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Everybody knows that Coke is bad for you. It turns rusty old pennies into shiny new ones. It turns shiny new teeth into rusty old ones. And if you drink it with pop rocks you will explode.
But in the last few years the world has been learning about how Coke is not just bad for your internal organs, they’re also a particularly socially and environmentally irresponsible company. The most serious of Coke’s many offenses is their implication in the murder of workers at their bottling plant in Columbia. SINALTRAINAL, the major union representing Coca-Cola workers in Columbia, has attempted to take Coca-Cola to court to hold them accountable for the numerous and credible reports that Coca-Cola bottling plant managers in Columbia not only allowed paramilitary death squads to murder, torture and kidnap SINALTRAINAL leaders and members in an effort to crush their union, but they financially supported and actively colluded with them to do so.
Since Coke is so bad for us anyway, the least we can do for Columbian worker and our intestinal linings is to act in solidarity with the Columbian workers who have suffered from Coke’s criminal behavior. SINALTRAINAL and its supporters have called for a boycott of all Coca-Cola products until a number of demands have been met.
Our Demands
Our campaign demands are based off SINALTRAINAL’s demands
- That there be no more assassinations
- That Coca-Cola prints a memoriam of the murdered workers on its product labels and pays full reparations to the victims’ families.
- That Coca-Cola supports an annual forum on human rights for workers in multinational companies.
The Action
If 1,000,000 join, we will all boycott all Coke products including:
Sprite, Fanta, Minute Maid, Nestea, Powerade, Swerve daily drink, Dasani water, and also obviously Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, as well as Coke’s ill-advised experiments such as Coke BlaK and Coke 2.
Who should join?
Now typically on boycotts on The Point, the membership requirement is that you be a customer of the boycotted brand. In this instance, as long as you’ve ever been a Coca-Cola customer you can join, even if you’re already participating in the boycott. We want to show Coca-Cola the impact their actions are already having on their business, as well as recruit new members to join the boycott with us when the campaign tips. If you were hesitant to boycott Coca-Cola in the past because you didn’t think enough people would do it, you can join this campaign and have the confidence that you’ll be acting with 1,000,000 people.
What else can I do?
Additionally, everyone is encouraged to start smaller local campaigns. Kick Coke off your college campus. Kick Coke out of your High School. Kick Coke off your sponsor list. Kick Coke out of your office. There are many small winnable campaigns to support labor rights that are within your immediate control. Create your own campaign & link to this one, & we’ll grow this movement simultaneously on the local and international level.
Other Coca-Cola injustices
Coca-Cola has been involved in many injustices in the past. Although the international boycott is focused on the murders of union leaders in Columbia, that’s really just the tip of the iceberg. Strategically, it makes sense to go after Coke for the most recent and most egregious offense, which is what this campaign is focused on. But a look at these issues (taken from www.killercoke.org) just strengthens the argument that Coke is a company that must be held accountable for its actions.
- Overexploitation and pollution of water sources in India (www.IndiaResource.org), Mexico (www.Ciepac.org), Ghana and elsewhere (www.PolarisInstitute.org)
- Continuing to operate in the Sudan, ignoring genocide in Darfur and paying fines for violating U.S. sanctions
- Benefiting from hazardous child labor in sugar cane fields in El Salvador as documented by Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org)
- Aggressive marketing to children of nutritionally worthless and damaging products (www.CommercialExploitation.org
and www.SchoolPouringRights.com)
- Anti-worker and anti-environmental practices worldwide (www.StudentsAgainstSweatshops.org and www.WarOnWant.org)
- Giving executives hundreds of millions of dollars in stock options and bonuses while laying off thousands of employees
- History of racial discrimination , fraudulent business practices, tax avoidance and corporate welfare schemes
More information on the ongoing Coke boycott can be found at these sites
www.KillerKoke.com
www.StudentsAgainstSweatshops.org
