Labor

IWW Delivers Cake to MOA Starbucks Workers
Saturday June 26 was like any other busy Saturday at the Mall of America 1 Starbucks. A barista had called in sick during the morning shift, another had walked out in disgust the weekend prior. A Manager from another store was covering the shift of a barista who had been fired for union activity two weeks before. The store was shortstaffed, and the lines of customers were long.

(This interview is republished from www.rhubarbarism.com and can be viewed in its original format at http://rhubarbarism.com/2008/07/from-coffee-factory-interview-with-iww.html)

The Mall of America Starbucks IWW unionization effort was announced Monday by delivery of a letter to store management. The unionization effort at Starbucks in the Twin Cities is still relatively new. The IWW is open is open to contacts from other Starbucks workers who want to join, or people in the community who want to support them. They can be reached at tcsbuxunion@gmail.com.

Joint Statement on the 34th G8 Summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, Japan

MANILA, Philippines -- This year’s G8 summit in Japan, gathering the world’s most advanced industrial economies is happening amidst a global crisis on oil, food, poverty, and environment – a problem unequaled since the first G8 summit in 1973 concerning the oil crisis and the subsequent global recession.

At 4:30 pm on June 19th, the Anti-War Committee of Minnesota led a demonstration outside the Hilton Hotel in downtown Minneapolis, the site of a thousand-dollar-a-plate fundraiser for the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain. Approximately 100 anti-war and trade union groups demonstrated outside demanding a US withdraw from Iraq and more resources for healthcare, education and infrastructure here at home. Inside McCain's campaign asked his supporters to pay as much as $50,000 a person to have a private reception with the Republican presidential nominee.

Working people relying on stimulus checks, coins and lotto

Stewart A. Alexander
Nominee for Vice President Socialist Party USA
Candidate for Vice President Peace and Freedom Party

June 16, 2008

During the month of February, President George W. Bush announced to the nation that the U.S. government was preparing to issue more than $160 billion to millions of Americans as a means to help stimulate the sagging U.S. economy. Thomas Lee, a resident of Lake Elsinore, California responded to the president’s announcement like millions of Americans nationwide; with joy and excitement.

I've seen an increasing number of articles in major newspapers, as of late, about searching for jobs, the mistakes you can make in a job search, and advice about why you should not do anything that might hurt your ability to find a job, such as writing about your beliefs online or burning bridges. Looking at those lists, I can say that I've done quite a few things that they advise against and I do believe it has hurt me from time to time when job hunting. Nevertheless, I think the advice much of the advice is largely propaganda designed to assert the authority of the employer class.

The annual teachers' strike in Oaxaca has been bolstered by soldarity strikes of other sections of the Sindicato Nacional de los Trabajadores en la Educación (SNTE) stretching up and down the Mexican Pacific coastline, while in Oaxaca itself, occupations and blockades continue apace in support. Most analysts however have already doomed the strike to failure.

Outside the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) convention in Puerto Rico, Saturday, May 31, members of the Puerto Rican teachers union were attacked by riot police when they attempted to distribute fliers. The fliers were critical of SEIU for making a deal with Governor Acevedo Vila for SEIU to replace the militant teachers union in February.

Grand Rapids Starbucks Union and Sevilla, Spain CNT have announced a Global Day of Action against Starbucks July 5th to protest the recent firing of CNT member in Spain and continuing anti-union discrimination in Grand Rapids.