Ethiopia versus Starbucks - "win-win" or "froth for losers" situation?

international | anti-capitalism | news report Friday June 29, 2007 21:45 by iosaf - morning joe!

3 years ago the state of Ethiopia began what would become a monumental struggle when they announced their intention to trademark their Coffee Bean. The Ethiopian highlands & the surrounding "horn of Africa" were the origin of the drink coffee as far back as the 9th century [common era]. Specifically the Ethiopian state wanted to assert internationally recognised intellectual copyright on a range of coffee beans which to this day are mostly cultivated in the east African state. Many welcomed the move as evidence that late 20th century capitalism which has seen ownership concepts extended to ideas, living organisms & even specific genecodes could be a game which the poorest states might play to their advantage as well. Then came the orchestrated response of the Seattle USA based multi-national corporation Starbucks. Earlier this month both the company and state came to a settlement.

"win-win" or "froth for losers"?

As Starbucks CEO Schulz met with the Ethiopian state over the period and blocked Ethiopian efforts to trademark the main Ethiopian Coffeebeans - Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Harrar - Starbucks workers in the USA continued to be termed barristas and be employed on precarity contracts which fluctuated at whim between 11 and 35 hours a week paid on an hourly basis the sum of 6$ which rose with "managerial responsibilities" to a whopping 9$. Only 42% of Starbucks labour force in 2006 was afforded social security in comparison to 47% of Walmart workers. Considering those statistics it might not be surprising that the principle suppliers of the raw material were starving & without the most basic essentials of life.

Many Irish activists and readers alike will remember the campaign to stop Starbucks opening in Ireland c/f - http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=52755&sea...bucks & then their opening in 2005 : http://ie.indymedia.org/article/73154 I hope I'm not being glib by suggesting that many Irish people both at home and abroad see Starbucks and their expensive concoctions as merely one more justification of Ireland's position in the top three ranking of Europe's HDR (human development ranking) and Ireland's position at number four globally. I suppose they are the people who comment on Paris Hilton's nose or if terribly sophisticated pretend she doesn't exist. But out in the real world through 2004 to 2007 Ethiopia lingered at position 170th as one of hte poorest states on earth enduring no less than five internal or border conflicts and some of the worst social conditions in Africa.

What could a state where 80% of the workforce were engaged in agriculture and the mainstay of agriculture was the coffeebean do to get rich....to get by.....to feel good?

The answer was simple - they had to learn from their mistakes. Twice they had put their hope in big music gigs & failed. More than a few times they had put their hope in civil wars. But at last they realised had to fight Starbucks as the largest & most aggressive coffee industry entity for a bit more of their absolute maximum 10% of average profits. & they did it the western anglo-saxon capitalist way playing the fixed casino tables of intellectual copyright & royalty claims. Of course at that table poverty, lack of medicines, lack of schools let alone WIFI don't really win points. The global market in Coffee had crashed in 2001 and the "international Coffee Organisation" http://www.ico.org/ had responded by implementing it's 6th agreement. The new agenda set out in 2001 at quick glance reflected one of the key global consumer culture conditions which allowed Starbucks to grow into the giant it is today. The pre-crash agreement of 1994 had in post-cold war circumstances sought to harmonise production and toasting and create the first forum for "private producers" (meaning corporations) and tellingly to investigate the health aspects of coffee consumption. Many readers might not remember the links drawn in popular culture between coffee and heart disease or attention deficiency disorder, acne, mad cow disease and impotence by quality tabloid newspapers back then. But by the turn of the century and the bottoming of bean prices - Starbuck could suck hard on its straw from the new agenda of promoting coffee consumption . Yep. Sirree lady barrista - all of a sudden coffee could help you work, rest, play, orgasm, do well at the leaving certificate & get a good spot on Youtube even if you were thought of as being "difficult to employ" (cf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y8v7kkpQm4&search=x%20m...n%203 )

77 member states & an industry dominated by a handful of companies and dynasties & increasingly commercial-ideologically led by Starbucks are now engaged in the negotions for a 2007 international coffee agreement.

Already NGO groups such as OXfam who joined the fight on the Ethiopian side in 2005 have declared the agreement signed by Starbucks and Ethiopia on the 20th of June is a "win-win" :- Starbucks and Ethiopia signed a distribution, marketing and licensing agreement today [20/vi/07] that ends their trademark dispute and brings them together in partnership to help Ethiopian coffee farmers. International relief and development agency Oxfam welcomes the agreement that has the potential to give farmers a fairer share of the profits for their world-renowned coffee brands, Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe....said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America:- “This agreement represents a business approach in step with 21st-century standards in its concern for rights rather than charity and for greater equity in supply chains rather than short term profits.”...“Harnessing market forces and allowing poor countries to benefit from intellectual property rights are keys to creating fairer and more equitable trade,” continued Offenheiser. “In a modern economy, companies must bring their business models in line with the demands of good corporate citizenship, which goes beyond traditional philanthropic approaches to dealing with poverty.” Nearly three years ago, Ethiopia’s coffee sector launched a plan to take better advantage of its intellectual property. The country applied for the trademark registrations of its specialty coffee brands in the United States, Canada, and other countries. At the same time, Ethiopia began negotiating with coffee roasters to sign agreements acknowledging the right of Ethiopians to control these brands. “With this agreement, Ethiopians can build the value of their coffees and farmers can capture a greater share of the retail price,” Offenheiser concluded. “This should help improve the lives of millions of poor farmers, allowing them to send their children to school and access health care.” According to a press release issued by Ethiopia and Starbucks today, the agreement allows Starbucks to use and promote these coffee brands in markets both where trademarks exist for the brands as well as where they may not, in accordance with agreed terms and conditions negotiated with Ethiopia. Currently Ethiopia has successfully registered trademarks in Canada, the European Union, the United States and Japan.
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/press_r...33540

So - next time you walk past Starbucks - don't think of the poor worker - or the poor vapid handing over the cash - think of "fair trade".... of "Geldofism" .....of how many farmers' kids didn't get medicines or schools or WIFI or even latte or chocolate sprinkling for three years whilst Starbucks hammered the Ethiopians down to give that half of the "win-win". For in short - at the fixed casino of free-market anglo-saxon globalised hell there is no win-win - only froth for losers. & we know where the losers get jobs or farm. But at least poor people goto heaven.

http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/campaigns/coffee/s...bucks
This is the IWW affiliate trade union for US precarious workers whose only hope as losers is a job as a barrista. It's been a long time since I first wrote as part of our campaign against the most prominent lloser in Ireland's 2007 Michael Mc Dowell - "we are on the side of the barrista not the barrister".
http://www.starbucksunion.org/