The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 424 - The Co-op War

Episode Date: April 7, 2020

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine the Minneapolis Co-op War.SourcesTour DatesRedbubble Merch

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bilingual American History podcast each week. I, David Anthony, read a story from American History to my friend. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. That was the Spanish version of my name. David. Really great stuff. Really fantastic. I said we were a bilingual podcast and then I hit the bilingual pretty hard. Up top. Great stuff buddy. Really. This is the improving comedy. This is the comedy conversation part of our podcast where we talk hilariously about things that are going on. Bad part of the show. New part of the show needs to go. How are you? What's happening right

now? Please just go to the format. No, just stop coming up with stuff. What? You need a project at home. You need to go build a chair. Build a chair. I brush my dog. Oh my God, Dave. We are recording this. I cook and we don't need any bathroom. Good for you, buddy. These are regular things. No, no, no, no. You kind of stay inside. Dave, it's okay, buddy. It's okay. You can build. Seriously, have you thought about building the chair? That'll suck up about two days. And called it, quote, his jam pads. Jam pads. I'm the fucking hippo guy. Dave, okay. My name's Gary. My name's Gary. Wait. Is it for fun? And this is not going to come to Tiggly

Cloud. Okay. Now hit him with the puppy. You both present sick arguments. Actually, I think we're going to get a guest appearance by Jose on this one. He's right here. Ready to party. Oh boy. Here comes that little rascal. All right. January 30th, 1927. Oh, Jesus Christ. Oh, no. That's Dave. It's tough. I worry. I worry. I'm going to find parallels. Lawrence F. Johnson, known as Larry, was born on a farm in Coldwater, Michigan. Okay. Oh, he came back. Now I can see your face again. Hi, buddy. When he graduated from high school, Larry joined the Navy to fight in World War II. After the war, he went to college, studied economics. He married Judith Darilla in 1947.

They had three kids. Okay. Cranking them out. Cranking. Larry was a successful businessman and made a lot of money in real estate in Minneapolis. Okay. In 1969, when Larry was 42, he grew disenchanted with American life. Okay. Sure. Imagine. Yeah. Can you imagine in 69 or every year since? Especially because he's, oh, what's up, hoser? How does this seal get on the bed? Larry was mostly disenchanted because the Vietnam War and his sons were now old enough to be drafted. He, so he's, he just retired suddenly and divorced his wife. Okay. So he's having a midlife crisis. Yeah. That's basically, yeah. 42. We call it the double when you do that. That's the double. Right. Right. Dude. Sorry. Jose, what

the fuck? No, I see a tail. He basically put his butt in the can. It's just, could not be basking in the wires more. He's like, this is great. Now he's biting me. Everything's gone fucking crazy. When does that not happen? Stop motherfucker. Wow. Stop. I'm, I'm trying to do a podcast. You're entering the, the studio. Uh, so he then, he owned a, he bought all this real estate because he's in, you know, real estate business and he at one point bought a, a train depot in the small town of Georgeville, Minnesota. What does that mean exactly? It means that there is a train depot that was no longer in use. So he bought it. Okay. But the depot itself, what is the train depot is like? I would imagine a small town.

It's basically just a train station. Right. Although it could be more, it could be more, it could be more of a hub, but who knows. Uh, so he planned to turn it into an alternative shopping mall. Cause those are the best. Yeah. No. Alternative ones for sure. Where you're like, Whoa, I never want this at a mall. We're the alternative mall. Yeah. We're a different kind of mall. You, you give us stuff and we pay you. Would you like not close? Here you go. This, that's it. Here at not a shop. We're in the not really mall. Uh, so what do you do? But instead of turning it into an alternative shopping mall, he ended up, he ended up leasing it to, uh, to cheap, pretty, pretty cheap to hippies. In actual hippies. To do what?

Well, uh, for what they were going to live in it and, and I just live in a train. Okay. Okay. Yep. Uh, in the fall of 1969, he went to collect, uh, overdue rent of approximately a hundred dollars. Okay. So he made a whole, he made a trip all the way there to get us a hundred bucks. Yep. Worth it. When he arrived, the hippies, quote, explained that they weren't going to pay rent because property is theft. And that's a, it's a communist idea, but it's a non capitalist idea that a lot of people are going with these days. Sure. Uh, a lot of the quotes, uh, but if I don't say who the quotes from it's, uh, author Craig Hawks, storefront revolution. Uh, so the hippies then asked Larry if he would like to hang out

with them. Okay. Sure. Which you do with your landlord. Yeah. Oh, all the time. I, my landlord, he pays rent because he's over at my place so much. Yeah. You guys are hanging. Oh, it's gross. Jamming out guitar hero. You name it. Splitting sandwiches, smoking cigarettes, playing darts, making flap jams, sweating sammies. Absolutely. Yeah. We'd love to split a Sammy. Yeah. We'll split a hoagie. We'll split a Sammy. We'll split a grinder, split a Euro. I'm not, we are not recognizing social distancing me and him. We are going, our friendship is powerful. Do you guys, when you guys, we need, when you guys split a hoagie, do you, do you both buy it off lady in the tram? Lady in the tram, buddy. I'm talking about lady

in the tram. Meet in the middle. Uh, so this ended up being a transformative experience for Larry. He stayed there for a while and within two years he had sold all his properties and was protesting the Vietnam war through his own now independent publishing house called the little free press. So this guy hung out. He hung out too long. They were like, all right, Larry, you should go back. And he's like, no way, man. They're all coming down on us. This system is, the system is against it. Larry, put the joint down, dude. We're just not going to pay you. I'm sorry. You guys, man. I'm starting my newspaper guys. It's a zine. Now Larry obviously had money from being very successful previously in real estate

and he decided to travel the world to practice quote his new philosophy of a low consumption lifestyle. Enjoy his freedom from being a wage slave and producing his zine. He did actually make a zine. Wow. Okay. So this guy went to Silicon Valley headspace before Silicon Valley. Yeah. Right. Like in a way, he's like, he's rich as shit. He's like, he's changed the world. It's a moonshot. Except he's, yeah, I guess he did it cause he's rich, but he's the real deal. The opposite. Yeah. Because the, all the Silicon Valley guys are the opposite. Like more into how much they can consume. Right. But, but a lot of times through the guys of like, we're going to help the world, man. Yeah. Right. But this

is a little, I would watch a reality show called rich hippie, by the way. Oh, fuck you. The zine was originally called the free system, but then it was renamed the priceless economic system. Quote, the premise of the PES is simple. If everyone stops taking pay for their work, there will be no monetary cost of production. All goods and services can then be free of charge. Thus people have no need for money so they can work without pay. Now the only problem I see in that is if I just suddenly stopped taking money for my work, I would start to death. You can only stop taking money for your work if you're already rich, unless everybody agrees to do the same thing at the same time. Right.

