By James Generic
It’s difficult to work with a big group of people like our collective. We struggle, we disagree, and we fuck up. We also do some pretty amazing things, with the the fruits of our labor blossoming weeks, months, and years later. Faces change (and oh, do they ever change), but a lot of the faces and people, regardless whether they stay in this collective (which I hope they do), will maintain these bonds and links for years to come. What’s that saying? You can’t blow up a social relationship? This, if anything, is what will change the world. Trust, familiarity, and steadiness take years to build, as every revolutionary movement has shown.
There are a lot of people who don’t get it, and say we are the freaks of society for working in an unpaid environment and relying on self-motivation. It’s not easy, and not everyone can do it, which is fine as long as we acknowledge that the Wooden Shoe is a collective movement-oriented bookstore space, and that’s our role. We’re one moving cog of a larger anti-capitalist movement. An important one, in my opinion, in an important location that reaches a lot of people in Philadelphia, but just one moving part in a larger movement that wants to change the world. You need movement bookstores, preferably run by a collective.
We can see these opportunities in the recent Occupy movement. These spaces are places for social movements to grow, whether it be in shared experiences or running a collective. Last summer, for example, I helped put together a softball team, drawing heavily from shoe staffers and ex-shoe staffers I had met over the years. In reality, that’s what bonds us, these relationships and shared experiences, from the mundane shit work and small conversations, to the glory when it all seems to come together. So, don’t let anyone tell you any different: human nature is mutual aid.
Art by Albo Jeavons