alternative The
first libertarian coffee from the farmer to the consumer Last April
we dedicated the cover
and one dossier,
prepared by Enrico Massetti, to the zapatista coffee. |
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The project Coffee Malatesta was born in Lecco in January 2010 when a group of young people gas the possibility to use free of charge a machine for roasting coffee, into disuse for several years, at the headquarters of the GAS Lecco (Associazione Comunità della Sporta). From an experimental activity was born in a short time with a collective will to create a working reality-based self-managed, anti-authoritarian decision-making dynamics, in the belief that a different way of life the production and consumption can be the basis of a social change in the sense of solidarity as an alternative to a capitalist economy preys on cultures, territories, time and space of our lives. In a year and a half of work increasing and many new relationships with purchasing groups, associations, comrades and friends, the team has faced important choices about the direction and practices of the project, despite the still embryonic nature and the absolute lack of initial capital has resulted in, and still involves a great difficulty in balancing the desire to make ethical decisions radicals on the one hand, with the pressing need for cash to reach the minimum target of autonomy (self-creation of an economic entity). MG: In the last few months of working together to prepare and shape the project Malatesta Coffee I got to really know and appreciate your determination to carry out the project of roasting. Can you explain to readers what led a group of university students and workers in their early twenties to undertake this activity? [Cristiano] Since the early stage of the project, we believed that roasting could be an instrument of emancipation from job insecurity and isolation: it was to bet on solidarity and mutual support within and outside of the collective, as a real alternative the current economic situation and employment. Coming from the experiences of libertarian activism at a national and regional level, we believe that the union of efforts and multiple voltages should be no more envisioned self-utopia, but a real project with a real prospect. In this way we were, and we still are, to field test a different relationship management and conflict resolution, between labor and capital. MG: Can you briefly describe the initial stages of the project and how the situation is evolvinge?
[Nicolò] Let's say that our project was
initiated thanks to the convergence of a series of circumstances,
primarily the presence of certain machinery of roasting and
grinding coffee in disuse in the home of the Solidarity Group
Purchase ("GAS") Lecco "the Community of the
sporta," of which we are members. It is clear that without
the availability of the owner of the machines and the support of
members of the GAS, our experience could not see the light
...
Tensions with the capitalist market MG: Tell us a little about the subscription campaign. What is the financial requirements to be met, how will be invested and what are the deadlines? How are you moving to secure funding?
[Jacopo]: From the beginning we wanted
to project the most part, shared by all those who can, buying
coffee, contributing to the growth of a circuit alternative
economic and employment in the belief that overturning the
existing relations of domination is about day by day choices of
certain field. For this reason, we prefer to turn to the
composite reality of the libertarian movement, the solidarity of
the buying groups and individuals rather than the conventional
banking system and credit to cover the financial needs of the
initiative. We have estimated, with the help of technicians, that
the minimum amount needed for start of the initiative is about
15,000 €, to cover necessary expenses such as leases and
investments required of a laboratory and putting it up to
standard, notary fees and tax, the transfer of machinery for
roasting, the purchase of a manual weighing, the pre-financing of
2012 green coffee crop, etc.. MG: How do you reconcile your libertarian education by building a company that will conduct its business in a capitalist market? Do you think that the cooperative form can ensure a general consistency between ends and means, or you have other ideas to affect reality in the libertarian sense? [Cristiano] We are
convinced that no legal formula can be guaranteed in advance nor
horizontal relations within a certain responsibility in the
relationship with communities and farmers who buys and
distributes coffee (I'm testing the many "Co"-style
company structures). It all depends on the choices we
collectively take each day. MG: The challenge is to reconcile the market and libertarian principles in order to develop different forms of relationship between company and employees and among suppliers and customers. We could give examples of how in practice you are making this summary? [Cristiano] More than a "conciliation" is substantially alter the predation and competition practices governing the market today. Compared to searching and retrieval of the green coffee we started with the aim of overcoming the mediation of the importers and we are already achieving significant results through the European Network of Support for Chiapas "RedProZapa" at the libertarian Hamburg cooperative Café Libertad and other small Italian associations and cooperatives that operate on projects of solidarity with indigenous peoples who grow coffee. Through these relationships anything but "business" we are now able to have coffee from sympathetic circuits, where the work of the farmers is recognized and where cultivation takes place according to natural and traditional methods. On the domestic side, although to date none of us is still paid for his work, we try to make decisions so as horizontal as possible and shared, balancing tasks and working times according to the possibilities and circumstances in each. Small roasting, traditional toasting MG: What are the differences between your coffee and those that can be found on supermarket shelves? This figure was only self-production and distribution by workers or are there other differences? And your current customers are able to perceive that this is not the usual Fair coffee?
