RISING UP
Razsa’s worker-owned Democracy Brewing leads charge for justice
James Razsa is ready to raise a pint — and start a revolution. On July 4, doors will open at Democracy Brewing in Downtown Boston. In an ever-widening sea of craft beer-makers, this one stands out. Democracy is the first worker-owned brewery in the Hub, and Razsa, who comes from a background in economic justice and labor organizing for such groups as Young Workers United and such unions as SEIU, believes this model can offer workers opportunity to achieve the kind of increasingly elusive financial independence that is a cornerstone of the American dream.
“Boston has always led the fight for democracy in America,” Razsa, 34, said. “I think our democracy is in real peril because it seems to be bought and sold by a tiny minority of folks. If we're going to retake democracy on a large scale, we need to start democratizing the place that corruptive power comes from — and that's the workplace.”
At Democracy Brewing, that means every employee — from dish washers to bartenders to the head chef — will have the opportunity, after one year of work, to purchase Class A shares of the company and receive profits relative to the amount of hours worked. All employee owners are eligible to run for a seat on a corporate board that will guide the brewery's direction and “manage the CEO,” Razsa said. He's the CEO.
The brewery will open with 48 employees, he says, and they are all full time — something of a rarity in the service industry, where cobbling together multiple jobs is common. Starting wages are $15 an hour, four dollars above Massa-
chusetts' minimum wage, and Democracy is working with ReThink Restaurants, a Boston-based outfit that helps hospitality businesses implement “open-book management,” an approach that demystifies the operational side for employees to help them build long-term, sustainable careers.
The brewery has raised much initial investment through a direct public offering of equity; investment opportunities start at $2,000 and include perks like free beer. The plan is to buy back these shares within five years, said Razsa, keeping Democracy fully worker-owned.
Democracy certainly has a core team with strong, relevant experience to make its novel model work. Five years ago, Razsa, a beer lover and former home brewer, started devising a worker-owned business to channel the frustration he felt over stolen wages, corporate outsourcing and other issues he observed in his own jobs and while advocating for others.
A native of rural Gray, Maine, he's worked on the warehouse line for UPS and as a swimming pool cleaner. He's swabbed the deck at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, and stood on the front lines with Jobs With Justice, coordinating campaigns for workers' rights.
For Democracy, he tapped as co-founder and brewing director Jason Taggart, former head brewer at Cambridge institution John Harvard's Brewery and Ale House. General manager Courtney Bolinger comes from Legal Sea Foods, and chef Ben Waxler helped open The Haven, a popular Scottish tavern in Jamaica Plain. At Democracy, Waxler's menu of scratch-made comfort food will include nachos with chicken confit and saison ale-infused cheese, and German pretzels made with spent grain.
The beer itself is the main draw, of course, and Democracy's on-site, 10-barrel production system will crank out about 4,800 kegs worth of suds each year. Guests will find 10 on draft, five fixed and five rotating, including the Workers Pint, an accessible $5 light ale designed to bring the uninitiated into the craft beer fold, Razsa says. Other selections will include the 1919 Strike Stout, an Irish stout dedicated to the century-ago Boston police strike, plus beers nodding to the suffragette movement and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the first African-American regiment to fight for the Northern states in the Civil War.
They'll be poured in a 150-seat beer hall with communal tables, a long bar and its own traditional Irish snug: a closed-door room for small groups with its own window offering direct access to the bar. One wall bears a colorful mural of Lady Liberty surrounded by hops and the Massachusetts state motto, which freely translated from Latin means, “By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.”
Beyond its business model, advocating for social justice will be central to Democracy's identity, Razsa says, who points to the long history of pubs, or public houses, as the sites where even Boston's powderedwig-wearing forebears gathered to exchange ideas and implement action.
“As an organizer, I learned that you can have lengthy three-hour meetings, but if you really want to get something done, have a beer with someone and talk it through,” Razsa said. “That's the way to build community, trust, honesty and friendship.”
Democracy Brewing will have a private dining area with its own bar, a place to screen social-issues-related documentary films and host special events such as discussions with community organizers and other leaders. The brewery will also designate a percentage of profits to support an in-house initiative to provide support to workers, from financial assistance to business plan development, to help them start their own self- or worker-owned enterprise.
After all, that may be the future of democracy.
“Our generation has recognized that right now, our corporate-funded politicians are not coming to save us; we have to save ourselves,” said Razsa. The odds are stacked against working people, he says, “and that means creating new models that actually work and can hopefully usurp the old models to make a more equitable future for all of us.”
Cheers to that.