Values and Goals
Do not eat animals.
We reject any ‘use’ of animals.
Grassroots democracy and self-determination
For us, this means making or postponing decisions in regular plenary meetings based on the principle of consensus. We discuss fundamental issues, conflicts and utopias in regular collective meetings or excursions. There we examine our utopias and our practices with the contradictions of what is right in what is wrong.
We take care of shop shifts, self-management activities and other tasks ourselves, taking personal needs into account. Central tasks are outsourced to working groups that rotate in the medium to long term in order to avoid knowledge hierarchies. In general, we try to maintain a balance between group decisions and self-responsible autonomy and have tools to deal with any conflicts that arise so that everyday shop life can be guaranteed.
Socially useful products
The second founding motive, alongside secure and self-determined jobs, was to offer products and services that were as consistent and socially meaningful as possible.
Veganism, with its various facets and approaches, which are reflected in the collective, has therefore always been a common point of reference. We are united by the view that the hierarchy of human-animal and human-environment relationships, as well as the underlying capitalist system, has devastating effects on humans, other animals, the climate and the environment, and we want to participate in this as little as possible.
Nevertheless, we do not believe that veganism and correct consumption provide the universal answer and want to remain open to different references and lifestyles. The contradictions remain, and we say hello.
We make sure that all our products are vegan (i.e. free of any ‘animal products’). In addition, ecological criteria (even if not all of our products are certified organic), production conditions and fair prices for producers, us and our customers are important to us. In order to strengthen the network of solidarity-based economy, we prefer to offer products from collectives, cooperatives or ‘small, cool companies’ in our range.
When selecting products, we always weigh up consumer wishes against ecological, ethical and price considerations.
In addition to running the shop as a commercial enterprise, our association Vegane Pampe e. V. aims to promote vegan lifestyles. We support campaigns, projects and events related to veganism and other emancipatory issues, or organise them ourselves – e.g. Küfas (kitchen for everyone), animal rights campaigns, solidarity funds, infrastructure support, etc.
Wages & profits
In the early days, we waived wages and started the shop with a low standard wage, which has since been continuously increased by plenary decision. As a matter of principle, we pay a standard hourly wage and strive to achieve the standard wage for the industry, rather than practising a permanent state of emergency in the sense of market-driven self-exploitation.
We do not consider ourselves owners, but rather operators of the shop. This means that there is no private distribution of profits or privatisation of the means of production. Annual operating surpluses are therefore excluded from privatisation and are used for reserves, investments, appropriate wages or the development of solidarity-based economic structures.
Transparency
Internal transparency is an essential part of our collective structure. Even in collective enterprises, there are divisions of labour and specialisations. To prevent this from leading to knowledge hierarchies or dependencies, we continuously work on transparent structures. We maintain documentation, instructions and regular accountability reports. We have a mentoring system for new collective members.
We strive to ensure external transparency (while protecting sensitive information). We provide product information (origin, quality, manufacturing conditions, etc.), give information about internal structures and advise other collectives. In particular, we promote our self-image and solidarity-based economy in general.
Cooperation instead of competition
In the so-called free market economy, competition is the driving force that everyone has to face. However, competition is always a relationship that people choose to enter into or not. Strictly speaking, until 2015 we were the only self-managed vegan shop far and wide.
We are in constant contact with similar businesses (especially collectives) and cooperate with each other or support similar initiatives in Berlin and elsewhere. Since our founding, several initiatives have approached us, and we support them with advice and structures to the best of our ability. In doing so, we are particularly committed to the establishment of further collectives that could be part of a broader federation in the future.
A lot has happened and developed since our founding. The path is not always easy, but it is exciting. We encounter many contradictions, which we try to resolve, circumvent, interpret away or use productively in collective processes.
All of this takes a lot of time and effort, but it is ultimately worth it. For us, there is no alternative to these values.
