Happy MLK Day and Mother-F Starbucks and Wild Edibles

"E questo il fiore del partigiano morto per la liberta!"
"and this is the flower of the partisan who died for freedom's sake."

Today I left the house for the first time since I was laid off on Friday. I guess going to the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day march put on by the Industrial Workers of the World was probably about the best excuse I could think of to finally stop wallowing in self-pity and face the world outside the safety of my small dark kitty-filled apartment. Besides, my girlfriend Liberte was speaking outside the New York headquarters of Starbucks and what kind of partner would I be if I didn't go to support her stickin' it to the man. The man being an evil multinational corporation resposible for the gentrification of neighborhoods, the destruction of communities, the bastardization of coffee culture, the exploitation of so-called third-world farmers and is responsible for unfair labor practices, low wages and engages in illegal union busting activities against their own baristas.

At first it was really hard for me to go to a labor rally when I was just laid off from my job, but being there was probably the best place I could've been in the world. I was feelin' so much love from fellow workers. People kept asking me how I was doing and I'd tell them I was just laid off . Every single person told me they already heard and they were really f-ing pissed off about it and asked what they could do to help. And these were not just my friends, but also people I barely knew, even people I just met that day. Now that's what solidarity unionism is about! Solifuckingdarity. That's what I'm talkin' bout. Every single person. "What can I do to help?"

People had a lot of great ideas, which I'll talk about more later.

The march kicked off from the New York headquarters of Starbucks at 33rd and 5th Ave. Before the march our new housemate Steph gave a really great speech on the nature of wage-slavery and the need for organizing in the workplace. She really broke it down. It was pretty empowering, even for me being an out-of-work worker. Steph just moved in to our extremely small, cramped NY apartment because she wanted to stay in the city (she had previously been commuting from Jersey) and we were having trouble paying rent even before I lost my job. So she's staying in our library for the next 5 months, which is cool because she loves to read as much if not more than us.

After Steph's speech was Liberte's. I've never been prouder. She got up there in front of the crowd, glanced at the speech she wrote and then just went into a totally adlibbed, angry and passionate rant against the corporate greed and corruption of Starbucks and the hypocracy involved in their decision to drastically cut labor hours, close 600 stores while at the same time buying a 45 million dollar private jet for the CEOs and chief financial officers. Liberte also went off on Starbucks for their complete refusal to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by not paying time and a half on Dr. King's birthday. I cried several times during her speech, especially when she talked about how much Dr. King's words meant to her when she was growing up poor and often homeless and her mom would quote them to her, knowing that when King fought for civil rights he was fighting for the civil rights of everyone. That MLK fought for the poor, the working poor, spoke out on behalf of single mothers. Dr. Martin Luther King's holiday belongs to all of us, regardless of what color skin we're livin' in.

Liberte, you fucking rock.

After the rally in front of SBUX we marched to Wild Edidbles, a seafood packaging company based in Queens and Brooklyn who keeps their largely immigrant workforce in sweatshop conditions, often locking them in the plant. When the workers started to organizng the bosses retaliated with disgusting union busting tactics, including firing all open IWW members. We marched over there with the Rude Mechanical Orchestra playing the whole way. Rude Mechanical Orchestra is a protest marching band that plays everything from Italian anti-fascist resistance ballads such as "Bella Ciao" to cross-dressing heavy metal hairfarmers Twisted Sister's anti-authority figure classic "We're Not Going to Take It!"

Overall the day made me wish I tried harder to organize my store while I was still there, because for all my caution, for all my trying not to make too many waves, I was still just thrown away like a useless piece of trash when they were done taking all the wanted from me. And if you're going to be fired or laid off anyway, it might as well be for trying to make your workplace a better place to be.

"Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao!!!"