Starbucks, Palestine, & Corporate Power

Let's talk about Starbucks again. So there's a global boycott underway against Starbucks due to the perception that Starbucks is a Zionist company and that they support Israel. Now Starbucks has reiterated many times that this is not the case, that this is not true. They say that they have never sent money to Israel and they've even denied that Howard Schultz, the former CEO, that he sent money to Israel. They denied all of that.

Now they did file a lawsuit against union workers who had issued a public statement in support of the Palestinians. But in my opinion, this lawsuit has more to do with Starbucks wanting to break the union rather than Starbucks being pro Israeli specifically. Nevertheless, Starbucks has been completely unable to shake the public perception that they support Zionism, and this perception is going to kill that company. In Malaysia, customers have abandoned Starbucks to such an extent that in just, the last three weeks, the franchise has had to, reduce operation hours across the country in all of their shops. The next step, if the boycott continues, will be the closure of individual stores.

And eventually, if the boycott continues, Starbucks will cease to exist in Malaysia. Now the franchise in Malaysia is Muslim owned. Most of the staff at Starbucks in Malaysia are Muslim Malays. The franchise owner in Malaysia has actually donated to Palestinian causes and Palestinian charities. Most of the money from the Malaysian Starbucks stays in Malaysia.

Only a percentage of that money goes to Seattle and even that money we haven't actually been able to confirm if any of that money ever ends up going to Israel because Starbucks has denied that it does any of that. So what's the actual point in boycotting Starbucks? And specifically, what's the point of boycotting a locally owned franchise of Starbucks that has absolutely no connection whatsoever to Israel and which actually has donated money to Palestinians. And they employ Muslim Malays and they generate money for the Malaysian economy. So why boycott Starbucks?

Is that even fair? I mean, what about the workers who will lose their jobs? Well, Starbucks is a global brand. In many ways, Starbucks is a symbol of the West. It's a it's a symbolic ambassador of The United States and of corporate imperialism.

It's more of a symbolic target than a practical one, but boycotting it can have a practical impact. You know, members of our telegram group wrote hundreds, if not thousands, of letters to Starbucks over the last couple of weeks, and they're continuing to do so. And the responses from Starbucks, over the course of, ten days or so has started to change. The initial responses, were for them to reiterate their position against the union workers. But the more recent responses have emphasized, quote, unquote, listening to customer concerns.

That indicates that an impact is being made. Across the globe, Starbucks is being boycotted, and you you can see that their products are being sold at ridiculous discounts now, 70% discount sometimes. Their share price is going down, has been going down for two weeks. And like I said, store hours are being reduced in some places. I've seen that hundreds of workers, have been let go in some countries because of the, plummeting revenues, and there's no end in sight.

The company is losing hope, of any expansion into the global South, all because of the public perception that it is a pro Zionist company. There's only one thing that can save them at this point, and that is to take an unequivocally pro Palestine position publicly, a pro Palestine stance as a company, as a brand. And now that shouldn't be hard to do. It shouldn't even be controversial to do, actually. Israeli war crimes have been condemned by the United Nations.

They're violating international law on a daily basis. Multiple heads of state and human rights organizations have all characterized Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide. Starbucks has more stores internationally than they have in The US, and they expect for something like two thirds of their revenues to be generated overseas in the next couple of years. They do not have to appeal exclusively to American customers anymore. And in fact, they must appeal to customers abroad.

I think half of the, the new store openings have been in Asia lately. Well, as I've said before, the global South is pro Palestinian. I would even argue that, most westerners who go to Starbucks are very likely also pro Palestinian cosmopolitan liberals. So there's no real, business related reason for Starbucks to not take a positive stance on Palestine or to at least, condemn Israeli crimes against humanity. If they continue to insist on so called neutrality, or insist on remaining so called apolitical, the company will lose market share all around the world.

This is what democratizing corporate power looks like. The people are finally taking their seat at the negotiating table with corporate power, and they're demanding representation. They're demanding to be heard. They're saying we are only going to do business with companies that reflect our values. The people are injecting morality into the equation, of corporate market strategy.

In many ways, this is bigger than the Palestinian issue, but the Palestinian issue is the battleground where populations all around the world are coming to confront global corporate power, western private sector power, imperialistic power. Think about it. You closed down the economy all around the world over COVID. You shut everyone up in their homes for two years. You forced thousands of small businesses into bankruptcy with lockdowns, and all the major corporate players benefited from that.

Monopolistic consolidation accelerated, but you taught us how to not shop, how to not go to restaurants, how to not go to malls, and so on. You taught us discipline and self restraint in terms of our consumer activity. Now we have those skills. You imposed economic shutdown on us, but now we have the skills to impose it on you. We can impose a COVID style shutdown of the economy over the Palestinian issue.

We don't need Starbucks. We don't need any of you, and we can shut you down. Are Starbucks employees gonna lose their jobs? Of course, they will. But companies close all the time if they can't appeal to the market.

That's the risk you take. Aren't you always talking about how business owners are taking a risk and that's why they should be able to take all of the profits and shortchange their employees? And now you act like you care about the workers. How many small local cafes and coffee shops got muscled out of the market by Starbucks? How many local shops got closed because they couldn't compete with massive, multinational corporate conglomerates.

Well, we can reverse all that now. You know, if you own a small business and you're not putting a free Palestine sticker in your window, I'll tell you, you're not a very savvy business person. Everyone is gonna be looking, for local alternatives, smaller companies, alternatives to the amoral multinationals that refuse to take the right stand on the Palestinian issue. Those smaller companies are gonna profit from this, or they should, and that will create jobs. So if someone loses their job at a multinational franchise, they should be able to find a job at a local business.

That's better for national economies anyway, especially for the ones in the global South. So it doesn't matter if it's Starbucks or anyone else. We will assume, that you're a pro Zionist company unless you say otherwise, unless you prove otherwise. You don't need a list of companies to boycott. It's not just about, companies that overtly support Israel.

Though, of course, those companies should be boycotted. But any company should be avoided if they have not taken a positive stance on Palestine. No justice, no profit should be applied across the board in all of our economic activity, all of our consumer activity. We can just do COVID all over again, except this time, instead of shutting down the small local businesses, it will be against all of those big players who reaped the benefits of lockdowns. And if you wanna avoid that, you wanna protect your market share, well, you know what to do.

Zionism is the virus now. You used to make us confirm, that we were vaccinated before you let us into your shops, before you let us into your stores. You make us wear masks and whatnot. Well, now you have to confirm to us that you don't have that virus, that your company has been, vaccinated against Zionism by being pro Palestine if you want us to come in. You used to keep us out, you know, and refuse our business if we weren't vaccinated.

Well, now we're staying out, and we refuse to give you our business if you aren't vaccinated against Zionism. So, again, don't just look for companies that overtly support Israel. Look at any company that doesn't support Palestine. Let the market know that the only successful strategy for gaining customers, is to take a positive stand on this issue.