Right. Which is the hardest. I mean, God, we could just do it. If we could just all, if we could just get all of us on an email thread without the government or the FBI, if we could all just get on a thread, you know what I mean? Are we done with this shit? You know, people will be like, yeah, I'm out. Done. Yeah, I'm done. Oh, I'm so done. Done. So, you know, this went on for a while with Larry. When he was 63, Larry became lonely and put an ad in a singles paper quote, 63 active, healthy, divorced, white grandpa. White grandpa. That's really the name of the movie. Made my penis run into myself. White grandpa in a single ad. What am I looking for? Oh,

look, they got a couple of white grandpas here. Look, we know you're white grandpa. I'm what they call a white grandpa. Come on, give me a white grandpa hug. That's my fetish. Come into white grandpa's. Where are you guys going? We're going out at grandpa's. We're going to try and score some white grandpa's tonight. Getting some WG. You know what I mean? LG seeks WG five, seven, 160 pounds with full beard and long hair. I'm a writer, traveler, self-publisher, self-appointed, Mr. Fixit for the operating system of the spaceship Earth. Sailor, science fiction reader, an atheist and am secure, but not rich. Hey, can we go back to the middle part of the

ad? Yeah, which part? What do you do to the Earth? Okay, I'm a Mr. Fixit for the operating system of the spaceship Earth. Okay, get back to your ad. I just wanted to make sure I heard that part right. Yep. Okay. Good. I wasn't, yeah. Okay. I desire an active, healthy, and not overweight, divorced white female about my age who doesn't absorb or believe the mass media, who doesn't get seasick, who likes and can afford economical, worldwide travel, and who enjoys the quiet country life. He's looking for a white grandma. No one, no one answered the ad. Oh, well, I mean, it's not a knock on the gentleman, but the ad is absolutely crazy.

Sounds like a shopping list on Mars. It's insane. I'm a white grandpa. I'm looking for a lady who doesn't get seasick. You know what I mean? I just get a lot of times I go out on the ocean for a date. The woman ends up barfing over the side of my yacht. I want a woman who's in shape, doesn't get seasick and can absorb and doesn't believe mass media. That's what I'm looking for. Look, I'm looking for a rich, old, white, non seasick, no fatties. They're pretty clear. And if you have a wrench to fix Earth's motor, I like that too. Because of little free presses longevity, some call Larry the grandfather of the zine movement. Sure. I like to refer to him as I refer to him as the first white

grandpa in the personal ads. I'm a white Dave. I can't because I don't even picture that you're being like a white person. I just think the hair that just like a white. Yeah, he's talking a white all over grandpa. You know what I mean? I'm like a cloud that talks. On March 13th, 1966, Larry was murdered by his own grandson, who then killed himself shortly afterwards. So that, so Larry had a lot of fun. Yeah, thanks a lot for that. Good stuff, Dave. Now, Larry's Georgeville property was bought by countercultress Susie Schreuer and Keith Ruana. They want to turn it into a self-sustaining commune. So now they have the train depot. They've taken it over. 20 people live there.

They dug a well. They built an outhouse. They installed the stove. They put in a kiln from which they made and sold pottery. Their goal was to, quote, live the revolution. Cool. Love it. Do it. Quote, the atmosphere was political, funky, and rustic. A hallway cluttered with a hundred pound bags of grain, an expansive kitchen with earthenware pots and wooden utensils, huge pickle jars, astrological charts, thorough quotes on the wall, sleeping areas with tent-like compartments littered one large floor separated by India print bedspreads and a treehouse platter formed for the children. Hey, I like everything you want. I like it. It's everything you would want. It's perfect for me, especially the pickle jars. Debbie Schreuer was a recent

high school graduate and younger system of younger sister of commune founder Susie Schreuer. And in February 1970, Debbie and other commune residents went to San Francisco. There, hippie anarchists. I didn't know they were hippie anarchists. I'm learning a lot about hippies in this. I would imagine there's crossover. No, it makes sense, right? It makes sense. The anarchists told them about food scavengers who were called the diggers. Okay. Okay. So they would go, yeah. So they would go digging. They would go digging through dumpsters, grocery store dumpsters for food that was still edible. We still have dumpster divers here. Totally. And then they would distribute the edible food to drifters in the hate Ashbury. Yeah.

There's a, I mean, there's, I mean, there are, there's like a lot of places throughout total, totally edible food. Oh yeah. Yeah. We're very waste. The Georgeville commune members were inspired to quote withdraw from the capitalist food system because of what they heard about the San Francisco people. They found they could feed themselves with a garden and by buying in bulk quantities, grains, beans, honey, molasses, dried fruits and nuts. So it's all coming together. I love it. But, but the commune started coming apart. A reporter from Minneapolis came out and Debbie told him that the scene that quote, it was all kind of straight. That's a really, what does that mean? In hippie talk, hippie

talk. That's like the worst. Not good. You didn't want to straight anything. Yeah. But why is it kind of straight George? Well, the Georgeville commune was done soon after. I don't know. She never really went into it. I just assumed that rather than it holding hippie values that they had, there are people who are into capitalism and whatever else. The Georgeville commune was done soon after the reporter came out. It lasted from 1969 to 1973, but still Debbie Schreuer left with an appreciation for collective action, especially in regards to collective eating. Right. Okay. Good. Now, summer of 1970, Debbie and Susie came up with a new idea to open a store that allowed people to buy food necessary for communal