[Elisa]: The differences between our
coffee and those found in the supermarket are many and
substantial: the first the search for direct contact with the
producers' cooperatives, which is far from easy for those who
looks for the first time the world of coffee. Currently, we have
achieved this by working with the Cooperative Café Libertad in
Hamburg regarding the importation of Zapatista coffee and the
Honduras, and the Mondo Solidale Association for the origin of
Guatemala. MG: Let's talk about 'price: the selling price of your coffee is in line with other organic and fair trade products, and consequently has a higher price than cheap supermarket coffee. How can you explain this difference? [Jacopo]:
Certainly an important factor is the method of
cultivation of green coffee: there is indeed a huge difference
between coffee grown in a natural, non-intensive way and in
association with other crops, and the gigantic extensions worked
in monocultures (large estates). In the first case there will be
a harvest of less abundant but higher quality and without erosion
and overexploitation of land, in the second case, there will be a
bigger yield but lower quality, which will be repeated in
subsequent years only by resorting to the use of pesticides and
chemical fertilizers.
MG: So the variable price in this case is indicative of a different relationship between the parties that make up the production chain. In other words, the price of Malatesta coffee can not go below a certain threshold without causing a "suffering" in individuals who contribute to the process, compromising their ability to survive and encouraging, therefore, the capitalist domination. Can you explain your choice to publish and update the transparent price (or price source) of all your products? [Nicolò] We
think it is important for those who drink coffee to know the path
and the role that different actors have played in the process,
showing how each step affects the final price. Keep in mind that
currently more than 50% of the price of Malatesta coffee is the
cost of raw material, ie that is paid to farmers who produce it.
Our roasting is then completely different from that of large
industrial plants: this means that our economic structure is
atypical compared to other producers of coffee (including Fair
Trade & Solidarity). In particular, the margin reserved for
roasting manages to be contained only because we do not create
any surplus value, but we only try to reward the work and support
the project. MG: To close this interview, a question which springs to mind with regard to the name you chose for your coffee and your initiative. Coffee Malatesta is a name undoubtedly very challenging and I, personally, I loved it the first moment. I note, however, that call the cafe with the name of one of the most feared Italian revolutionaries is not a move dictated by marketing needs, in a general context where anarchism is demonized by all media. I found it a gesture proud and very brave and I hope it brings you good wishes. I am sure that Errico Malatesta, who though he did not like to be placed on the pedestal, under present circumstances would support the initiative ... [Cristiano] Very often we find ourselves having to explain the genesis and the attitude with which we have chosen this name for us is a sort of constant reference to the will of the individual and collective empowerment that drives the project. In a situation like this we believe it is crucial to have more clear who we are and where we want to go, and in this sense very clearly declared libertarian identity helps us to get our hands on when we interact with people who are not libertarians . It is clear that there is no desire for ownership or use of a historical figure of tremendous importance as Malatesta, but rather a real tension to change one's life and tragic social circumstances in which we are, two aspects which, as Malatesta has well demonstrated with its intense revolutionary activity, can and must go hand in hand. Marco Gastoni
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