Book Review: Storefront Revolution

By Craig Cox
Reviewed by Bill London
from the July 2003 Newsletter

During my involvement with food co-ops in this region over the last 25 years, I have seen schisms, personality conflicts, petty thievery, and plenty of other hassles big and small. But I can thankfully report that I never was part of any altercations like those described in the book “Storefront Revolution” written by Craig Cox and published by Rutgers University Press in 1994.

Cox, who watched it all as the editor of a co-op newspaper in the Minnesota area, focuses on the Co-op War that rocked the Minneapolis food co-ops in the 1970’s. The war followed right after the food co-ops first sprouted all over that city, fueled by the 1960s counter-culture search for new institutions and the demand for natural foods. A shadowy revolutionary group, calling itself the Co-op Organization (CO), attacked the co-ops for being elitist, out-of-touch with the masses, and not revolutionary enough. This group favored direct action, threats of violence, and push-and-shove intimidation. They crashed co-op meetings, in some cases beat up shoppers and co-op staffers, and took over the city’s co-op warehouse.

The book is the in-depth story of how the CO battled the local co-ops, how those co-ops were forced to—for the first time—legalize their financial policies and ownership issues, and the methods the co-ops used to organize their members to push out the CO forces. For anyone who has been involved in the Byzantine world of food co-ops, this book is a great read. Personalities, details, political manifestos, all the anguish of hippie staffers forced to get businesslike—it’s all there.

The book is available through an interlibrary loan at the Moscow public library.

Bill London edits the Moscow Food Co-op newsletter, and as of this issue, has survived (hopefully) the wedding of his daughter.

© Copyright on articles, recipes and images are jointly held by the Moscow Food Co-op and the respective contributors, except were otherwise noted.

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