The termination of two Starbucks employees has led to demonstrations in Manhattan, Grand Rapids, and other cities throughout the world, a New York Indy Media article reports. While reports about turnout and influence of the demonstrations is being celebrated by bloggers who covered the event and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), organizing around the impact of the protest rather than around the issue being demonstrated against could have been a more influential way for the organizers to gather in support of the issue of the terminated employees.

Twelve demonstrators met in front of a Manhattan Starbucks to protest the termination of two employee union organizers. About a dozen protesters gathered in front of the Starbucks on 17th and Broadway on Saturday July 5, Industrial Workers of the World Day. The protest was one of many IWW protests that took place on that day all over the world.

The two terminated employees had been working to gain more benefits for Starbucks employees.

According to Daniel Gross, a former Starbucks barista and an organizer with the IWW, “Starbucks is as anti-union as Wal-Mart,” hence this “strategic” protest. One of the two fired employees had been told by the store manager “on several occasions that she must have nothing to do with unions

This blog details the protest that took place in Grand Rapids. They explain that “The coverage was surprisingly good for mainstream media.” They describe the demonstration:

“There was a 4 ft. Starbucks cup which symbolized Starbucks union-busting, poverty wages, lies about social responsibility, etc. And there was a bat which symbolized globalized solidarity.”

Photographs on the site display imagery that seems commonplace with union political theater. Pictures show a demonstrator in denim shorts and a backwards baseball cap “smashing” the cup, symbolizing, no doubt, how globalized solidarity will smash union-busting, poverty wages, and lies about social responsibility.

While the site suggests this protest was a success, by using the model of demonstration organization utilized by The Point, protesters might have been more successful by organizing around high numbers of demonstrators rather than placing a too-heavy reliance on the pageantry of protest [in addition to the bat and cup number in Grand Rapids, it is said that the drumming of protesters in Manhattan was met by strange looks]. Organizing around assembling an overwhelming turnout is more compelling, interesting, and persuasive than focusing on organizing around the issue alone. While pageantry is necessary, organizing in response to having a substantial and overwhelming number of supporters is ultimately more convincing than organizing simply because there is a cause to rally around. Doing the latter can ultimately result in low-turnout that leans towards a compensation by way of a 4-foot cup and a bat, which, while it feels triumphant to those who get to smash the prop, looks sillier to the onlooker than a bustling crowd might.

Also in eAction news:

• Citizens in a Rhode Island town come together against a windmill
• Collective Action and the gift or irrationality

-Filed in News