I have many good things to say about Starbucks. Their filter coffee is excellent, they bring you free samples of exotic drinks distantly related to coffee, and some Starbucks are unionized. Plus I once dated a barista.

I don't buy the argument that they put mom-and-pop stores out of business. The only independent coffee shops still around cater to niche hipster markets, full of people who are going there to differentiate themselves from Starbucks. In my experience, those shops charge even more for their coffee. Rather, Starbucks drives out chains serving inferior coffee, like Coffee Time. Starbucks does invest in Israel, which I object to. But Tim Hortons opened a branch in Kabul, and I don't see anyone leading a boycott for that particular imperialist cash-in.

Here's something else to add to the list. Last spring I was typing away at Starbucks, trying to ignore the horrific bland-pop dripping out of the speakers. Then a man with a heavy patois came on the radio, saying, "The SWP can't do it for me" and I perked up. He went on to mention the Communist Party, and the Liberal Party; after some googling I figured out it was Linton Kwesi Johnson.

I never liked reggae. I thought the beats were too slow, religious music gets my hackles up (except for Al Green's Jesus Is Waiting, the only song to make Christianity sexy - but soul, not reggae.) Plus I'd heard Get Up, Stand Up one too many times. But LKJ was political, part of the black liberation struggle.

True, I think his attitude towards the far left was sectarian: he claimed black-white unity was simply white communists hopping on the anti-racist bandwagon, which caricatures the broad coalition-building of RAR that stopped the Nazis in the 70s and ignores that it was largely the Labour Party, not the far left, who recruited from this milieu. But he also authored the great fascist-fighting song Fite Dem Back ("we gonna smash their brains in, cause they ain´t got nofink in ´em"), and criticised those very blacks swept up into the establishment (Di Black Petty Booshwah.)

Today my Starbucks coffee cup had one of those 'food for thought' quotes on it:



See that? Freakin' Cornel West! The socialist academic I saw and loved at the Left Forum this year:



I realise my left flank is exposed here. A Marxist prof who talks a streak but supports the Democratic Party, and licenses his speeches for a Starbucks cup, might be seen as de-fanging radical politics. Worse, he could be allowing Starbucks to profit off the quaint notion of radical chic, in an age when there's not much radical to be chic about.

But respectfully, I disagree. Anything that gets the idea of leading, loving and serving the people - heck, even just the concept of "the people", instead of consumers, citizens or taxpayers - into a wider audience is a good thing. If it sparks a tiny percentage of coffee drinkers to go read The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought, that's a good thing too. I'm not suggesting we run out and scrawl messages on coffee cups (actually, maybe I am...) But a snippet of West is miles ahead of the pacifism that passes for liberal politics these days. You don't have to agree with West's Maoist rhetoric or reformism to recognize that Marxism has an image problem, and that generating coffee cup messages seen by millions of people daily is better PR than, well, silence.

Well, that answers the problem of whether to build a revolutionary party - glad that's sorted. Starbucks promotes black power and brings Marxism to the masses - another ringing corporate endorsement from Monuments Are For Pigeons. Is anyone going to pay me for these?

Labels: black power, coffee, revolutionary strategy, starbucks