living at wholesale prices. Okay. The ultimate goal was to obtain economic and ideological independence from chain grocery stores. Debbie had some money left over and two friends offered her their porch and basement for storage and even their pickup truck for transporting food. Now Debbie and Susie had worked for underground organizations in Minnesota and they got volunteers together. They bought $100 worth of food, cracked wheat, whole wheat, honey, molasses, oil, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, Spanish peanuts, soybeans, raisins, and powdered milk. And then they made posters and flyers to advertise. They called it the people's pantry. An ad was published in an underground weekly magazine, 100 flowers on May 15th, 1970. Quote, now good

food for strong revolutionary bodies at People's Pantry 616 South 20th Avenue in the rear. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. They did not expect to turn a profit, but hope their movement would spread in the community. The people's pantry was open on Tuesday afternoons and Thursday evenings for a total of eight hours a week. So you had to probably really get in there and get your food. Yeah. It's like shopping now. Sorry. Patrons worked odd hours. Where's the line start? This is excuse me. It's over near the right aid. Oh, good. So patrons worked odd hours and left what they thought was a fair payment for food. You're like, oh, I think these beans are worth this amount. Now, I love it, but it also takes

me back. You know, what it reminds me of is when you were a kid and you would see the please take two, leave some for the other kid's bucket when someone wasn't home for Halloween. You know what I'm saying? That's right. It's a total Halloween. And that, that, yeah, guess what? It was a flawed system. I guess who has all the whatchamacallits after one flawed system. Visit. That's right. Please save some for the other kids. You'll be like, please stay home next time. Dumb fuck. Boom. But the people's pantry began to thrive. Must because three nearby draft board offices were radicalizing all the kids and anti-war sentiments were very high. So anything that was not, you know, the man, right? Ralph's or Vaughn's.

Right. But, but by the time the club started making a profit, the Minneapolis health department shut it down for not having a license. The pantry is forced to go underground in 1971. That's right. Underground grocery store, motherfucker. And they began a rivalry with, they began a rivalry with an alternative grocer named true grits who was run by two hippies, Tom Quinn and Roman. Okay. So we've got, this is fantastic, Dave. We're going to have to take our produce underground. So Quinn and Roman, Roman ran true grits and handled all business affairs. But the pantry quote belonged to no one. So it's a philosophical difference of how to run a grocery store. The people's pantry versus true grits. Patrons of the pantry,

that's right. Patrons of the pantry knew the Shryer sisters were the shop, were the storekeepers, that big decisions were handled communally. And in February 1971, Quinn announced true grits would reopen as a cooperative. Okay. True grits was going the other way. They're changing up a little bit. Yeah. 200 people bought a $2 shares of stock during the first community meeting and the North country cooperative was born. It was incorporated and had a clear business structure. Now food co-ops are nothing new. This isn't, this isn't a new thing in many, in Minnesota. Okay. But they've been around since the thirties. But with the establishment, mostly in the country though, not in cities. Right. But with the establishment of the

North country co-op, they grew, food co-ops grew increasingly political. There was a symbolic choice between capitalism and imperialism or communist socialist anarchist ideals. As groceries. They should, I mean, that's what it should be called. They should all be called that when you walk in. It should just be very clear. What's your take? We're capitalist. Yeah. I don't shop with capitalists. No, I shop with communists. Where is the communist store? That's over there near the right. There's where the line is. Damn it. Can't win. So in Minneapolis, co-ops became hubs of political activity, activity. Mostly the community was made of the new left who wanted to live under an alternative economic economic system that

provided high quality items for low prices while making a statement against the evils of materialism, which I'm totally dumb asses. What? Yeah, nice try. Stupid. The popularity of co-ops created more demand. New co-ops started popping up all over the twin cities. One named the people's warehouse was run by volunteers and it was similar to the pantry. No single owner relying on individuals to function. It was based on a rent free property owned by the University of Minnesota and the people's warehouse became a central meeting ground for local co-op members to join. So all the, all the co-ops around town, it starts becoming like the hub. Right. It must be very weird to shop there though because you're

like, excuse me, can you guys, I just want to get a couple of sweet potatoes. She's like, oh yeah, for sure, man. Anyway, what we got to do is we got to get inside everybody's angle. You know what I'm saying, man? Excuse me. Sorry. I just want to get some peppers. Oh, right. Sorry. Yeah, that's basically what it was. Right. Okay. Are you allowed to smoke in the produce? Yeah, yeah. Take a hit of this shit. Now, my daughter is with me. Oh, sorry, man. It soon became known as the mother co-op. Okay. It's just a really terrible name. By the end of 1971, it was the main supplier of North country ecology, Whole Foods, New Riverside, and Selby co-ops. So now it's becoming so big that it's now the supply warehouse

for all these other co-ops. Right. Okay. By the spring of 1972, the difference in beliefs of the co-ops was even more apparent. So the people's warehouse called for an all co-op meeting in March. Dave, there's a lot, there's a lot of sex of stores happening here. A lot of, a lot of camps. Yeah. Okay. Sure. It's like when all the clans get together and brave heart. Same thing. Honestly, I don't even want to tell you what it reminds me of because I've said it so many goddamn times on this show, but it is like the warriors of the grocery store. Co-op meeting. Gather round, grocers. Each co-op sent one rep. Issues ranged from the logistical to the philosophical. As the co-ops became more and more popular,

experience became needed. Okay. Some co-ops started letting customers ring up their own groceries, but quote, after about the second day, people noticed there wasn't much money left in the cash register. Right. Yeah. Well, had a good run. Two full days. I mean, that's pretty good. That's what we said. Yeah. That's the Halloween thing. Sorry. What are you taking change for? Nothing. I'm just taking some money in the register. Oh, okay. Excuse me. City health inspectors threatened to shut down warehouses for not complying with federal regulations. Also, no one was in charge of handling the finances of the co-ops. An anarchist now had to face the realities of a structuralist organization. Take what you want, man. There

should be rules. Let me be a fly on the wall of when the anarchists realized they need the rules. Just give me that where it's like, no, man, because we can't. Well, maybe we just got to hire this guy. All right. We hire him, but that's where we draw the line. Well, then we have to incorporate it. We hire him. Shit. Okay. So we're going to, all right. So we're going to hire, we hire him, then we incorporate, and then we're done after our taxes. After what? Okay. Okay. We call it after our taxes. Fine. Then we're done. Can I just make one suggestion? What? Anarchy incorporated. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. If I don't know if that's going to be beaten, that is a pretty good one right there. That's pretty

