Or in short — we’re now offering investment shares. Money raised will help us retire debt to the Old Market Autonomous Zone founder who got this all started, support the many repairs we’ve made and leave us in a strong position to be around forever.

If you’re interested in investing, you should definitely read our Schedule A Offering Statement, and if you’re keen on learning about the full legal structure see our Schedule B Restated articles of incorporation.

After giving it some sober thought, you can fill out and mail in or deliver our Schedule C Investment Share Subscription Form with a cheque.

As of today (Dec 26, 2012) we have raised $26,000 .  That’s $199,000 to go, or equivalent to 199 people buying the class C minimum ($1,000) or 40 people buying the class A minimum ($5,000).

Get in touch with us by email ac.tirapnull@tsevni-enoza

 Spellmeister  Steve Kirk challenged 11 eager spellers, narrowing the field to a spell-off between Buck and Sissy

31 folks enjoyed Lasagna dinner with salad and dessert.

LIVE music  by  CARLEN JUPITER,  CARA LUFT,  RAILROAD TY,  RICHARD INMAN,  and friend – was great!

 thanks to all who came and donated, Junto was able to pay up its rent to the A-Zone Co-op

The tournament sold out!

In the first round, 15 folks who bought a ticket didn’t come, so, round one featured 15 forfeit wins. The missing folks also resulted in a delay on the start time, which had the upside of enabling one late participant to arrive in time to play (although, ironically, he got one of the forfeit wins). There were no upsets (in which the player with a much higher rating doesn’t win) in round 1.

In the second round, we were left with 21 people, so I hopped in in order to allow everyone to have a game (thus serving in the capacity of “house player”). I made sure to give myself zero-point byes for rounds where I wasn’t needed (and it turns out I was only needed for round 2) to minimize the chance of my qualifying for any prizes. Still no upsets in this round. An additional 3 people bowed out at this point thus “re-evening” the number of participants, specifically 18 people left.

By the third round the really strong players were finally starting to face off against each other. There were two upsets: Boron (1953) beat Valentino (2260); and Joshua Huston-Earle (1352) was held to a draw by Joel Reimer (unrated).

In the final round, there was one upset, in which Boron (1953) drew Johnson (2348). It was a particularly intense game in which time trouble featured at the end.

With Boron having scored two out of the tournaments three upsets, and winning the Natural Cycle Works blitz section, he clearly demonstrated being in excellent form. Congrats!

Thanks to everyone who came out!

Junto, the little but radical lending library on the second floor, is sponsoring 2 evenings of fun:

Friday Feb 1, 7pm: FOLK MUSIC NIGHT in Mondragon, with Kayla Luky, Fox and Runner, and Hnausa Railroad Ty.  We will ask admission of $7-$10 as Junto is always fundraising to pay its rent to the greater good of the A-Zone Co-op!!!  There will be a Junto merch table and a fun talk about the library and the whole Co-op thing.

Saturday Feb 2, 7pm: GAMES NIGHT in Mondragon. Come join a game of your choice. At each table in Mondragon there will be a volunteer host with a different game waiting for players like you to step up and throw down $5 to play (more fundraising for Junto to help it officially join the A-Zone Co-op).  Look for Carcassonne, Dutch Blitz, Scrabble, Scribblish, Sorry (fun for kids too), Ticket to Ride, and many more. If you want to host a game contact us at Junto (moc.liamtohnull@19lacolotnuj). There’ll be a fun talk about investment shares (ooooohhhhh!!!), prizes, and probably cake.

ALSO – come back Sunday for a community  brunch in Mondragon!   10 am – 3pm  – good vegan vittles with coffee or tea for only $12.95….

 

presented by CKUW and UMFM,  the 2012 and 5th annual BookFair would like to acknowledge the support of Arbeiter Ring Publishing, Fernwood Publishing, Kustom Kulture, and the Albert St. Autonomous Zone Co-op!

wanted:   PHOTOS!  if you can email photos taken at the 2012 bookfair please send them to ac.tsisernull@retsgnuoy

 Friday evening Sept 21, 7:30pm       “Books that Rocked My World”   thanks to the panel co-hosted by Karen of CKUW’s “Mud & Water” and Dave of UMFM’s “Red Waters”      and the audience members who participated.  here’s the list:

 The Giving Tree  by Shel Silverstein

Wump World   by Bill Peet

Debunking 9/11 Myths    edited by James Meigs

The Gulag Archipelago  by Aleksandar Solzhenitsyn

The Selling of the President  by Joe McGinnis

The Pentagon Papers  by Daniel Ellsberg

All the President’s Men  by Woodward & Bernstein

Buffet World  by Donato Mancini

Tortilla Flat  by John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath  by John Steinbeck

