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confederacy of communist cafés
Saturday, November 4 2017
This morning Gretchen wanted to try out a new coffee shop in Stone Ridge called Carthaigh Coffee. She'd heard good things about it, that it was vegan-friendly and perhaps that it was under politically-interesting ownership. The place was a little chaotic when we arrived, with boxes of vinyl LPs waiting for shelving and backdoor served as the front-door for an 80s-style print shop. But there was art from local artists on the walls and interesting books and magazines (one of which contained one of Gretchen's poems). Some of these were on a shelf in the coffee table located helpfully in front of a couch, which was where Gretchen and I sat as we drank our soy cappucinos and nibbled on our little cubes of delicious pumpkin cake. I was soon flipping through a book about urban permaculture, which featured pictures of backyard rabbit hutches and rainwater collection systems. The coffee shop was busy, with a range of people coming and going (including a group of well-dressed people who looked like they'd just come from the local Republican party headquarters or perhaps a strip club).
Before long I overheard the guy working the counter discussing political theory with one of the customers. He matter-of-factly said that he was a communist, which was refreshing (to me at least). At some point Gretchen and he (his name was Andrew) struck up a conversation about veganism's relationship to feminism and other "intersectional" identities, and how it plays a part in the bigger picture of unfolding emancipation. Andrew was no vegan, but he was a vegetarian, and an argumentative one at that. If he thought he could trap Gretchen by pointing out that the growing of vegetables also kills animals, he was mistaken. The reply to such an argument is an easy one: most of the crops grown in this country are fed to animals that are exploited for meat, eggs, or milk. Andrew went on to say that the coffee shop was his operation and he could never have an employee because that would be exploitation. Later, after Gretchen brought up Lagusta (the vegan entrepreneur in New Paltz who famously sells a "socialist soup" at her café), Andrew said that he would like to form a confederacy with such like-minded people to "seize the means of production." As we were heading back to our car, Gretchen chuckled about Andrew's idealism, saying "he's still young."
Gretchen thought she'd arranged to meet up with Carrie at her house, but then it turned out Carrie was coming to our house. I was down in the greenhouse upstairs at the time (and the dogs were with me for a brief time as well). It was cool outside and a bit cold in the house, but the greenhouse upstairs was 81 degrees Fahrenheit. [REDACTED]
In the greenhouse upstairs today with the dogs Ramona and Neville.
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