good. I'll be the CEO. Shit. I'll just be the CEO. And then, then we use the company to fight ourselves. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. Dude, we are going to put our, we are going to put our own foot so far up our ass, we're going to wish that we never even met ourselves. So it was becoming harder to actually live on the ideology the movement was founded on. This gave rise to a self-righteousness in the movement. Okay. People's warehouse had to distance itself from the co-ops purest ideals. Okay. Warehouse workers became full-time employees and were paid higher wages to ensure consistency and reliability because the warehouse supplied so many other co-ops. Uh-huh. So. Becoming a grocery store. Yeah. I mean, little

by little. Removing every piece of individuality. Oh, fuck it. Let's just do a Vaughn's. We're here, right? This upset a lot of people in the movement who believed a five-day workweek was, quote, oppressive to brothers and sisters who are not as physically strong as others. And they didn't think it was fair that some co-op workers made more than others. But some small co-ops had so many unreliable volunteers, they would fall apart and lose all patrons. So it's a fine line. Yeah. It really is. I mean, volunteer, volunteerism really relies on volunteerism. Yes. It's truly. So am I supposed to be in such a paradoxical state in the middle of this, that there's just no solution, that we just will never find the

middle ground? No, we'll get there. Is that what you're trying to leave me with? We'll get there. No, we'll get there. Animosity increased when it was discovered that Roman had sold, he's of the true grits owner, right? Okay. Had sold 500 pounds of people's flour to the local health food chain, Retrition World, for a $7 profit. I'll tell you, it's not that easy to follow when you don't have these grocery stores around anymore. Wait, so who is it again? I mean, it's just so gossiping. Yeah. Romans, one of the guys who started true grit. Did you guys hear true grits sold 100 pounds of the people's flour to whole foods? Did you know how much they made? $7. $7. Is that how much they made? Yeah. That's

not much, right? That's nothing. What are they doing? Let me just say that's the worst flour deal I've ever heard of. What is the point? Flour power, man. Flour power. No, wrong. You idiot. So co-op leaders expelled Roman and boycotted his soap business. You guys, you've gone too far. Number one, Roman, you're out. Number two, we're not buying your soap anymore. You guys, that is too much. What a great, I mean, that really is like the hippiest walk offline ever. And you know what else, Roman? None of us are even buying your soap anymore. No. The scandal was called flower gate. Sure. Some self-righteous members became unbearable. One volunteer recalled quote, you couldn't get a haircut without being looked

down upon. A straight job set you apart. We'd have cut your hair, Frank. I mean, you would have to go in there so slightly. You'd be like, Hey, so just like this cannot be a noticeable trim. Do you know what I'm saying? Split ends and just neaten it up a little bit. Take it off the ear, but it has to still be physically touching the ear because I do this a lot. So I put my hair behind my ear a lot. Shit, you're there coming. Say you're doing my beard. Dude, you feathered my hair, man. You feathered my fucking hair. I think it looks really great. This is perfect. I don't even know what a co-op is, but I just think it looks really poofy and really great. I think how about this? You go to your friends, you go to your

friends when your friends who are not going to say that you don't think are going to like this haircut and you just say to them, Hey, guys, I think I got a pretty cool haircut. And then I think they'll have to agree that you look pretty good. And then I think if they're your real friends, if they're your real friends, they will accept you for you and your new haircut. Because I think it's great the way it poofs out everywhere is very noticeable, which I like. Fuck, fuck, I'm going to buy my candles. It's extremely noticeable. I'm going to buy my candles. It's extremely noticeable, which I love. I'm sorry. I would buy them if I was, I've already

spoken for candle wise. I go to candle factory, the capitalist one. That's the best. Oh, fuck you, man. Fuck you. Don't forget your little, uh, don't forget to put the feather in it. There you go. That looks good. Now run along now. Got the two feathers, big flowery hair. I forgot people used to put feathers in their hair like that. That was the thing. Yeah. Well, people used to burn other hats. It was a digression. It's not a thing. So some members traveled the US to visit other counterculture communities and forge political

alliances. Okay. Two of those were North County co-op co-founder Keith Ruana and his friend Bob Hogan. They went to study under former SNCC organizer Theophilus Smith and what was his real name? Theophilus. Oh, okay. So he's from cats. He lived at the winding road farm in Wisconsin. Now they call them Theo. Under Theo, Ruana and Hogan studied Lenin, Marx, Stalin and Mao. What was the angle they were kind of going for? Is there any, I think it's got, I think

it's capitalism. It sounds like Mary close to it. They then went back to Minnesota and applied what they had learned. They concluded that the revolutionary co-op movement should focus on disseminating the class struggle. Okay. So stop making this about food and making about people in the class struggle. That's smart. In the fall of 1973, Hogan and Ruana pushed Marxism on the most anarchist co-op store

in the area, Mill City co-op. This was a failure. Okay. Mill City didn't want to hear their communists shit. Sure. In January, 1974, an all co-op meeting was held at the People's Warehouse to discuss the possible relocation of the People's Warehouse. Okay. The relocation required a signing of a contract and monthly payments. So the entire structure

of how they did things had to be reevaluated because previously it's on donated property by the University of Minnesota. Right. A policy review board was created and two big conflicts arose. What goods could be sold in the co-op and whether workers should be paid? The big ones. One group believed unpaid workers maintained the community values of a co-op and ensured those involved were there to contribute to the co-op dream.

Mm-hmm. That's true. But... Yeah, paying workers could bring in those who only wanted money, which is what workers are. Right. The other group believed a paid staff guaranteed efficiency and that workers should get a living wage.

Okay. I see that. I see. I get it. Yeah. I see it. Okay. So what was the co-op inventory?

One group believed they should sell processed food like sugar, wheat bread, margarine and canned goods because it would make co-ops more appealing for working-class people who weren't politically aligned with the co-op ideology and then they could suck them in, right? They could suck them into your philosophy. Oh, is that the idea? Get them into your ideology. They wanted to create, quote, a learning experience for customers unfamiliar with the evils of

the capitalist diet and the store's responsibility was to stock what the neighborhood really wanted to eat. This is such, but is it not, I mean, it's just such an extreme fine line with what you're doing to sell people on your concept by watering down your concept to make it more palatable, but then at what point are you actually on the other side now and you're no longer her? I mean, it's just what always happens. Anytime someone opens a place like, no, we're just going to do this and it's like, all right, well, you're going to need to just do this and all right, that and then I'm done.

