Coke a killer in Colombia?

dublin | worker & community struggles and protests | feature Saturday November 08, 2003 12:01 by Indymedia Ireland Editorial Group - Indymedia Ireland

Coca-Cola bring in 'Top Gun' as re-run of UCD Boycott Referendum approaches

The international campaign to boycott Coca-Cola scored a first victory in Ireland with the recent succesful passing of a referendum on University College Dublin's Belfield campus to ban the drink from Student Union outlets. The campaign aimed to pressure Coca-Cola into addressing the murder of union activists in its Colombian bottling plants. But now an attempt to repeal the result of the UCD referendum has led to a re-run of the referendum being planned for November 18th (evening) and 19th (all-day). Apparently as a result of the negative publicity around this issue the Coke Company will dispatch a heavy-hitter to Ireland from their head office to try and stop the campaign in its tracks.

When you drink Coca-Cola remember that you are contributing to a process which sows unemployment, hunger and pain. The young, happy image projected by Coca-Cola masks the suffering and the return of profits from Colombia to the U.S. We ask Coca-Cola to stop killing and you to stop drinking Coke.
Carlos Julia -- SINALTRAINAL

The Coca-Cola Company has been accused of bearing responsibility for the murder of activists from the SINALTRAINAL trade union in Colombia. These Trade Unionists are counted among the approximately 2000 Trade Unionists who have been murdered in the last decade by right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia (60% of the deaths of union activists in the World occur in Colombia). What has drawn particular attention to this case is the fact that that they both worked in bottling plants which are used by The Coca-Cola Company: Panamerican Beverages and Bebidas y Alimentos. The human-rights abuses perpetrated against such Union Activists also include the kidnapping of their children and the burning of union offices.

A significant amount of evidence to support the view that Coca-Cola is at least indirectly responsible has emerged and this has led to the growth of an international campaign which aims to pressure the multinational to do everything reasonable to protect union activities in its plants. One of the facets of this campaign is a lawsuit filed by the US United Steelworkers Union and the International Labour Rights Fund. The Coca-Cola Company has thus far been able to escape appearing as a defendant in court, arguing that it is not responsible for the actions of companies that it employs to bottle its products. A representative of the SINALTRAINAL Union will be speaking in Belfast, Derry and UCD in the very near future to thank Irish activists who have taken part in the campaign against Coca-Cola.

One group of Irish activists, as part of this international campaign, mounted a very succesful education initiative in University College Dublin (UCD) and scored a narrow win in a referendum which banned Coca-Cola from Student Union outlets. This success occurred despite the interference of SIPTU officials (the trade union which nominally represents the interests of employees of Coca-Cola in Ireland).

Several announcements followed from activists in several other colleges and businesses indicating that they intended to spread the Campaign and keep Coca-Cola on the run, but to this happy chorus has been added the discordant voice of reaction: some students in UCD Belfield who believe that The Coca-Cola Company should not be boycotted have forced another referendum in an attempt to repeal the Coke Boycott. Interestingly, although The Coca-Cola Company doesn't even bother listing Ireland on its "World" pages, it has decided to dispatch a spin-meister to Ireland (reportedly the director of communications in Latin America, Rafael Fernandez Quiros) to claim that the campaign is based upon "urban legends".

The Coca-Cola case is a salient reminder of a larger general problem of multinational companies putting business as usual ahead of concerns about democracy and fundamental human-rights in the Global South. As in Ireland there are those who attempt to challenge abuses of power and change things for the better, such as the SINALTRAINAL and SINTRAMECALI unions, and there are entrenched bureaucratic interests in the "participatory" unions who seek to defend their relatively comfortable positions as managers and containers of rights-based popular movements under the guise of "social partnership". Colombia is a clear example of how US military might is used to prop up corrupt local elites who are prepared to implement the policies of the IMF and World Bank in the face of popular resistance.

For globalism to work, America can't be afraid to act like the almighty superpower that it is....The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist - McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the World safe for Silicon Valley's technologies is called the United States Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.
"What the World Needs Now", by Thomas Friedman, New York Times, March 28,1999.