As armed Hamas terrorists are beheading Jewish babies, raping innocent women, and executing civilians in the street, Starbucks union workers—backed by far-left Squad member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-VT), socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and brain-dead Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA)—have proudly signaled public support for the terrorist invasion of Israel.
Starbucks Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), voiced "Solidarity with Palestine!" in a series of since-deleted posts across social media. Over the weekend, Starbucks union chapters in progressive strongholds, such as Iowa City, Chicago, and Boston, promoted "Long Live Palestinian Resistance" rallies supporting the Hamas attacks.
"Freeing Palestine was never going to be flowers and baby animals," wrote a Starbucks Workers United member on the X platform, endorsing the terroristic violence hours after Hamas mobilized. "What the f*ck did you expect?" the worker stated.
From organizer @UnionKyleT: pic.twitter.com/YCGUfnMi06
— Union Facts (@Union_Facts) October 10, 2023
Starbucks Workers United leader Jaz Brisack, an original organizer of the union, posted: "There's no 'two sides' to apartheid. Free Palestine." As a tactic to disparage the Jewish state, anti-Israel activists like Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) oft-accuse Israel of instituting an apartheid. "From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free," Brisack has blurted, an antisemitic chant seen as a common call-to-arms for the genocidal erasure of Israel and its people. According to the American Jewish Committee, it's a rallying cry for terrorist organizations and sympathizers from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to Hamas.
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In an op-ed letter published by Ole Miss's student-run newspaper, Brisack previously praised PFLP terrorist Rasmea Odeh as a "freedom fighter," the Washington Free Beacon reported. Claiming she's a "political prisoner," Brisack defended Odeh, who was convicted of coordinating bombings, including an attack at a Jerusalem supermarket that killed two Hebrew University students.
"[Odeh] has called attention to the fact that Israel, guilty of the crime of apartheid, illegally occupies Palestinian land..." Brisack, a former Rhodes Scholar, penned back in 2017. "We celebrate the resilience, strength, and determination that Odeh embodies."
Big Labor critic Center for Union Facts ran a full-page ad in the New York Post exposing the pro-terrorist rhetoric of Starbucks Workers United's rank and file and calling on the SEIU to condemn its affiliated union's celebration of anti-Israel terrorism.
From @SBWorkersUnited, now deleted pic.twitter.com/46PhlWHLYm
— Union Facts (@Union_Facts) October 10, 2023
"The SEIU can't take credit for Workers United's organizing wins and then turn a blind eye when the union posts in defense of violent terrorist attacks," commented Center for Union Facts communications director Charlyce Bozzello in a press statement.
Here's a compilation of the Starbucks Workers United chapters that are on Hamas's side (courtesy of Center for Union Facts):
- Boston Starbucks Workers United
- Issued a solidarity message via its X account
- Claimed Israel is "an apartheid state" that is "currently committing the same and worse war crimes as Hamas."
- Reposted a Palestinian Youth Movement flyer for a march outside Cambridge City Hall, exclaiming, "Victory Is Ours."
- Workers United Upstate
- Accused Israel of "apartheid occupation"
- Iowa City Starbucks Workers United
- Reposted "Palestine will be free"
- Reposted a flyer for a "Palestine Resists Occupation" protest outside the Israeli consulate in Chicago
- Starbucks Workers United Greektown Chicago
- Reposted a statement about ending the so-called "occupation."
- Reposted messages seemingly justifying terrorist violence
- "It's going to be a long struggle. But emancipatory politics aren't about expediency and short-term calculations. Empires have fallen, and they'll fall again. Long live the struggle for a free Palestine!"
- "Decolonization is not a metaphor: it's action, it's land back..."
We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and condemn the IDF for senselessly and viciously bombing, murdering, and injuring innocent Palestinians, as well as for creating and funding Hamas in the 80s to discourage Palestinian solidarity. https://t.co/xIDJhqY0yH
— Boston Starbucks Workers United (@BostonSBWU) October 9, 2023
Standing with an apartheid state that is currently committing the same and worse war crimes as Hamas isn’t very solidarity of you
— Boston Starbucks Workers United (@BostonSBWU) October 9, 2023
We at Workers United Upstate NY & VT grieve for all the lives that have been lost — both Palestinian and Israeli. We also stand against Israel’s apartheid occupation of Palestine. The labor movement must support liberation for all and fight all forms of oppression. pic.twitter.com/vJjWojI8c9
— Workers United Upstate NY & VT (@organizeupstate) October 9, 2023
In-person and online, AOC has repeatedly championed Starbucks Workers United's unionization efforts, including cheering on baristas in Buffalo, New York, who became the first Starbucks store to organize; meeting with unionizing workers in Astoria, Queens; and touting the union-election victory of New York City's flagship roastery in Manhattan's Chelsea Market.
Thank you to @AOC and @Indiawaltonbflo for a very special day! With your help, we will hold Starbucks accountable for their union-busting -- and we will win the first unionized corporate Starbucks in the United States. pic.twitter.com/lzJHvE5r51
— Starbucks Workers United (@SBWorkersUnited) October 23, 2021
Sanders called the Starbucks union's formation "a tremendous inspiration" and "encouraging to see people all over the country standing up for themselves and each other." The senator added, "[T]ogether, working people can achieve the dignity they deserve." Fetterman declared he "stands" with Starbucks workers and "will always defend" the so-called "Union Way of Life."
Workers with @SBWorkersUnited made history today. They are a tremendous inspiration and it is so encouraging to see people all over the country standing up for themselves and each other. In solidarity, together, working people can achieve the dignity they deserve. pic.twitter.com/FYlo3YPJr1
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) December 9, 2021
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