Put Down That (right wing) Coors: Why We Should Be Boycoting Big Beer

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/141953/put_down_that_coors:_why_we_should_be_boycoting_big_beer/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet_workplace

By Benjamin Dangl, CounterPunch. Posted August 15, 2009.

One reason to boycott large breweries is the union busting, right wing culture that dominates some of the biggest breweries in America.

When Obama sat down for a beer in the White House Rose Garden with Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley, they all turned their backs on the smaller, craft brewers of the country. Obama chose Bud Light, Gates asked for Red Stripe, and Crowley drank Blue Moon.

One of the major craft brewers based where I live in Vermont is Magic Hat, a brewery with a delicious array of brews. That brewery issued a press release following the "Beer Summit" explaining, "Craft Brewers the country over are chagrined by the President’s choice to consume a beer owned by a company based outside of America’s borders. Bud Light, owned by Belgium-based AB InBev, and Blue Moon, owned by London-based SAB MillerCoors, together control 94% of the beer market in the United States. However, the United States boasts over 1,500 craft brewers, the majority being made up of small Main Street Businesses that employ less than 50 people."

This encounter at the Rose Garden provides a perfect time to reflect on why we should all boycott the beer monopolies of the world.

One reason to boycott large breweries is the union busting, right wing culture that dominates some of the biggest breweries in America. Yuengling, America’s oldest brewery, and Coors, America’s biggest brewery, both offer insights into the ugly political and labor practices of this multi-billion dollar industry.

In 2007 Yuengling owner Dick Yuengling told his workers, "the writing was on the wall" and that if they didn’t get rid of the union he would close the brewery and open up shop in a location in the southern US where labor was cheaper. Faced with the choice of looking for work in an area with few jobs, the workers decided to kick the union out.

snip: Over the years the Coors family has contributed handsomely to plenty of conservative projects and organizations. Reading about their family’s philanthropy is like reading a history of the right wing in America.

Joseph Coors was an advisor to Ronald Reagan, provided the founding grant to the infamous Heritage Foundation as well as the right wing Free Congress Foundation, which asks the following question on its website: "Will America return to the culture that made it great, our traditional, Judeo-Christian, Western culture?" If not, the US will, revert to "no less than a third world country."

Joseph Coors really put his money where his right wing heart was when he donated a $65,000 plane to the Contras in the covert US war against the Nicaraguan Sandinistas in the 1980s. It’s high time to raise a glass of non-Coors beer in solidarity with the Sandinistas. But here’s another reason to boycott America’s most successful brewing company; their union busting.

FULL story at link.

[vadawg]

1. my rule is drink the beer you like regardless of the name

if i want to drink cheep llama piss from the gas station, then why shouldnt i, if you want to drink a lager prepared by bavarian maidens escorted by goats then have at it.. lifes to short not to enjoy the beverage of your choice..

[RagAss]

2. Coors is pisswater anyway.

[givemebackmycountry]

3. Oh yeah Steve - that's a great post...

Gee, when I think of BEER I think of Belgium-based AB InBev, doncha' know - you betcha!

Magic Hat does good beer.
Rouge Brewery in Portland.
Flying Dog in Denver.
Middle Ages in Syracuse.
And I'm drinking a Dogfish 90 min IPA for Omaha Steve.

So many good beers, so little time.

:toast:

[demosincebirth]

4. Never drink Coors for that same reason.

[demosincebirth]

5. Never drink Coors for that same reason.