The coffee shop “The Anarchist”, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, and which boasted of being a “communist” company, closed its doors after only 1 year of operation. Inaugurated in March last year, the venture, which had the slogan “pay what you can”, ended up succumbing to the forces of the evil capitalist market. The establishment billed itself as a “radical anti-capitalist, anti-colonial cafe, shop and community space on stolen land”. But, in fact, the coffee shop wasn't even that communist - but we'll get to that soon. Although it gained considerable fame when it opened, due to its proposal, the business turned out to be unfeasible. Who could imagine that, right?

Despite the cafeteria's closure, its owner, Gabriel Sims-Fewer, said the experience was a tremendous success. Well, that's what I call an alternative point of view! Anyway, Sims-Fewer justified the coffee shop's bankruptcy, in a statement made a few days ago. Hang on to your chair to listen to the brilliant explanation given by the owner for the failure of his venture. Here it goes: “Unfortunately, the lack of generational wealth/seed capital from ethically bankrupt sources prevented me from calmly facing the winter season or from growing in the necessary measures to be sustainable in the long term”.

But how did The Anarchist coffee shop work anyway? What led it to be considered a “communist” enterprise, since it even had an owner? If your guess is that this coffee shop was a bistro for rich people, dressed in red, with a Che Guevara beret and a painting of Marx hanging on the wall - well, you're right. By all accounts, the Canadian coffee shop was far from being considered an “affordable” establishment.

To live up to its proposal of being communist, The Anarchist offered the simple coffee at a price classified as “pay what you can”. From there, we assumed that anyone who couldn't pay for coffee could drink it for free - but there's nothing confirmed about that. Other more sophisticated drinks, such as teas and espressos, as well as other typical bakery products, such as sweets and cakes, were also offered at the café. In this case, though, people had to pay. According to the owner, this charge served to offset the revenue that the establishment lost with strained coffee, which was served at subsidized prices. So it is.

Visitors were also allowed to look in the window and use the bathroom without paying. Wow, how much communism, don't you think? The communist cafe even had a space dedicated to literary works by socialist authors, shirts and other items. All sold, of course. Looking at it like this, it is difficult to defend the idea that the coffee shop really follows the doctrine in which its owner believes. Even so, it cannot be denied that, in the end, this communist mentality, even if not put into practice, ended up taking its toll on the establishment.

This case, by the way, is very similar to another enterprise headquartered in a rich capitalist country, but which calls itself a “communist company”. The bakery “La Conquête du Pain”, headquartered in Paris, France, sought its name from this nefarious ideology: it comes from a famous work of the movement, known as "anarcho-communism", the title "The conquest of bread". This bakery goes a little further than the Canadian coffee shop: it has no owners, functioning as a cooperative. But still they charge for the products - of course. Anyway, the members claim to defend “equality with freedom”, something that is obviously contradictory. After all, any forced equality suppresses our freedom, as we are naturally unequal and unique. We can only be equal in treatment before the law, in rights and duties.

Returning to The Anarchist: the coffee shop's biggest problem really was the prices offered to customers. Locals complained about the high price of products sold in the cafeteria, in addition to - of course - pointing to the obvious hypocrisy of the owner of the establishment. According to some customers, the company claimed to be against the “wrong values of capitalism”, but was too concerned about money. It's that old story: it's very easy to be a communist in theory; in practice, however, what everyone really likes is good money and a high standard of living.

For starters, if this Canadian coffee shop really was communist, it might not even be owned. After all, the idea behind this ideology - and which even gives it the name by which it has become known in history - is the common ownership of the means of production. Nobody owns anything, at least effectively; a private establishment, which sells products in a competitive market system and which seeks profit is therefore totally incompatible with communism. This without touching on the point of social classes - after all, as mentioned, the cafeteria was not for the common people, but for the rich people of Toronto.

If there is private ownership of the means of production, then there is no communism. Likewise, if there is a price system freely practiced, in competition with other establishments, it cannot be said that this coffee shop is really communist. After all, as we well know, and as history tells us, communism fails precisely because it does not have an efficient price system, precisely because of the abolition of private property. Hypocrisy is the key word in this story; even because there is no better place in the world to be a communist than in a western capitalist country. It's really bad to be a communist where this ideology has been implemented in practice, as in Venezuela, where no leftist sympathizer chooses to live.

This experiment, therefore, is a faithful representation of Western communists - who pretend to adhere to Marxist ideas, but who do not give up the benefits of capitalism. Put The Anarchist coffee shop on the side of the iPhone socialist on the shelf of leftist hypocrisy - it will be well deserved! Canadian coffee is basically a capitalist business, only painted red to attract the left-wing rich. This time it didn't work out; but this brand usually works in other environments, especially in politics.

The Canadian enterprise lacked more important things in a market economy than flawed ideologies. Things like attractive prices, a competitive edge and superior quality products than competitors. However, things would be much worse if the coffee shop really tried to be a communist experiment, without a price system, with collective ownership and without capitalist interests. Instead of a coffee shop closing its doors, we could see a mini North Korea or a mini Venezuela being born in Toronto. Believe it or not, being a bankrupt capitalist company is much better than this alternative, because the bankrupt company does not forcibly force you to pay your debts.

Anyway, it cannot be denied that communism does have some degree of responsibility in the bankruptcy of The Anarchist coffee shop. As much as the establishment has been subject to the market rules that its owner says he criticizes, the fact is that the very essence of the communist ideal may have made the enterprise bankrupt. If the owner really views the world through a socialist lens, he is incapable of understanding what causes wealth to be created and distributed in society - namely, the perfect equilibrium of the market. This is the big mistake of socialism, and that happens so much in the micro scenario: companies going bankrupt due to the sheer ineptitude of their controllers. As for the macro: countries being thrown into misery because of their rulers.

The Canadian coffee shop will become just a footnote in the book of communist failures. Already as a capitalist enterprise that went bankrupt, The Anarchist is forgettable. His attempt to disguise himself as socialism to earn money from unsuspecting leftists ended up not working out very well. Perhaps, Gabriel Sims-Fewer would have better luck in business if he abandoned his leftist ideas for good, to really undertake. However, it looks like he won't change his mindset anytime soon. The statement made by the bankrupt businessman exudes all the finesse of a typical communist born in a rich capitalist country: “F*** the rich. F the police. F the State. F the colonial death camp we call Canada.” All he had to do was give an F to communism, and learn to truly obey the rules of the market.