By Matt Dineen
“Well, I better get back to work now…”
When I returned to the back room of the café to tend to the dishes, I knew exactly what I wanted to write for this. Feeling my boss’ passive-aggressive gaze as we stood in front of the counter talking about the zine, Fulvia could probably sense my discomfort. Unlike the rest of that shift, our conversation actually mattered—a brief moment of liberation from the stifling on-the-clock constraints of wage work. 
After abruptly saying goodbye to Fulvia I found myself standing at the industrial sinks cleaning plates and coffee mugs, thinking about the Wooden Shoe. I thought back to when I first moved to Philly and how the Shoe helped me stay balanced, providing meaning to my new life here. This was particularly true after I started working at a nearby grocery store. The contrast between my experience at this hierarchical capitalist workplace and participating in the Shoe’s directly democratic collective further confirmed my desire for a new world, one that looks more like our dear infoshop. Everywhere. Everywhere.
Despite the fact that the Shoe is still a store operating within the current system it is still an island of possibility, a respite from the pervasive miserablism of capitalist society. The fact that we just celebrated our 35th birthday proves that there are functional alternatives to top-down decision making, oppressive social relations, and greedy individualism. The Shoe is an island beyond this world. One in which solidarity, community, and mutual aid is part of the air we breathe. A radical island where no one is in charge, because we are all in charge…together. Beyond the daily challenges we face lies an unlimited potential because the island is ours; it is what we make it.
Luckily, the Wooden Shoe is not completely alone amidst this vast sea of hierarchy and authoritarianism. We are part of an archipelago of resistance, a local (and global) network of liberated spaces in which ideas and compassion are elevated above power and domination. Our continued existence all these years is proof that a new world is not just possible, but already here. Let’s keep it going.
Art by Albo Jeavons
