 "Photo: Kim Burnstad")
 "Photo: Kim Burnstad")
Auto repair and home gardening are not covered in the DIY/Self-Help section of MonkeyWrench Books. Instead, you'd find books such as "How To Start Your Own Country" and "Out of Business: Force a Company, Business or Store to Close Its Doors ... For Good!"
MonkeyWrench Books, a radical bookstore, has been providing literature to the Austin area for almost four years. To understand the political philosophy of the store, you need only search the shelves. The topics covered in the various shelves include socialism, globalization, gender theory and Iraq.
Although the store has a large anarchist section, it's not just an anarchist bookstore, said Cale Layton, a volunteer at the store.
"We're sort of a general, broad-spectrum radical bookstore," Layton said.
Layton was a founding member and is one of several volunteers who work at the nonprofit store, which is run according to nonhierarchical anarchist principles.
Nobody is earning their livelihood by subverting the dominant paradigm at MonkeyWrench. Profits made off of book sales go directly back into the store, said Abigail Wick, who has been volunteering there for five months.
According to Layton, the bookstore began when a local independent newspaper, the Austin Javelina, ended.
The group of activists who ran the publication ran into troubles, such as a lack of submissions, and decided to put their resources into another outlet. Volunteers said they thought the store's name came from the idea of throwing a monkey wrench into the system, but they weren't absolutely sure.
In January 2002, MonkeyWrench moved into the quirky North Loop Boulevard strip near the Hyde Park neighborhood.
The store's neighbors include a record shop, an herbarium, a few vintage shops and a punk-rock pizza parlor.
MonkeyWrench's next-door neighbor and landlord is Forbidden Fruit, a woman-owned business offering products such as massagers, "Kama Sutra bathing gel" and erotic cake pans.
"It definitely draws a certain type of person to hang out here," said Brea Grant, who has been volunteering at the store for more than two years. Currently, Grant does the accounting for the bookstore.
Grant's dog, Hatty, often spends time at the store. When it's cold outside, Hatty likes to jump Grant's fence. So today, she is lounging by the display of anarchist day planners, which are a popular item during the Christmas season.
"Those things pay our rent," said Layton, laughing.
The volunteers at MonkeyWrench have no boss. Each worker is on equal standing with every other worker. This nonhierarchial system of decision making is very in line with the anarchist philosophy, said Layton.
"The collective runs things together. Like, even though I've been here since the beginning, that doesn't mean that Brea who's been here less time, can't tell me that no, I can't order books, because there's no money," Layton said, looking at Grant. "There's nobody that has more power than anybody else."
Layton said that he was reluctant to define anarchism, because he doesn't consider himself an authority on the subject, and other people's views of anarchism may be different from his.
Anarchism is generally understood to be a rejection of systems of society that contain established hierarchy, including government, corporations and religion.
At MonkeyWrench, every decision made by the volunteers has to be unanimously agreed upon. There's no voting or democratic process. At weekly meetings, the collective discusses an issue until all members come to a final agreement.
Though this can be an arduous process, Layton said, the consensus method is useful in the running of a small bookstore.
"You can look at the Zapatistas in Mexico as an example of consensus decision making on a large scale," he said. "They do it on a village level, on a region level, on a movement level. It takes forever to make a decision."
Layton said that similar book spaces have been cropping up in some unexpected places. "There's one in South Dakota now; Lawrence, Kan. has one now. A lot of these are university towns, but these are places they were never in before," he said.
In Austin, Resistencia Bookstore and Book Woman also serve as activist spaces.
The present conservative political climate has encouraged radical communities to organize, Layton said.
For Grant, the small bookstore provides a sense of community.
"I used to live down the street, so I was here for a lot of events," she said. Eventually, she became involved with the store as a collective volunteer.
Various local organizations have chosen MonkeyWrench Books as their regular meeting place. The Austin chapter of the international labor union Industrial Workers of the World (also known as the Wobblies) meets here. On Saturday, the IWW hosted a kids movie matinee, showing the musical "Newsies."
The store itself sets up regular events. The calendar on the wall includes a regular movie night as well as a queer arts and crafts night. The volunteers host a potluck once a week. When bigger performances are booked at the store, they take place in the backyard.
Inside, a few couches and tables are set up. The two volunteers on duty sell Fair Trade organic coffee, "green smoothies" and vegan pastries.
"We've been talking about getting the Zapatista coffee," Layton said.
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