In the larger context, there is a certain paradox to the progressives’ wrath. Since founding its flagship store in downtown Seattle in 1971, Starbucks continuously has sought to be a hybrid of profit-seeking and social responsibility. Its Shared Planet initiative, for example, commits the company to core goals of ethical sourcing, environmental stewardship and community involvement. This means, respectively, that: all coffee will be responsibly grown and ethically traded; all cups will be recyclable and reusable; and the company will contribute a minimum of 1 million hours of community service. “We’re proud to be one of the most progressive employers in the United States in terms of benefits, offering stock options, healthcare and working conditions,” notes Jim Koster, Starbucks senior vice president.

It’s tempting to view the company’s recent hammering by the Left as poetic justice. But supporters of free markets must recognize the potential damage of this corporate campaign, both to Starbucks and business as a whole. For if a company as avowedly progressive as Starbucks can be the target of an Internet-based corporate campaign, then no corporation is safe.

Size, if nothing else, makes Starbucks an easy target. In recent years it’s averaged five store openings a day. The company now generates about $10 billion annually in net revenues from all operations, which include publishing, music and film, plus brand-name food items in supermarkets. With more than 16,000 outlets worldwide – around 11,000 in the U.S. – and a work force of 135,000, Starbucks, like McDonald’s, has become an institution, right down to its logo.

Anti-globalist activists, taking note of such facts, denounce the company as a juggernaut of injustice that mows down competitors and homogenizes neighborhoods. This is a familiar – and suspect – complaint. To say there are too many Starbucks is like saying there are “too many” Tiger Marts, Bed Bath & Beyond outlets, Hard Rock Cafes and James Bond movies. Supply expands to meet demand. In a highly competitive marketplace, successful companies anticipate what people want, and after having built the public trust with their brand name, continue to seek new and repeat customers. Starbucks’ offense seems to be that it’s pretty good at it.

The company has filled an untapped niche, the gourmet coffee house in the neighborhood and the mall. If people are willing to pay more for the extra quality, well…it’s their money. Starbucks haters might be comforted by the company’s announcement early this year that it would close about 900 outlets in response to falling net income. Even the fastest-growing businesses at some point run up against that brick wall. That Starbucks could help torpedo EFCA is more than the unions and their allies can bear, even if lattes and espresso were to go for half-price.

Starbucks, God knows, aims for benevolence. Howard Schultz explained to CBS’s “60 Minutes” in April 2006: “We’re not in the business of filling bellies. We’re in the business of filling souls.” Hey, I’m not laughing. If management can make this kind of mission statement work, more power to them. Far better, I say, for liberals to run successful businesses than ruin them.

Unfortunately, certain activists are trying to inflict real damage on the company until it gets fully on board with organized labor. The company needs to recognize that striking an ideal balance between profit and progressivism isn’t always possible. This is one of those instances when it’s not. Starbucks should smell the coffee and fight back.