It's just like, it's so fucking hard. Yeah, you're right. Now, the other group thought that co-ops goal was to provide good products that were better than those sold at grocery chain stores at a cheaper cost over time, the divide between these two groups grew and grew. Now, Hagen slowly started to take over the Beanery co-op in Southern Minneapolis. The Beanery was on the brink of shutting down. So he took it over and he closed the store to reorganize.

He held training sessions to promote better store operations and pushed his political message. He handed out a manifesto called the Beanery paper. If grocery stores were governments, the Beanery papers release would be like leaked. What do you mean? The Beanery papers are out, my God. Look at this. All these pentos were kidneys the whole time.

The Beanery paper rewrote the history of the Marxist revolution and the co-ops role in the grander scheme of communism. And again, this was, I'm sorry, at a Beanery. Yeah, it's a co-op called the Beanery. Just checking it. He criticized leaders of other local co-ops for their lack of formal structure and how it inhibited a working class leadership. Even blame the co-ops for being elitist, quote, such a bourgeois middle class orientation

was so typical of college educated hippies who had abandoned the anti-imperialist movement in favor of escapism and lifestyle politics. It's a good thing we don't have those today. So the Beanery paper led to an essay war within the co-op community. Well, finally, Dave, something that makes sense. Stand back. These guys are going to have an essay war. Move, move, move.

Give him some room, boys. Here come the Beanery guys. Holy shit. This should be great. Oh, no. The Beanery boys are here. Someone looking to essay? Stand back, stand back, stand back.

I think it's those guys from before, it's the Beanery guys from earlier, stand back. The Mill City co-ops leaders rebutted with attack papers under the pseudonyms Jeb Cabbage and Emma Evechild. I'm going to find this Jeb Cabbage and I'm going to split his Cabbage head. They said Hagen was full of generalizations and accusations and that his writing was, quote, hippie baiting that reads like Time Magazine. Oh, mic drop or pen drop. Yeah.

That's in the essay circle. Oh, man. I don't even want to write an essay against this guy. I'd rather write one against Time Magazine. Oh, shit. The essay war between Mill City and the Beanery sympathizers led to other members of the co-op community to pick sides. They wrote essays, responses to essays.

One was titled on the radish threat to the process of dialectical self-interpretation in the co-op movement, a coughing spasm. What? The title, Dave, let me remind you, started with radish. While all this was going on, a secret radical political branch of the Greater Minneapolis co-op movement was born called the Cooperative Organization. This later became shortened to the organization, which was later shortened to the CO, which was later shortened to the O.

Which was? No, that's it. It can't really go. It was later shortened to half of an O. The O had been created in secretive study groups where radical members studied the teachings of Marxism. Now the O wanted to follow the model of the Black Panther Party and incite a class revolution through co-ops.

Okay. Sure. Sure. They believed the, quote, elitist middle class hippies who were about organic wholesale food did not understand the struggle of the working class and were incapable of organizing a movement against racism, capitalism, and imperialism. Excuse me. I'm just trying to buy some onions.

Guys could just, I just wanted to get this, I'm just trying to get these onions. Are you here for onions or are you here to stomp on the face of the working class? I didn't answer this already, onions, 100%. I just need this bag of onions because I was looking for shallots. Anyway, are any of these open? How does this work? Okay, do I not? There's some guys are smoking a bong over there.

Yeah. Maybe you want the store down the street called Bootlickers. Okay. Do they have shallots? Can you guys call them for me? Because I would just love to save the trip if. Yeah. We don't call fascists.

Oh. Okay. I'm sorry. Is that a vegetable? That's a root vegetable. Isn't it fascist? Is that not a root? It's like bok choy.

Am I crazy? I feel like fascist is like a bok choy. Is it not? Well, I'll put the onions back here. I'm going to go on down to Bootlickers. I'll find it. I don't even need you guys to point. I will go right unless somebody says something that makes me feel like it's left and nobody

has. So right it is. Off I go. Thank you guys. Shallots. I don't know if you know what shallots are, but they're a little sweeter. So that's why you want to. Okay.

They're good with a wine or some sort of. We're closed. Oh, well, that's crazy because I was just in here talking to you. And you were open and I'm still in here, but I've put the onions back. So okay. All right. I'll go right unless I hear nobody saying anything. I'm going to go right.

I'm going to go with that. Looking for Bootlickers. Thank you guys. I don't know why you all look so upset at me. I just wanted to buy a bag of shallots. Thank you. I'm going to go left actually now that I'm actually seeing that way. Oh, sorry.

I said bourgeoisie shallots. I'll take any brand at this point. I just need some. Thank you guys. Anyway, why are you still here? Membership in the O was the strongest at the people's warehouse and the beannery. The group functioned in extreme secrecy. Members used code names.

Instructions were given through memos. The O was so secretive that many members had no idea who other members were and no idea of the O's leadership structure. Interesting. I like it on a level, but then I'm also like, this is where it gets terrible. They did not even know the name of the founder of the O. Some didn't even know what they were members of. Well, who are those people?

Stop. What's going on with them? Some of the O members thought they were part of the Black Panther Party or the student nonviolent. Is this calculus? I'm a student. What is this? Or they thought they were a part of the student nonviolent coordination committee.

Man, we are going to show the white man. Is this a grocery store meeting? Is this that grocery related? At its peak, the O had somewhere between 300 and 1,000 members. The exact number will never be known because of the O's obsession with complete anonymity. Right. There might be no members. It might just be one guy.

That's right. On the O. Hogan and his fellow radicals want to demonstrate their strength and transform the co-ops. Hogan's in the O. Right. To accomplish this, they wanted to take complete control of the people's warehouse. One week before an all-co-op meeting, members of the O berated warehouse workers about their politics and announced their plan to take control of the store.

