THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY COMES FOR STARBUCKS.

When a Stalinist terror begins, nobody is safe.  "Once known for its progressive politics, Starbucks’s labor practices have soured its reputation in the eyes of many college students. Now some want the chain booted from campus."

Let us be grateful the campus militants didn't occupy the coffeehouse with rifles.

Generation Z isn’t happy with Starbucks’ labor practices, and some college students are showing their displeasure by doing more than just skipping their morning cold brew—they’re actively trying to get Starbucks-branded cafes removed from their campuses.

Student activists at more than 50 universities across the country are pushing administrators to end contracts with the Seattle-based coffee chain in protest of the company’s response to employee unionization. Starbucks workers began organizing in late 2021 in the hopes of receiving higher wages, better benefits and more security for those benefits. Since then, the National Labor Relations Board has accused Starbucks of hundreds of labor-rights violations, including firing pro-union employees and shutting down unionized locations. Starbucks, once known for its progressive politics and above-average benefits, has denied store closures or firings had anything to do with unionization efforts.

One group of activists has already succeeded in their mission: students at Cornell University received official word from President Martha E. Pollack in August that the Ivy League institution will not renew its contract with Starbucks when it comes up in 2025.

Let us also be grateful that the militants couldn't find any war-profiteering companies, such as Dow Chemical or IBM, or any scholarly complicity in the welfare-warfare state.

The activists, many of whom are or once were Starbucks baristas themselves, first launched a campaign supporting that goal in May. The campaign included giving out coffee in front of a campus Starbucks to raise awareness for the cause—and solicit donations to support striking baristas at other Starbucks locations in town—and holding a two-day sit-in at Day Hall, Cornell’s administrative building. Cornell’s Student Assembly also passed a resolution asking the institution to cut ties with the coffee giant.

The issue was particularly close to the hearts of the Cornell community, according to Nick Wilson, a student and former Starbucks worker: Ithaca, N.Y., where the university is located, was the first town in America in which every Starbucks store unionized—except the one on campus. (In on-campus Starbucks cafes, employees typically work for the university, not for Starbucks itself.)

A similar campaign is under way at the University of Washington, and the complicity is in sleeplessness in Seattle.

Last spring, students delivered a message to university president Ana Mari Cauce and Robert Bickham, UW’s director of dining, shortly before the campus’s contract with Starbucks was slated to renew on June 30.

“The purchasing power of institutions of higher education is significant, and we believe that our school should support Starbucks workers by redirecting that purchasing power to alternative suppliers until Starbucks complies with federal labor law and bargains fairly with unionizing workers,” read the letter, which was signed by 340 students and organizations on campus.

The university did not end its partnership with the coffee chain at the time, opting instead to renew the contract through June 2024.

Cauce wrote in response to student demands that the university would take student interests into account in discussions of [Washington’s] partnership with Starbucks.

But she also explained that Starbucks’s role at [Washington] goes beyond providing coffee to sleep-deprived students. The company also staunchly supports other programs and offices, providing funding and programming support to initiatives including UW’s career center, food pantries, K-12 literacy program and even some scholarships.

When asked if [Washington] would be able to find another coffee vendor that could provide similar benefits to the university, spokesman Victor Balta told Inside Higher Ed, “Companies from most industries can provide donations to scholarship funds, invest in [Washington] programs, donate to the food pantry and engage their leadership to enhance the student experience. What makes the [university’s] partnership with Starbucks unique is the scale at which they are able to support these programs, as well as the deep hometown connection Starbucks has with us in Seattle and the Puget Sound region.”

Which, presumably the Washington students who didn't sign the letter might be taking in mind.

Why do I continue to maintain that our universities are being run by terminally stupid people?  Dear reader, when the whinges of under 400 crybullies carry more weight with the senior administrators and in the house organ for all wokeness all the time, what other conclusion can I draw?