After the opening reading, a sketch based on an excerpt from the Stink Ape Resurrection Primer, Tish and Adam interview Ken LeBlanc, a rank-and-file member of the Main Street Carbondale, Illinois Starbucks union organizing committee. The Starbucks Workers United organizing effort went public in Carbondale in late May. LeBlanc discusses organizing, how to start a union, the grievances of her co-workers, making food for folks as an art, the Restaurant Organizing Project, how uncontested corporate power breeds unethical behavior, the grassroots organizing in Southern Illinois around abortion rights and reproductive justice, and speculates — at our request — on her idea of utopia.
Read More