Toronto’s Anarchist Cafe closing (or is it?)

We had this story in the headlines last week. A cafe in Toronto set up by a self-described anarchist progressive announced that, sadly, it would be forced to close after just a year in existence.

It turns out an “anti-capitalist” coffee shop in Toronto that let customers pay whatever they could afford couldn’t turn a profit.

The Anarchist Cafe, which opened in April 2022, was touted as an “anti-capitalist, anti-colonial cafe, shop and radical community space on stolen land.”…

“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 wrote in the bittersweet message.

The good news is that the owner, Gabriel Sims-Fewer, was the cafe’s only employee so no one else would be losing a job. He blamed the closure on a lack of generational wealth after a quiet winter but plenty of people had fun with the idea that maybe his ideology had something to do with his inability to keep the doors open.

The Anarchist, which described itself as “an anti-capitalist café, shop and radical community space on stolen land at 190 Jarvis,” is shuttering its java zealotry on May 30.

Hopefully, customers do not loot the remaining pastries and torch the place…

Sims-Fewer concluded his charming farewell with: “F-k the rich. F-k the police. F-k the state. F-k the colonial death camp we call ‘Canada.’”

No word if he will apply for unemployment benefits from said death camp.

There were also some pretty harsh comments left on his Instagram page where he made the announcement. My favorite response read, “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”

Anyway, a few days ago Sims-Fewer announced a sudden reversal of fortune. He’d secured a windfall of donations thanks to all the publicity he got about the closure.

The Cafe’s website offers more of a qualified outlook.

I’m not sure how long I will keep operating in the current location (a future in a new Toronto location is looking more and more possible), though hopefully for the rest of the Summer.

I have a lot of offers of support to pursue before I’ll know what the future of the shop is, and hope people will keep up the support in whatever way they can.

Keep an eye on instagram for updates!

Still very much f**k the rich, the police, and Kkkanada.

I guess we’re supposed to see this as a triumph for anti-capitalism but is it? Someone put up the money so he can continue to fail at the business of selling coffee for a while longer. How long will that last? Even he doesn’t seem to think it will be long.

But who knows, there may be a lot more anarchists in Canada and the US than there used to be. If all of them want to chip in so that Gabriel Sims-Fewer can curse at the police from behind his espresso maker, that’s okay with me. He seems to think that his survival is going to make heads explode but I sort of doubt that. I think it’s just a matter of time before people stop caring about this and he’ll go right back to be a failed barista. Maybe it will take another 6 months or may a year but I believe he’ll be back in the same spot eventually because he has contempt for business. That’s just not a great starting point for a business owner.