At the meeting. Like they're pirate ships. Yeah. This is some serious shit. Co-ops are not a fucking joke. At the meeting, a financial presentation was given. The rep discussed and talked about assets, working capital, and rations. He wanted to show how complicated the growing warehouse had become and to make a bigger

point. Quote that the anti-profit, anti-business philosophy of the co-ops had set them up for failure and that either the old leadership would have to move over or the utopian dream had to die a painful death. Quote, idealism and business just don't mix. Okay. It's tough. It's tough to hear.

Members, members. Yeah. Members of the O were angry. And at 3 a.m. on May 5th, 1975, around 35 O members entered the offices of the people's warehouse and declared, quote, the people's warehouse now belongs to the people. Dave, like, what's Ralph's thinking, the equivalent of, like, your, like, Albertson's? They're just like, Jesus Christ, this is crazy, the hell's going on over there? We actually just sell food.

Yeah. The members in the warehouse offered the O, quote, food and smiles and talk. That's rap, we said. They said, no, we came here seriously. Then they drew lines. You've got 30 minutes to get out, join us or get the shit kicked out of you. We'll burn you. We'll shove your balls up to your ears.

We came here to offer you a choice. Either join us or get your asses kicked. Do we make ourselves perfectly clear? Excuse me. Is this a Bartlett pair? Do either of you guys know if this is a kind of pair to see? Is this a Bartlett? Sorry.

I know you're in the middle of something. I just, I don't know who works here. I can't tell. I didn't even know you guys were open. I was just walking by and I saw these pairs and I thought, is this, do you know, I know they're bigger. I know they're bigger pairs. Okay.

I just wanted to, I didn't know if you guys knew. I'm obviously not sure what's going on here. Dude, is there a club? Are you going to shut up? Can you shut up for one minute? Sure. Yeah. Ask me a question.

Sure. Yeah. What side are you on? Well, Bartlett. As far as pairs go, Bartlett is the one that I, I, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Hey, talking about the class struggle, brother. I'm talking about the class struggle. What side are you on?

You mean am I a club member? I'm not a club member, but I don't mind filling out the little paperwork. If, if there is, if there's a register, I don't even see, let's see much here. Just seems very tense. Okay. Well, I'll, I'm going to buy it. Do you buy things here? No, you don't buy things here.

Oh, great. Great. So just take it. Just have to. No. Great. Great. I love it.

No, you're not, you're not taking anything. Oh, and you're not leaving. Well, I'm not leaving alive anyway. Oh, a little much. I just wanted a Bartlett pair. Is that all you wanted or did you want to take advantage of us and I work in class brothers? Huh? I don't know.

My wife is waiting out front site. She was waiting out front. Oh God. Kendra. Where's Kendra? She just wanted a Bartlett pair. You bastard came to the wrong place. Comrade Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ. Just wanted a Bartlett pair. You fucked up. You fucked up. Can you tell my new favorite character is actual shopper. It's coming across. One member quote, I was there Sunday night when the iron pipes were swung and the phones were ripped out and the doors were blocked.

I was one of the 10 who had been asked to stay at the people's warehouse overnight. The O did come and they came on the military plan of action and with weapons. Wow. So the O's barricaded the doors and held on to 10 warehouse workers and refused to negotiate. Now the most insane part of this is that the majority of O members were friends, roommates and coworkers with the people they were now holding hostage and fighting. You just sit in there and then Larry comes in and you're like, what's going on, man? Kevin.

What do you mean? Kevin, did you need money for rent? I'm going to have to get you toilet paper. No, I have to beat the shit out of you. What are you talking about, man? I have to. You're my friend, but I have to. No, what?

I'm your roommate and your friend. What are we doing here? What's going on? I'm sorry, you just don't understand how we need to handle produce, okay? There's a simple way and I'm going to have to beat the living snot out of you to get it through your head, man. Oh, did you feed the fish? This is a co-op. Yeah, I fed the fucking fish.

Okay, cool. Yeah. All right. Yeah. So I am going to have to. Yeah, dude. So please don't be an idiot. Hey, so listen, this is like, it's just like a community on grocery store.

No. Idiot. What are you talking about? What? Dude, shut up. We don't beat each other up. Shut up, or I have to kill you, man. What the fuck are you talking about?

Shut up. You didn't want to tell me to come to the co-op in the first place. I wanted to go to fucking Ralph's, but... Well, no, no, Ralph. I don't want to fucking do this shit. I hate fucking working to get to get fucking food for cheap. What the fuck? I just wanted to shop at Ralph's.

You're my fucking roommate. You dragged me into this shit. Ralph's is the answer. This is like the fucking co-op. Look, the co-op's not the answer. I'd rather get three minutes... Dude, I'd rather get three minutes oats than the fucking steel fucking bullshit and cook it for so fucking long.

I just... You know what I want to do? I want to get up in the morning. I want to have a bowl of fucking raisin. I want to have a bowl of fucking raisin, Bran. I want to drink some fucking Minimate Orange shoes, and then I want to go to fucking work. That's right. I want to go to fucking work.

Oh, my God. Am I going to have to kill you so much tonight? So much. It's bad. So, the next morning, an O member announced the coup to other co-op leaders who were at a cafe and then a restaurant. He invited some... We're doing a bit of a coup-op over there.

All right. He invited some to an O-led restructuring meeting, and a small committee was sent to negotiate with the O, but negotiations turned into the O just attacking non-O members. Sure. Word spread quickly throughout the city, city's co-op community. Okay. On Monday morning, a crowd formed. It seems like the O has finally had it.

On Monday morning, a crowd formed in front of the now occupied people's warehouse where the O was holding co-op members. Some people want to negotiate with the O while others just sat there and yelled at the warehouse. One co-op member climbed onto the roof of the warehouse with a shovel and tried to break in. We're going in through the roof. That's a really bad plan. I got a shovel.

It's fine. All right. We're going to dig through the roof. How roofs work. Twin city co-ops held emergency meetings to come up with a plan. They all agreed not to call the police. Just agreed to organize a boycott and a march to the warehouse. The big problem was that no one knew who was actually leading the occupation so they didn't

know who to negotiate with. All right. Once we figure out who we're talking to, we'll play hardball. The next morning, 75 co-op members gathered near the warehouse. They decided against the march fearing it would provoke the O, but they still supported a boycott and hoped to regain control of the warehouse that way. So they're refusing to buy from the warehouse. Right.

