The demonstrators will be serving up free Zapatista coffee to customers and passers-by outside Starbucks stores in Edinburgh and Glasgow city centres.

Starbucks exploiting workers

Joe from the IWW - the Industrial Workers of the World
- said, " Starbucks workers in several branches in New
York are battling their bosses to establish an IWW Union
and improve their wages and conditions. Currrently workers
start at 7 dollars 75 cents per hour and have no guaranteed
hours. Deliberate low staffing levels result in
stress and poor health and safety, repetitive strain
injury and burns being not uncommon.

"Starbucks have responded with union-busting tactic
including victimising one of the main union
organisers, Daniel Gross. The Starbucks workers
in New York have told us they are really excited by
these actions of international solidarity."

Starbucks oppressing indigenous people

Edinburgh Chiapas Solidarity Group member Esther
stated, "Starbucks make great play of serving fair
trade coffee. The reality is that less than 2% of
their coffee is supposedly fair trade - and that comes
from an organisation called Conservation International
which is trying to get indigenous people evicted from
the Montes Azules area in Chiapas.

"Conservation International is a notorious "greenwash"
organisation, funded by US state agencies and
multinational corporations. Starbucks are a major
partner and backer of Conservation International - and
are therefore complicit in their hidden war on
indigenous communities. The Zapatista villages in
Montes Azules have declared they are not going to
allow eviction, and we are acting in solidarity with
these autonomous communities."

PICKETS of STARBUCKS SAT 20TH NOVEMBER
GLASGOW
12.30 - 1.30pm Picket of Starbucks, Sauchiehall Street
(near Royal Concert Hall)
EDINBURGH
Starbucks, 124 High Street (near the Tron) from
12.15pm onwards

Pickets are also being held on the same day elsewhere
in Britain, eg Bristol