Hi everyone, this is Dyana, Delya, Nastya, Edik, Arthur, Lyokha, Ira, Kolya. We are the former team of Vegan Cafe Freak. We worked with Tyoma, Masha, Vova. This is another thread about Vegan Cafe Freak. This is another thread. It features the polyphony of our voices, they intertwine, they howl from pain and fatigue.
Originally, a freak is a vegan, activist, ethical, horizontal, safe space with consensus decision-making. A freak is not just a cafe, it is a statement about freedom from violence, hierarchy, and any discrimination.
We failed as a horizontal project, its foundations cracked bricks, we were doomed to failure the moment we decided to do it with people who were not close to us in terms of values, they caused us immense pain because of them, the freak doesn't work with them, he died, rotted with them, we are tired, we are fucked
For almost two and a half months, Artyom and Masha Vova have been acting against our values.
Artyom has no idea about horizontality; he renamed his personal Twitter account to Vegan Cafe Freak without permission and spoke on behalf of each of us while we said we were worried, while we begged and persuaded.
Artyom violated horizontal agreements, the ban on smoking weed in the kitchen. Kitchen work requires attention, and due to Artyom's carelessness, the work suffered. We suffered when we caught him doing it. He joked and laughed, ignored, and devalued.
For a month and a half, Masha couldn't come to work on time. Only once was she fifteen minutes late and she was incredibly proud of it. The rest of the time, Masha was an hour late.
When Masha was sick, instead of getting treatment, she didn't show up at home and drank with friends while we worked extra shifts for her.
Vova worked well, but spoke rudely, insultingly, and authoritarianly to the cooks. He would say that a dish at a tasting was crap. He assessed the kitchen's work without knowing its specifics, scolded and berated the cooks, spoke from above, and ignored requests.
We see irresponsibility and disrespect. We say that without responsibility and respect, the work of a horizontal team is impossible. Authoritarianism is unacceptable.
Regarding Edik, when we discussed his candidacy, Artyom and Masha spoke out against it. Artyom mentioned discomfort, Masha devalued all of Edik's efforts and participation, and toxically and carelessly threw out her unjustified complaints. Then we discussed everyone's emotions and came to a consensus.
We're taking Edik for two weeks, and if the situation doesn't change, Edya Edik, and this hasn't been discussed at the meeting in two weeks, it's our shared responsibility and our shared mistake.
But if Artem Masha was bothered by this, why didn't he raise the issue? No one ever mentioned any discomfort. They treated him like a full-fledged member of the team.
In short, it all started before Artyom and Diana had an argument in the kitchen.
Masha says a conflict broke out and the kitchen couldn't function. Luckily, there was half an hour left before closing. Half an hour before closing, Artyom made the unsound decision to close the kitchen. Dyana opened it, and Dyana finished the work alone.
After closing, with shaking hands, Diana was looking for a psychologist's contact information while Artyom hovered over her and demanded she help him clean up. Masha shouted and offered her help. Diana asked if she could leave. Masha said yes. Diana, anxious and in tears, ran home.
Masha says that Diana initiated the meeting on this issue, in the morning and in Frick, although she asked not to do it in the morning and at our house, she hopes that at least we didn't do it on purpose. We agreed to go to the meeting at one in the morning after our shift. Artyom suggested meeting in the morning in Frick.
Before the next morning meeting, Dana shared with Artur her concerns about Artyom and the events she wrote about in her personal thread httx.com/hikhihippie/st… the meeting, Dana told me that I felt uncomfortable working with Artyom and didn't know what to do. Artur supported her.
Artyom spat bile instead of expressing his feelings, insisting that he was being kicked out, even though we said we weren't kicking him out, we wanted to understand and find a solution.
When we were discussing the conflict, Artyom constantly maintained his innocence and non-involvement, refusing to take responsibility for his actions that caused emotional pain to people. He didn't want to listen to anyone; he always has his own truth, which he's not willing to give up.
Artyom said he was leaving, but he remained sitting in the hall, loudly insulting Dianne and Artur in a conversation with Masha and Lyokha, while Dianne was working at the bar and because of this, she couldn't concentrate.
Diana was working at the bar that day, not Artyom, because it was her shift. Diana was working with Delay, not Artyom, because she didn't feel safe the day before. Artyom reacted inappropriately to her refusal to work with him on the same shift.
We initiated a new meeting a few days later, but the evening before the meeting, Artyom wrote that he was leaving the team.
The idea of silencing non-vegans is a blatant lie, although we were truly uncomfortable working with non-vegans because it's hypocritical to continue exploiting animals while simultaneously engaging in vegan activism. We only said this twice.
This is one of the reasons why a conflict broke out, in which Edik shared that he was uncomfortable working with Vova because of his rudeness and authoritarianism.
Edik shared his concerns about stories and reposts, a situation that had been discussed by some of the team multiple times but which had not been properly discussed with everyone for various reasons.
Despite his apparent bewilderment, Vova was completely indifferent to our words and emotions. Vova continued posting. Vova continued responding to messages and dictating our actions.
Pointing out that we didn't do something to him or did something wrong whenever we tried to talk to him and talk about our experiences turned every conversation into Vova's proof that everything was wrong. He said something wrong, that didn't happen, we didn't hear it right, why are we even talking about this?
and Masha wrote her message
And then Diana found the courage to share with us the details of her relationship with Artyom, trusted the rest of the team, and sent us screenshots in the chat, feeling safe. You saw the screenshots in her thread.
Masha decided to show all this to Artyom
He started aggressively writing in our work chat through his profile, saying everything you could see on his Twitter.
He accused Dana and us of buying into her supposedly false words that day. We were all hysterical from the actions and words of these people. They think that everyone around them is fools and doesn't understand anything, but we feel everything and understand everything.
Artyom and Masha stated that they have the same rights to the project as we do.
The next day we gathered without Artyom and Masha Vova and decided to communicate with them through a delegate in manifestos to decide what to do next. We were ready to talk, but we weren't ready to compromise our principles.