No, it's totally going to work. The O and the original signers of the warehouse corporate documents fought for legal control of the warehouse. Members from each side went to local banks to get the warehouse's money, but because of the conflicting claims, bank officials became confused and froze all the businesses accounts. So what was confusing to the banks when there were just multiple factions sweaty and hurriedly trying to withdraw everything?

This caused warehouse operations to come to a halt. All the smaller co-ops that relied on the warehouse as their supplier now had no product. With the warehouse inactive, the former owner began legal proceedings to reclaim the building. Others side wanted to lose the warehouse, so a truce was called. They agreed to designate a single check signer to keep the business going. But the truce didn't fix much. Even though the warehouse was technically operational again, only five local co-ops kept buying supplies because of the whole armed takeover thing.

That hurt things? Interesting. When distributing supplies became difficult due to disagreements over a shared truck. It sounded good. It sounded good when someone was like, well, just use one truck, man. Yeah, no. It sounds like a Laverne and Shirley. We'll just use one.

We'll split it down the middle. The O tried to get the food to members by printing and distributing flyers that promoted a cheap food sale at the warehouse that weekend, but not many customers came. But a large group of angry co-op picketers showed up. On Sunday night, a smaller sect of the O formed a new group called the Mass Organization. How long until it's just the M? So now there's an O within an O. There's an O.

Right. Yeah, there's an O. Right. There's... The Mass Organization had the exact same mission as the O. Well, good. This is good to open up. This is smaller.

Yeah. This is the group. Perfect. That does the same thing as the group. Yes, but Dave, but they don't know that we're doing the same thing as the group. Do you understand? So what we're going to do is we will secretly go along with everything they're saying and we're in reality be going along with it all too.

That's right, my man. Now, the only problem is we believe there might be a group opened up inside of the Mass Organization. Oh, fuck. Yeah, it's tough to think, but this might be a bit of an inception moment. So on Monday, May 12th, the O members sat down with mediators from the warehouse's union bank and co-op reps to write a statement. One negotiator stormed out of the meeting after the use of violence was condemned by

another member. Who does he work for? Who is the... What kind of negotiator storms out of a room? Because someone doesn't want to use violence. Yeah, but no matter what it is, if you hire a negotiator, he's like, sorry, I just lost my shit in there. You're like, yeah, well, that's one of the things you're not allowed to do. So discussions went on for two days.

On Thursday, this is about a co-op warehouse, by the way. Right. Just thank you for reminding me. On Thursday, the occupation ended when reps from both sides agreed to a finalized statement. The agreement stated that both parties would negotiate the future of warehouse operations. No other decision was made in the agreement. So this was... Okay. So let me tell you what this was.

This was a bunch of people who got sick of a meeting and eventually were like, let's just do it, whatever. Let's agree to keep talking. Great. Good. Yes. Let's smoke this joint already. Jesus, God.

Oh, God. The warehouse opened for business the next Monday, but co-op members were worried about what could happen at the next all-co-op meeting. Sure. It's like WrestleMania. Yeah, which was on June 21st. Over 100 people gathered to decide the structure and ownership of the people's warehouse. Four proposals were submitted.

Debate went on for a week. A decentralized structure was approved, 33 to nothing. Another committee was created, the all cooperating assembly. It was an alliance of co-ops that agreed to pay membership dues and provide training workshops and startup assistance for newly formed co-ops. Okay. That sounds pretty good. On August 3rd, a small group of co-op members met to discuss plans to establish another warehouse

to serve co-ops disenchanted with the current warehouse situation. Oh, God. Yeah. You can understand how you'd not want to be involved in a warehouse that has armed takeover. What part of it? It's all started with the beannery paper. The release of the beannery papers. But they realized that another warehouse would hurt the success of the current warehouse.

And then O-members showed up to the meeting and tried to start a fight, but were eventually kicked out. The O was, of course, worried if other co-ops started another warehouse, that would mean that all the people who were angry at the O would have sympathies and go to that warehouse and boycott the O. And here we go again, straight. By the end of 1975, the O was planning another offensive. The other co-op members eventually formed dance, distribution alliance, distribution

alliance of the North country. Exactly. Well, that's dank. That is dank. So that's why they put an E on the end. And then it's dance. The E stands for whatever. The E stands for different things for different people, man.

Every. Exactly. The Clairs. The name was inspired by Emma Goldbin, quote, if you can't dance, I don't want to be a part of your revolution. So it's pretty great. Yeah. The survival now of the now mostly O controlled warehouse still relied on the support of some

local cooperatives. The O tried to consolidate sympathizers and targeted two co-ops, the Shelby, which was mostly a black working class co-op, and the powder horn, which had no structure at all, anarchist. Okay. The horn co-op was so decentralized that O easily took control of it in July, quote, there was really nobody to attack. It was also quick and painless that the O seemed downright humble.

So that was just easy. Right. And just essentially just sort of like, all right, what time do we strike? I don't think we actually need to strike. I think, um, I think we already took it over. Yeah. We just signed up and now we're in control. I'm going to tell this guy what to do and see what happens.

Hey, man, will you hand me that bag? Yeah, man. All right. This is ours now. So the Shelby takeover was more difficult than the O, but the ultimately took control and installed new leadership. So they've taken over two co-ops so they can have places to send food from the warehouse. Right.

Right. So, right. But these takeovers both eventually failed according to author Craig Cox, quote, what tended to happen in those situations is that the O would come and they would take over and then no one would shop there anymore. They would just go to a different co-op. So it's pretty, so, okay, so there's a flaw in your non-business model. There's a flaw.

Starting up on December, 1975, the O attacked the Bryant Central Co-op by firebombing the coordinator's truck. Jesus Christ. You got a fucking co-ops or not a joke, man. It's some serious. He's accusing them of being a joke, but I don't know. My grandfather died in a co-op war. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be insolent. All six of my grandfathers. I mean, there's a really big flag I'm going to throw on your statement. On January 9th, 1976, the O is very radical and Stalinist faction, the mass organization, occupied the sewer co-op and attacked the owners. The owners were beaten and thrown out of the store. How is this happening?

I mean, like, what, like you still are in the world. The Mill City co-op members and other anti-O co-op people came to help and they formed a human chain around the store to protect it. While they did this, between 500 O members broke windows, slashed people's tires and cut the phone lines to the store. And are they in the store? I think that they, yeah, they're in and out. I think, yeah, they're all over the place.

