The Chicago Coffee Confederation is a newly formed group of DIY coffee roasters who cooperate to roast and distribute fair trade coffee around the city.

Currently, the Confederation is made up of three different roasters:

Resistance Coffee, operated by David Meyers which produces the aptly named Kropotkin’s Kaffe, an homage to Peter Kropotkin, the famous Russian anarchist who wrote Mutual Aid, a scientific book about how evolution is rooted in cooperation and collectivity.  Meyers, whose coffee project was featured in a Reader article a few months back also runs an organic farm in Michigan and has been active in social justice movements in Chicago for years.

Grinderman Coffee is run by Michael McSherry, a painter and guitarist for local rock band Gold.  McSherry roasts in Wicker Park and delivers pounds of dark roast by bike all over the city.

Miscellaneous Treats is yet another project from Daniel Tucker, a local artist/organizer who is authoring a book on activist farms and edits AREA Chicago, a publication that explores Art, Research, Education and Activism with a focus on Chicago.

The coffee beans are all come from La FEM Cooperative in Nicaragua, which is a female focused cooperative addressing issues of domestic violence, women’s health and education in their community.  The organic beans are purchased at a fair trade rate from Just Coffee in Madison, Wisconsin and finishing off the chain of delivery from Nicaragua to Chicago is Dan Wang, another artist/activist whose regular commute between Madison and Chicago now serves as the delivery of beans to the local roasters.

If you’d like to receive pounds of freshly roasted, fairly traded organic coffee, email them at coffeeconfederation@gmail.com

David Meyers with the Bean Boss, used to roast Kropotkin’s Kaffe