Holmfirth

Hebden ain't no Totnes, guys. There's only one Totnes and that's the one with the TQ9 postcode.

Machynlleth is a pretender but it's only tiny and most of the population speak Welsh, which I suspect they use when taking the mickey out of English hippies. Glastonbury is a historic town which has been taken over by charlatans devoted only to parting the gullible from their money. Stroud is nice enough but slightly dull and Hebden is a bit full of itself but less groovy than its neighbour Todmorden in my opinion.

And for all members of the TFF Lesbian Collective, if you want to meet like minded sisters then forget searching the countryside and make your way to Sheffield.

Hey, steady on there LG. I like my petit bourgeois coffee and I am certainly not going to patronise the big High Street chains who hammer home their already clear advantage over the little shops by not paying their damn taxes. A pity it was Costa rather than Starbuck's or Caffe Nero that Totnesians ran out of town because that would have been sweeter still.

I'm sure I have eaten a chick pea curry in TQ9 and received the local currency in my change but have never eaten coffee, fairtrade or otherwise, in Totnes or anywhere else. Mind you, a woman in mediaeval dress chastised me for throwing a crumb of my veggie pastie to a pigeon in the market place, and that's definitely summat that tends not to happen elsewhere.

Sounds like the Tour de France route to me.

I was thinking of the workers who harvest the coffee rather than the ones who sell it, as well as all the additional services we could save from the axe if Google, Boots, Cadbury's, Top Shop, Starbucks etc stopped cheating us out of our share of their taxes. Like everyone else who contributes to this forum I don't get the option of not paying my tax; it's deducted at source and I have no say on what it's spent on. WTF should the mega-rich get away with it while the rest of us continue to pay up?

I don't share your faith in the power of trade unions, LG. Over the years unions fought for better pay, conditions and safety but they have little power nowadays. If my union (Unison) was any good I wouldn't have had a pay freeze for the last 4 years and some of my colleagues wouldn't be following that freeze up with an actual cut next year. On the other hand, we can all make our protest by opting out of commercialism and refusing to spend money we haven't got on things we don't need from companies who trample on human rights in shops where the workers have no union and are on minimum wage.

Of course a few hippies in Totnes are not going to change the world but at least they don't sit on their arses reading the Daily Express, watching the X Factor and complaining about immigrants and benefit claimants. The campaign to save their town from having a corporate coffee company being foisted on it was a great example of citizens coming together to make their voices heard and they actually pulled it off too. Well done, Totnes, I say. The people won, for once, and that makes a very welcome and heartwarming change.

Is that the Costa on Union Street, Chelston, or the one inside HMV? When in Torquay, you were more likely to find me in Nero on Fleet Street after a Saturday match.

But beforehand, when I used to travel down from Exeter or Taunton, it was often the beach cafe at Corbyn's Head or one of the places at Beacon Quay. Babbacombe cafes also featured a lot - especially the Cliff Railway - and I'll always put in a favourable word for One World next to the tennis courts in front of the ERC.

So when I've time - and they're open - I like the individuality of independent cafes. But the convenience and longer opening hours of the Costas and Neros has a place too. And, as for Totnes, I'm afraid convenience and economy often lured me into Morrison's restaurant when I was working up the road at Dartington.

Meanwhile Wildebeeste will be disappointed that the former Cream coffee shop at Broomhill in Sheffield is being replaced by a Costa. I wonder how that will affect the custom of the other three cafes within a couple of hundred yards? I liked Cream even though it closed before I'd completed my loyalty card. I like the others too but, if I'm feeling economical, it's the Wetherspoon's down the hill. But not for a breakfast. Not yet anyway. Hmm, come to think of it, I'm in the mood for bacon.

Anybody know what badger tastes like? With the cull coming up, I wonder if there is a market? But maybe not in TQ9?

Whoops, only joking folks!

Before I'm removed from too many Christmas card lists.

Don't be sure that those workers get a great deal; a stamp on a piece of paper or menu is about creating a commodity, not better working conditions. Workers in Africa and Latin America would be better off organising amongst themselves than waiting for liberals in the West to order fairtrade coffee to go in their soya lattes. As in fact many of them do, because one thing you learn living in London is that Spanish and Latin American workers bring their workplace militancy with them. Witness the largely Latin American cleaners who have struck and used direct action to win wage increases and concessions from their bosses, including from'ethically' run John Lewis: iww.org.uk/node/821 and iww.org.uk/node/652

It's no coincidence that these victories have been won by an independent union, unaffiliated to the TUC. I share your lack of faith in social democratic trade unions. Not only are they completely unfit to fight for their members' terms and conditions, but that is one of their purposes. State-sanctioned unions in this country are exactly that; a union movement that is linked to one of the political parties that manage capital will never be anything different. An example of the depths an organisation like Unison will sink to can be found here: libcom.org/blog/unison-officials-spy-their-own-activists-ensure-yes-vote-pensions-25082012

Successful workplace organising takes place when workers control their own struggles, and are organised on industrial rather than trade lines. The reason why the RMT is one of the most effective TUC unions is not down to Bob Crow, but because the union has rail drivers, station staff and cleaners amongst its membership. Of equal significance is a well organised and militant rank-and-file that would force the hand of the union's leadership if it didn't back them in their grievances and disputes.

So no, Starbucks and precariously employed workers will not achieve gains by waiting for the likes of Frances O'Grady or Ed Milliband to help them out. But they will by organising, taking direct action and taking the fight to their employers, at the point of production.