Featuring:

• Immigrants on hunger strike at South Texas ICE detention centre
• Milwaukee construction workers organize for jobs and safety
• New York City workers march against their bosses, rain, on May 1st
• Baristas form the first Starbucks union in Latin America

Disclaimer: the following is the opinion of the author and not the official position of the IWW.

When the earthquake leveled much of Haiti, including the Presidential Palace, it destroyed the capitalist state apparatus as well as buildings and lives. In a country whose history includes bloody repression and paramilitary death squads, all reports were that both the police and the military had disappeared from the streets.

For several days, the US administration dithered, uncertain of what to do. Then Obama announced the sending of troops to Haiti along with the commitment of the miserly sum of $100 million in aid (one third less than was spent on his inaugural ball). What is the purpose of those troops there? 

“Restoring Order”

The conservative Heritage Fund spelled it out: “We should rapidly deploy sufficient US military and civilian forces to help Haitians restore order in the capital of Port-au-Prince and in surrounding areas,” they write on their web site. They also clearly see the necessity of using the troops to prevent the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes from increasing their influence in Haiti. Nobody should be surprised if conflicts develop along these lines in Haiti. 

Obama also carried out the Heritage Fund’s recommendation of appointing Bill Clinton and George Bush to head up US initiatives in Haiti. Clinton has a long history of helping foster neo liberal policies there (low wages and privatization) as well as having supported the coup against Aristide. Bush is famed for his administration’s “relief” effort in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The failure to provide timely aid in Haiti shows that the direction of efforts in New Orleans was no mere accident, nor the product of the incompetence of one particularly stupid US president; it was the result of the policy of massive privatization. The fact that these two are in their present position regarding Haiti shows that nothing has changed.

For Immediate Release:
IWW Starbucks Workers Union (Industrial Workers of the World)

Contact: Liberte Locke, 917-693-7742

December 30, 2009

Statement of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union

Year of Legal Losses for Starbucks is Capped Off with Another Union Victory

Less than two months after a legal defeat in a high-stakes appeal, Starbucks is settling charges of further workers' rights violations committed against baristas organizing with the Industrial Workers of the World for secure work hours, affordable health care, and respect on the job.

After an independent investigation, Region 2 of the National Labor Relations Board in Manhattan brought a complaint against the fast food coffee chain for illegally suspending and reprimanding a barista who stopped work to participate in a union protest; interrogating baristas about their union activity; and tearing down union flyers from company bulletin boards.