#dropstarbucks: CSWA launches new campaign at teach-in

On Sunday, Feb. 11, the Claremont Student Worker Alliance (CSWA) held a teach-in to launch their campaign to end Harvey Mudd College’s contract with Starbucks. Students on college campuses across the United States have been calling for boycotts and contract terminations due to the company’s union-busting activities and support for Israeli apartheid.

The teach-in followed a petition titled “Petition to End Harvey Mudd College’s Relationship with the Starbucks Corporation” that CSWA published Feb. 8, which currently has more than 250 signatures. According to a CSWA organizer, around two-thirds of the signatures are from Harvey Mudd students.

The college began their partnership with Starbucks back in 2013 and has since been serving Starbucks drinks at the Café and Jay’s Place, two popular on-campus sites for students to enjoy meals, drinks and snacks.

Paolo Kainu HM ’25, a CSWA organizer, was particularly encouraged by the turnout at the teach-in, where more than half of the attendees were Harvey Mudd students.

“This shows that while people can be stuck in what some people call the ‘Mudd Bubble,’ they do actually care what’s going on in the real world,”

Paolo Kainu HM ’25

“This shows that while people can be stuck in what some people call the ‘Mudd Bubble,’ they do actually care what’s going on in the real world,” Kainu told Undercurrents.

At the start of the teach-in, Kainu provided an overview of Starbucks’ history of unfair labor practices and the recent lawsuit against Starbucks Workers United, a union that represents over 9,500 Starbucks workers, for posting on social media in support of Palestine. They explained that Starbucks has committed violations of federal labor law with its union-busting tactics and presented examples of previous unfair labor practice cases against the company. 

Kainu also described Starbucks’ unethical sourcing practices from countries including Guatemala, Brazil and Kenya. They explained why the company’s official statements regarding these violations and internal reports lack credibility, as their third-party vetting system is not thorough in its testing and self-investigations have conflicts of interests.

“This shows Starbucks’ apathy at best and rampant abuse at worst,” they said.

According to Jordan James PO ’24, another CSWA organizer, the teach-in was intended to educate Harvey Mudd students about Starbucks’ history and mobilize students to join the campaign. As a part of an exercise during the teach-in, he hinted at what future actions and tactics the campaign would take.

“We have a bunch of tactics in our toolkit as organizers and over time we gradually turn up the heat by doing more high stakes actions that, over time, get the school into a place where they feel, ‘Okay, we have to listen to these students,’” James said to the attendees.

The organizers also distributed zine handouts with more information on why Harvey Mudd students should support the campaign.

“With all the work Mudders need to get done, they should not feel like they’re supporting genocide every time they need to buy coffee at the Café or Jay’s Place,” the zines read.

Despite being in the early stages of the campaign, Kainu and James were both optimistic for the future. James ended the teach-in by citing campaigns to drop Starbucks at other universities. He also referred to previous successful initiatives at the 5Cs as motivation for this campaign, including the PZ 3 and Rehire Pepe and Gregorio campaigns at Pitzer College and the Drop Sodexo campaign at Scripps College.

“This is a campaign that is absolutely winnable and to me feels way more in reach than these three campaigns did at the moment that they started,” James said. “We can win this.”