[Imc] Starbucks Week of Action

[Clint Popetz]

As many of you know, coffee is a big part of my life.  I roast, grind,
and brew my own, in a daily ritual that borders on the obsessive.
(Humor me on the "borders" part.)  Unfortunately, coffee is still an
industry built on what is essentially slave labor, and although I only
buy fair trade coffee from small cooperatives, I don't have quite the
buying power of Starbucks.

Speaking of which (great segue, eh?) the OCA is staging a week of
action against Starbucks, culminating in protests outside the
shareholders meeting in Seattle on the 26th.  The aim of these
protests, held at Starbucks cafes around the country, is to pressure
Starbucks into brewing Fair Trade coffee and to use milk that is not
laced with rBGH.

More information is at:

	http://www.organicconsumers.org/Starbucks/starbucks.html

The OCA is sending a packet of leaflets to the IMC, and I'd like to
organize a group of people willing to go out to our Starbucks (in
Barnes and Noble, in the blighted lands of Northern Champaign) and
spread the word.  Ideally we would have someone there from the
23rd-26th, but I doubt we can muster that, so I'd be happy if we could
get a group together for the 26th itself, which is the day of the
shareholder's meeting.

Please email me if you are interested.  Starbucks brews and sells more
than 100 million pounds of coffee a year, and buys 32 million gallons
of milk a year in the US.  They tout themselves as a progressive
company, and a change in their policies would have a dramatic effect
on the marketplace.  


				-Clint