Decolonizing the Mind   by Ngugi wa Thiong’o

The Jungle  by Upton Sinclair

The One Dimensional Man  by Herbert Marcuse

In Search of April Raintree  by Beatrice Culleton Mosionier

The Great Transformation  by Karl Polanyi

Anarchism & Other Essays  by Emma Goldman

Valis  by Philip K. Dick

Race, Space and the Law  by Sherene Razack

Home  by Toni Morrison

An Unauthorized History of the RCMP  by Browne & Brown

The Sexual Politics of Meat  by Carol Adams

On the Justice of Roosting Chickens  by Ward Churchill

Heat   by George Monbiot

Anishinabe Syndicated   by Jim Northrup

Walking the Rez Road  by Jim Northrup

What We All Long For  by Dionne Brand

Reasoning Otherwise  by Ian McKay

Communist Manifesto  by Karl Marx

The Art of Not Being Governed  by James Scott

Black Flame  by Van derWalt & Schmidt

History of Civilization  by Will Durant

Caliban & the Witch  by Silvia Federici

Desire for Development  by Barbar Heron

Under Three Flags  by Benedict Anderson

The Many-Headed Hydra  by Rediker & Linebaugh

Ritual America  by Heimbichner & Parfrey

Fahrenheit 451  by Ray Bradbury

The Lacuna  by Barbara Kingsolver

Ishmael   by Daniel Quinn

Turning the Tide  by Noam Chomsky

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance  by Daniel Pirsig

Mishomis  by Edward Benton-Banai

Reform or Revolution  by Rosa Luxemburg

Killing Hope  by William Blum

Tragedy and Hope  by Carroll Quigley

A Peoples’ History of the United States  by Howard Zinn

Earth Elder  by Alexander Wolfe

Government is Violence  by Leo Tolstoy

Surface Detail  by Iain Banks

the Trotsky Trilogy  by Isaac Deutcher

Racialized Policing  by Elizabeth Comack

Indigena Awry   by  Marie Annharte Baker

Nationalism & Culture  by Rudolf Rocker

photo by Kat! 

Saturday Sept 22, 11am – 5pm      -  We took the street!  Exhibitors included: AKPress, Briarpatch Magazine, Canadian Dimension magazine, Communist Party of Manitoba, Dark Parlour Magazine, Fernwood Publishing, Flatlander Soap Co., Flora and Farmer, Geez Magazine, the Industrial Workers of the World, Junto Local 91 Radical Lending Library, Kustom Kulture, Molly Mew Productions, Mondragon, Of Course You Can! Distro,  Organic Planet, Prairie Struggle Organization, Romulus + Remus, The Night Nurses, Turning the Tide bookstore, Winnipeg New Socialists and War on Music.

                              photo by Kat!

Saturday workshops: 11 am- ”Organizing community gardens”, with Rod – thanks to Rod for offering to do this and our apologies that no one came to participate! lesson learned: no more workshops before noon!      “Building solidarity against bosses & landlords”, with Ste-Ste.  thanks Ste-Ste!!    1 pm  - “Anarchy and Education”, with Heather and Pat.  Good turnout!  3 pm - screening of ”Our Common Roots” - a film by Glenn Axford in which Chad Cornell of Hollow Reed Holistic shares the therapeutic and energetic qualities of medicinal plants of the forest, field and garden.   ”Activist Burnout Discussion Circle”  with FemRev & Copwatch.  Good turnout. 

 the   World Car-Free Day Saturday afternoon Streetfest     on Albert Street between the A-Zone and Bannatyne Ave. with the support of Urban Forest and Bodegoes, this event was a giant hit, with music by  Süss and friends at 12:30, a presentation by Steve Langston about his Sept 1-17 bicycle tour of Manitoba eating local and freshly harvested foods at 1:30, Billy Cromb at 2:30, and John K. Samson

 thanks to Paolo of Urban Eatin’  who built a planter out of pallets all afternoon. it can be seen on the sidewalk across from the A-Zone and it needs someone to fill it with soil and plant some seeds!  thanks to Sean for his amazing BIG games of Scrabble and Jenga which we enjoyed.  THE STREETFEST WAS A WONDERFUL SUCCESS!!

                                               photo by Kat!

Saturday evening, Sept 22, 5pm     in the Urban Forest cafe at 93 Albert St,  Jerome Raza talked about the Quebec student movement and combative unionism.   Sunday Sept 23, 11am     Mondragon Community Brunch sold out!

Sunday BookFair Tables continued Noon-4pm  On the street again!!!!  -great fun!     Sunday workshops:  Noon -  “hungover Yoga”,  with Nikki had to be cancelled because again, no one came…    But ”intro to circuits” with Graham had fun.

Sunday afternoon Sept 23, 2pm       talk by guest author Nik Barry-Shaw about his recent book      Paved With Good Intentions: Canada’s NGOs from Idealism to Imperialism,    in Mondragon,  was very good.

THANKS TO ALL WHO WERE PART OF THE WEEKEND! WE ROCKED IT!!

Chess Tournament

Time: 10am to 3pm, November 17th, 2012, final intake for entry/registration closes at 9:45am to allow time to generate the pairings.

