Monday, July 21, 2003
International Boycott of Coca-Cola
The World Social Forum, an international gathering of activists and fighters for social justice that was established as a response to the World Economic Forum, has announced July 22, 2003 as an international day against Coca-Cola. The boycott was established partially in response to accusations by SINALTRAINAL, the trade union that represents workers at Coke facilities in Colombia. SINALTRAINAL has long maintained that Coke is among the most notorious employers in Colombia and that the company maintains open relations with murderous death squads as part of a program to intimidate trade union leaders.
Other reasons for the boycott include:
- For the violation of the human rights of workers and communities.
- For the profits made on the back of assassinations, imprisonment, displacement, kidnapping, death threats and dismissals of trade union leaders in Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil, the United States, Venezuela, Palestine, Turkey, Iran and other parts of the world.
- For the contamination of water sources with the waste from their bottling plants.
- For racial discrimination against black communities and those suffering from AIDS in the United States and Africa.
- For using coca to make its products and its support of the criminal policies of the United States against communities whose culture and survival depends on coca leaves, especially in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia.
- For its unfettered use of the world’s water and the criminal theft of water sources from communities in India.
- For supporting the criminal oligarchy in Venezuela which is attacking the government and its plans to bring dignity into the lives of the people of our sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, as well as for its historic interference in the internal affairs of peoples.
The boycott will commence on 22 July 2003 and will initially be for one year. The Second World Social Forum declared 22 July 2003 as the international day against Coca Cola. The boycott will not only consist of NOT CONSUMING THE PRODUCTS OF THIS TRANSNATIONAL COCA COLA, but will also mark the start of a sustained campaign of condemnation, mobilisation and struggle against its policies. In order to realise the declared boycott, we will undertake the following plan of international action:
On 11 February 2003, a proposal for integral reparation was delivered to Coca Cola along with signatures and a political declaration from the three sessions of the APP. We are hoping that the transnational will organise the relevant meetings with SINALTRAINAL in order to come to an agreement which enables us to resolve the problems we have denounced.
On 22 July 2003, there will be a press conference in Rome, Chicago and Bogota in which the start of the boycott will be announced to the world. In countries where it is possible to have access to the press, we ask comrades to do the same simultaneously.
More information here and a list of Coca-Cola products here.
Update: Several mainstream mentions of the boycott, mostly in California and Australia. A Google search brings up more of the same in other CA and AU papers.
posted by chris at 2:39 PM
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