We all need to eat if we are going to work, organise, and struggle together. The Montreal chapter’s Beans committee describes how they catered a May training and makes the case for workers’ organisations to invest collective resources and efforts into feeding comrades in struggle.
Recently, AO had a 2-day training for organizers in unionized workplaces, and all the participants got coffee, lunch, and snacks on both days. The beans committee (or just 🫘) fed them with $200 (excluding the value of donated materials and labour), at least seven volunteers, and dozens of hours of labour. Here’s how we did it.
I. Planning
The AO exec for political life told the 🫘 coordinators about this training months ago, earlier in its planning. She told us when the training would take place, and how many people would be there, and we agreed on a basic plan. A few weeks before the training, two of us elaborated a detailed plan of exactly what we would bring. We got recipes and made shopping lists. We made a budget and got the treasurer’s approval. We asked comrades what they thought of the plan. We asked if they could help. We distributed tasks.
II. Cooking and baking
We prepared a lot of food. There were three of us cooking. Sometimes we cook together, but this time we cooked separately. One of us prepared chili, rice and two coffee cakes, one prepared cookies and another cake, and one prepared shepherd’s pie.
III. Coordinating
We coordinated between the cooks who had food at their homes and the drivers who delivered it to the training and the comrades who ran the training.
IV. Shopping
We bought groceries and serving equipment (plates, cups, forks, etc.). Two of us went shopping, and we kept our receipts to give to the treasurer.
V. Driving
Three of us made several deliveries over the two days to have snacks at the beginning of the training and hot lunch on both days. We also delivered food and equipment after the training, and returned borrowed equipment.
VI. Support
We needed to lean on each other for support in various ways. We cooked and baked cookies together. We reassured each other when we weren’t sure we would be able to do it all. We were just there.
The beans committee brings food to AO events. We do not use our kitchen mallets to abolish the systematic theft that produces food insecurity within the working class (that is what a political strike is for). Without being idealistic about the significance of the committee in the class war, we think we are meaningfully, materially intervening in that war in at least the following ways.
- Widespread food insecurity is a tool (one of many) used to force concessions out of the working class. When you and your coworkers and loved ones are starving, you will tolerate any level of exploitation that will put food on the table.
- Although 🫘 has not fed striking masses (yet), many workers have attended AO events with an empty stomach, and 🫘 has fed a meaningful number of those workers since its creation six months ago. We need nourishment to fully and actively participate in AO, and 🫘 has provided that as much as we can, while inviting questions and comments about how we can do it more and better.
- We basically believe that cooking and eating (and serving 💅) animate our lives with meaning, and we are happy to put in the work required to make it happen. We catered a training for 15 people for $200 (excluding the value of donated materials and labour), or about $13 per person. In the year of our lord 2026, there is only one way to furnish two hot lunches and four snacks for $13-pooling resources to collectively cook the food from scratch. Despite the incredible bargain, the 🫘 grocery shoppers cannot afford to donate $200 in food and equipment.
In the past, we have fed everyone without getting reimbursed, even at significant personal expense; and, we continue to rely on donated food, labour, and materials (and borrowed equipment) to a large extent. In the long term, particularly if our organization grows, we will need the participation of every available comrade in order to reliably feed everyone at our events.
In a political strike, is it a good strategy to rely on wages from your employer to eat? No. When you and your coworkers walk out and stop getting paid, you will still need to eat. Your coworkers know it, and the boss knows it; and, I guarantee that you will have more power when the boss can see all of you talking, chilling and eating together on the picket line.
When you show the boss that no one is starving and the only thing you are hungry for is a strong contract (or something much more important), the boss cannot use your hunger as a weapon to crush you and force you back to work.
Feeding a political strike takes considerable resources and knowledge, and we all need to contribute to the project of collecting these. Otherwise, we are leaving power on the table, and we are going to lose. AO’s 🫘 committee only works within AO, but we are excited to provide our assistance and accumulated knowledge to any other group of workers trying collectively to feed themselves.
The 🫘 committee needs you. We need you to pay your dues to AO so we can buy groceries, and we need you to give your time and labour to the project of feeding each other. Specifically, we need workers who can:
- Plan meals, provide ideas, and/or make budgets
- Drive and/or go grocery shopping
- Cook or help in the kitchen
- Coordinate the delivery of food and equipment to AO events
- Serve food at our events and/or clean up afterwards
- Something else (you tell us!)
Message us, write to alliance.ouvriere1@gmail.com, or ask anyone in AO to connect you with one or more of our coordinators. We cannot wait for you to join us.