Place: Rudolf Rocker Cultural Center, 3rd floor, 91 Albert Street

Rounds/Pairing: 4 rounds swiss for main tournament; plus single elimination “power of two” for blitz tournament for sponsor prizes

Round Times: 10am; 11am; 1pm; 2pm {since there’s an increment the round times are approximate}

Time control: 25 minutes per side, 10 second per move increment

Move rules: If you touch a piece, you must move it.  If you make an illegal move, you must make a legal move with the same piece if possible.  If not possible, the position is reset to the way it was before the illegal move wand you must make a different move.

Entry fee: Cash only please, $30.

Tickets: The event is currently sold out.

Amenities:

- Coffee and cookie compliments of Mondragon Bookstore and Coffeehouse.

- Opportunity at 12pm and 4pm for game analysis using Stockish 2.2.2 (if one of the players writes down the moves)

Refunds: Cancellations are entitled to a 70% refund.  Cancellations can be done up to November 16th, 2012.

Prizes: 50% of entry fees returned as prizes.  At least 25% of players (more in some cases) will get prize money.  As at November 14th, the tournament is full (36 entries).  1st prize of $80, 2nd prize of $65, 3rd prize of $55, 4th prize of $45, 5th prize of $35, 6th prize of $30, and 7th prize of $25.  Thanks to sponsorship there are also four guaranteed prizes for a combined U1400&unrated section: 1st $35, 2nd $30, 3rd $25, 4th $20.  There will be more prize money as more people join.

Single Elimination Blitz Tournament Details

Time: starts at 3pm

Rounds/Pairings: up to 3 rounds per track, single elimination, round pairings based on tables (eg, winner from table 1 faces winner from table 2).  This tournament will have up to four separate “tracks” so each blitz participant picks which (if any) of the four prize tracks they want to participate in.  Each track is limited to at most 8 participants and fills first come first served.

Time control: 5 minutes per side.  If game 1 is drawn, switch colours and play 3 minutes per side.  If this is also a draw, switch colours again with 2 minutes per side.  The side playing black in the final game advances if it is also a draw.

Move rules: King capture is legal and ends the game; Clock-move, not touch-move (your move is committed when you hit the clock)

Tracks:

1) The Demonic Conjuration (section is full): This track plays for two records from the War on Music Record Label

2) Chess Combat for Couriered Confections (section is full): This track plays for a batch of Jonny’s Sticky Buns delivered by a Natural Cycle Courier.

3) The Cabbage Defense: Sowing Strategies, Reaping Victories (section is full): This track plays for a free 45 minute consult session with Urban Eatin’ Gardeners’ Worker Co-operative

4) Blitz Battle for a Better Bike (section is full): This track plays for a $25 gift certificate for purchases at Natural Cycle Cycleworks

THANKS TO THE WONDERFUL VOLUNTEERS, GUEST MCs, TALENTED PERFORMERS, AND TO MONDRAGON for the space the Fundraiser was a fine success, raising over $1,000 for rent to the A-Zone Co-op.

Start thinking up talent for next year!

Member profiles

The members of Albert St. Autonomous Zone Co-op are proud to announce that our purchase of 91 Albert St. was completed on January 31st. Our 28-month process has been focused on this main goal, and we did it!!

There were many odds against this unconventional (to say the least) real-estate deal, but with tireless work from a core group and wonderful support from larger networks, we were able to make it happen. Now, this building that is a home to 6 worker co-operatives, 4 collective non-profit groups, and a political character that makes it a unique gathering point in Winnipeg, will be truly owned by its tenants.

We want to recognize and celebrate the significance of this achievement on Saturday February 4. Three floors of the building will be open! Here’s what it looks like so far:

Main Floor:
- Free vegan snack reception in Mondragon at 7pm
(we’re only getting a bit, feel free to bring potluck items if you want to eat and share with the community)

- Speeches from (and conversation with) representatives of the members and other tenants at 8pm

- Feel free to stick around for Mondragon’s regularly scheduled Reggae dance party, 9pm until late

2nd floor:
- Emma Goldman Centre will be open from 7pm, come hang out on the couches. It’s likely that one or more of the core A-Zone organizers will be up there after speeches if you have any questions about the process, ideas about the future, etc. Or you can just chat and hang out!

3rd floor:
- Not related to the party, but feel free to go see the Resonator Theatrical production of How He Lied To Her Husband/ by George Benard Shaw at 7pm and 8:30pm in the Rudolph Rocker Cultural Centre

- Random footage on display in the Rocker from our two 24 hour fund-raisers starting at 10:30pm; lots of fun and ridiculous times revisited!

Thanks! Seriously, thanks. It’s been a long haul, and we couldn’t have done it without your support.

A-zone members
Mondragon
Winnipeg Copwatch
Boreal Forest Network
Natural Cycle Courier
ParIT
Rudolph Rocker Cultural Centre

91 Albert has been sold to Albert St. Autonomous Zone Co-op formed by Mondragon, ParIT, Rudolph Rocker Cultural Centre, Winnipeg Copwatch, Boreal Forest Network, and Natural Cycle Courier.

Party announcement for Saturday (February 4) and press conference and reception (February 8) to come.

Look for other pages to updated in the weeks ahead.