Yesterday morning, Sen. Bernie Sanders and his Democratic colleagues grilled Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks, and heard testimony from workers about the company’s extensive, illegal union–busting. It was a glorious spectacle, displaying the power of working-class organizing with allies in elected office to push back against and divide the ruling class on a national stage.

Workers at Starbucks have been unionizing, voting yes to form unions at nearly three hundred stores and filing for elections at even more. Sanders, after two formidable presidential campaigns, is one of the most popular politicians in America and is still viewed nervously by the Washington establishment. With Sanders at the head of the hearing and Starbucks workers in the audience, Senate Democrats rightly treated Schultz, a longtime Democratic donor who ran for president in the 2020 primary, like the criminal that he is.

Sanders has been convening hearings about capitalist wrongdoing, presiding with his trademark vibe of focused and righteous exasperation, looking as pissed off as he’s given all of us permission to be. (His new book is titled It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism.) Schultz at first refused to appear, but threatened with a subpoena, he had no choice. The main subject of the hearing was Starbucks’s extensive illegal efforts to prevent its employees from joining a union. Workers have filed more than two hundred unfair labor practices complaints against the company. Starbucks management has punished workers for union organizing, including by firing those workers and depriving them of benefits.