickers, and other merchandise. Three or four tables sit in the middle of the coffeehouse area, where strangers sit close to one other, reading or using the free wifi. It’s in the back of the store that the action is. Rows of books pack from floor to ceiling, plus the back wall, with topics varied among ideological positions. Red Emma’s says that it attempts to cover the “full historical and contemporary range of the diverse and often contradictory struggles for freedom, equality and self-determination.” To illustrate that, collective members pointed out to me that they carry extensive texts that discuss both Marxism and anarchy, completely different radical philosophies. I noticed, similarly, that they have many texts about Malcolm X and the Black Power movement, but they also have books about the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and nonviolence in the civil rights movement. Of course, they acknowledge that the collective tends to have a shared sense of political identity, leading to a selection that focuses on the ‘ism’s- militarism, feminism, socialism, sexism, racism, and so on.
I didn’t find the notable bias toward radical struggle off-putting at all; the operation is first and foremost a political project, and they don’t attempt to hide it.
That said, I noticed a sizable selection of anti-Israel books, and not a single book giving a different perspective on the Arab-Israeli conflict. (For the record and in the interests of full disclosure, I’ve been to Israel multiple times, and spent two years studying there, and studying the Arab-Israeli conflict. Zionism is one of my passions.) One book they carry, Shlomo Sand’s 2008 The Invention of the Jewish People, attempted to prove that Judaism is composed of members of different races who have no historical connection to one another, but rather all adopted Judaism at different stages in history. Therefore, he argues, the Zionist argument that the Jews are an ancient people with an ancient homeland is myth. Sand is entitled to his opinion. But Red Emma’s had none of the extensive recent literature which disproves large segments of the book through recent genetic studies showing strong links between Jews from Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Middle Eastern backgrounds. Red Emma’s anti-Israel bias is common among the left-wing across America and especially in Europe—odd considering that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where ethnic, religious and racial minorities all have equal rights as citizens. (Not to mention that kibbutzim, agricultural collective communities, fall perfectly in line with the anti-government movements, and many kibbutz leaders were anarchists themselves.
This sin of omission, by stocking Shlomo Sand books and none of the books that show other (scientific) sides, gives less informed visitors dangerously misleading impressions. I can easily point to this glaring problem with Red Emma’s’ literature because of my specific intellectual background, and it makes me wonder what other misleading information is potentially among the store’s bookshelves.
Because the mission of Red Emma’s focuses on community education and activism as much as casual eating and perusing literature, they often host evenings which include speakers, films, and other events for the Baltimore community. According to the website, there were eight events in March alone, including one speaker, four writers discussing their works, three film screenings and one Purim party. All events are either free or have a $5-10 suggested donation. Red Emma’s told me they never pay speakers; the money goes straight back into the collective.
One of the more interesting questions for me is where religion fits into the anarchist ideal. One person from Red Emma’s who was in touch with me told me that early revolutionary movements were often not only secular but hostile to religion. However, Red Emma’s claims not to work in the same way. The bookstore’s mission, they say, is open to connections that people may have between personal faith and the larger fight for social justice, which transcends boundaries. I also saw some books in the store that actually dealt with the interface between religion and some historical movements for justice. One beginner’s guide to anarchism that contained a section explaining how easy it was to reconcile religion with anarchism and the global fight for peace and justice.
Don’t live close enough to Red Emma’s to make it a habit? No problem. There is a website devoted to starting up your own version.
My verdict? The vegetarian food is tasty, the organic coffee is fair trade (are you shocked?), the literature is impressive, and the wifi is free, making the coffeehouse a desirable destination worth repeated visits.
To see more pictures of Red Emma’s, check out the photo shoot Sasha Funk posted last year.
http://contested-terrain.net/emma-goldman-on-zionism/
April 12, 2011 11:15 amI’m just a fan/customer of red emma’s, I agree it’s pretty nice, and they actually do stock the book you mention approvingly, “A Living Revolution: Anarchism in the Kibbutz Movemen”, I know because I bought my copy there!
April 12, 2011 8:46 pm