So the human chain plan is sort of like, all right, maybe not as effective as we hoped. They're burning my car. It seems really not effective. They're sure smashing a lot of windows in there, Doug. Yes. Link arms, tighter. At this point, the people's warehouse was now almost bankrupt. Food was rotting on the shelves.

Per, we got there. We got to our dream. We got there. Yeah. The dream is happening. The O members worked in the warehouse for free and mysterious cash withdrawals were being made from the warehouse bank account. In July, courts officially returned control of the warehouse to the original owners and

O control of the warehouse was done for good. Okay. Okay. So it's over. After this, I love that with all this anarchist and hippies and communists and fights and fire bombings and takeovers, it's a court legal order that ends it. Right. All right.

Well, party's over. Mom's home. So after this, the O kept some power, but ended all further attempts to expand their revolutionary efforts. The warehouse was eventually sold by the mid 1980s. The food co-op scene faded as the people of Minneapolis were scared away by the wars. The O's tactics like negatively stigmatized food co-ops, public image for those not involved and some Twin Cities residents are still turned off by the idea of co-ops to this day.

Just because of that. Minnesota. Yeah. But Minnesota, you know, out there in outside of Minneapolis still has more food co-ops than almost any other state in the U.S. Wait. Where does outside of Minneapolis? Minnesota.

Minnesota. In rural areas. Right. Got you. Got you. Okay. So, an ex-member of the O, Alexandra Stein, published a memoir. She revealed that O was a cult run by elusive leader Theo Smith.

Oh my God. Smith was the man who taught O leader Bob Hogan Marxism on the Wisconsin farm. Smith's quote, quote. All of his followers was so complete that he was able to arrange marriages, divorces and births without any other member knowing his identity. What? What? Arranging birth?

What? That is crazy. Craig Cox, author, revealed Smith was a quote counterculture scam artist who used the co-ops as a base where he could bring in revenue by selling food. Oh. So, he was a cult leader. Yeah. Whose whole scam was to scam off the top of co-ops.

Right. I mean, talk about a mole. Oh my God. Smith established this. Smith established a small following of devotees by organizing Marxist-Leninist study groups and then picked the most radical ones, Hogan acted as the public face of the O while Smith, the actual leader, stayed hidden. Of the three dozen O members who made up the ranks, only a handful actually knew of

Smith's identity. Over the years, Smith used a number of fake names, Randy, George, James and Edward Lewis-James to avoid capture by the FBI because he was wanted for the murder of DJ Kyle Steven Ray in 1980. After six years on the run, Smith surrendered and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He said he shot Ray after Ray became angry and threatened him when he shut off the water at Ray's building while doing some remodeling. Wow.

Smith only served one year. This led people to believe Smith had been working for the FBI in their domestic surveillance program, Cointel Pro, and had been assigned to infiltrate Twin Cities activist groups, which was a common FBI practice in the 1970s. But Smith had run O's bizarre schemes for the duration of the co-op wars and had been unknown for 20 years. But still, that is crazy. Jesus Christ.

Have you been thinking of this one for a while and then what's just been going on has piqued your interest? No, I want, no, this one's been, I was going to try to do this one for the live show in Minneapolis. Dave, sorry. What's a live show? That is where you go on Zoom and you do a podcast in front of like 500 people. That's right, right.

Boy, that's crazy shit. Yeah. I mean, the truth is, I mean, again, it is the prison you're born into with the grocery store or with anything like that, where it is like, and you're seeing now, I mean, the appetite for like, you know, just to not have to live in the world where you are so dependent on outside sources for food and how much you make depends on how much food you can, like, all that shit is so relevant that it's like, it would be, I mean, and the truth is that capitalism is forcing us back into like agrarian society because you are just like, you know,

you crave independence or crave a way to actually not have to let your government take care of you when they fuck it up this badly, you know, and the way and what's going and what's happening to grocery workers now and the way that like, I mean, we'll see what happens, but I can't remember, maybe you even mentioned this, but it's like the second that they start indoctrinating you as a hero, it's bad. I said that because that's, it was that you calling you a hero, that's when they're calling you a hero. It means you're disposable.

Yes. And not only are you disposable, but you're probably going to be disposed of in some way. Yeah. All the soldiers, all the soldiers going into Iraq were called heroes, all the first responders after 9-11 were called heroes. Yeah. Now the grocery store workers are called heroes.

They start, the thank you count, once the thank you count gets too high, let your ears perk up. You know? Yeah. Calling you heroes, it's the mafia kiss of death. It's why the pilot thanks you for your patience when you're delayed because he knows you're, he's prepping you to tell you that, you know, I'm already, I'm already insinuating that you've said it's okay.

Yeah. Well, crazy normal shit, Dave, as usual. It's a normal world we live in. Yeah. Normal world. Normal stuff. So everyone, you guys, hang in there. Yeah.

It's going to be bumpy road for the next month, I would say. But we want to thank you for your patience. But we'll go through it. And like I said, last week, you know, not any, I don't think one area has yet given them a moratorium on rent, which needs to happen. So again, you can go to Dave Anthony comedy and I put up the PDF file on how to organize a rent strike, which is at this point just mandatory. It has to happen because people can't survive, but people who don't have money can't pay

rent, you know, it fucking just deal with it government just to fucking get over with her or just going to be hell in the streets. And does it and truly, I mean, does it not speak, you know, it's unionizing. It's a tenant's union. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a tenant's union.

So check it out. Read about it. You can't just deal when you got to, you got to look into it and figure out how to do it first. All right. There you go. All right. Well, there we go.

All right. Normal conversation. Yep. That's right. Okay. All right. I'm not wearing pants. Me neither.

I am. That's when this went where it should go. Okay. So we're going to shut this off and we'll keep going. We're going to stop right now. Yeah. We'll shut the recording and then we'll get down to business. No, no.

All things getting shut off. Nope. All right. Bye. Nope. So the research for this episode was done by Sharon Sanjapur and the main source was Craig Cox, storefront revolution, food co-ops, and the counterculture. There are a bunch of other books and articles that were used.

You can check them out on our sources page.