The headquarters for Winnipeg’s anti-capitalist movement may soon be put on the open market unless a co-operative made up of the businesses currently operating there can take over the building.

Referred to as the Old Market Autonomous Zone (or A-Zone), 91 Albert St. will be undergoing a legal transition in 2010. The building is home to several worker co-operatives, including Mondragón bookstore and café, Natural Cycle and the Rudolph Rocker Cultural Center.

Paul Burrows, the current owner, will be relinquishing control over the building with the hopes that the current businesses in the building can organize themselves into a larger co-operative; otherwise the building will be put on the open market.

The A-Zone is a three-storey historical building in the heart of the Exchange District, built in 1899.

Currently, the building is a centre for social activism in the city and an example of a functional worker co-operative, an alternative to the capitalist business model. However, if a larger worker co-operative can’t be organized to take over the building, it may go on the open market where anything can happen.

“One of the options is to register a new co-operative that will take out a rather large business start loan and buy the building as a worker co-operative in itself,” said Charley Justice, co-operative worker at Mondragón and the War of Music record store.

The two other options are that the building be purchased by one of the co-operative members or that it go on the open market. The last scenario is unlikely, said Justice, since Burrows is giving them the option to buy, with a calendar year to do so.

Worker co-operatives operate without a formal hierarchical structure.

“Within businesses people practice consensus in the balancing of job roles,” said Justice. “Instead of having a boss, someone who walks around making sure everyone is acting productively, we have accountability sessions.”

“Accountability sessions” are meetings where everyone voices their opinions on matters relating to the business to ensure that no single person is monopolizing the business.

“I feel your worth as a human and a worker is respected within the structure in a way that is, I think, impossible in the traditional business model,” said Stephen Kirk, grocery manager at Organic Planet Worker Co-op.

“I think when you have a structure where everybody’s voice is essentially given equal weight, at any decision, someone can to choose to block it and say ‘I’m not OK with this,’” said Kirk. “In six years, we’ve never had to resort to a majority vote, we’ve always come to consensus.”

Published in Volume 64, Number 3 of The Uniter (September 17, 2009)