Boycott Coca-Cola - 22nd July 2003
International Day of Action & Boycott Launch

Boycott Coca-Cola - 22nd July 2003 - International Day of Action & Boycott Launch

As you are hopefully aware, the World Social Forum has declared the 22nd July, as the International Day of Action against Coca Cola, and the start of a boycott of all its products.

These actions are in solidarity with SINALTRAINAL, the Colombian Food and Drinks Workers Union.

SINALTRAINAL have suffered the assassination of 8 union leaders, killed by paramilitaries financed by Coca Cola management, as well as the disappearance, arbitrary detention, torture, kidnap and sacking of hundreds more of their workers at Coca Cola bottling plants throughout Colombia.

In a court case in the USA, brought by the United Steelworkers Union, in solidarity with SINALTRAINAL, a judge has ruled that Coca Cola's bottlers have a case to answer, but the multinational refuses to cooperate with the union, and continues its policy of repression. In a similar case in Guatemala during the 80s, Coca Cola stood by and watched as union members within their bottling plants were assassinated by death squads. Coca Cola only acted to protect the lives of their workers when pressured into it by a consumer boycott.

For this reason, we are asking you to participate in this boycott, to throw the Coke machine out of your school, college or workplace, to organise in your area, and to demand that Coca Cola be answerable for the heinous abuses of their workers in Colombia.

Join us for the International Day of Action and organize an event in your area. Help make the day as truly international as Coca Cola's corporate abuses, help out in activities planned for all over the world!

The Coca Cola Campaign

Coca Cola and Nestlé both stand accused of serious human rights violations in Colombia. While Nestlé sack union members, Coca Cola kill them. Paramilitary Death Squads, acting under orders from Coca Cola management, have assassinated 8 trade union leaders in their workplaces. The union, SINTRAMINERCOL, has responded by calling for an international boycott of Coca Cola and all of their products, to start on 22 July.

Text from the Coca-Cola Boycott Flyer

The World Social Forum has declared 22 July 2003 as the International Day of Action against Coca Cola and the start of a year-long boycott of all their products, in solidarity with SINALTRAINAL, the Colombian food and drink workers’ union, who have suffered the assassination of eight of their leadership, killed by paramilitary death squads hired by Coca Cola management. The union has also witnessed the imprisonment, arbitrary detention, torture and forced displacement of hundreds of workers at Coca Cola bottling plants throughout Colombia. In a court case in the USA, brought by the United Steelworkers’ union on behalf of SINALTRAINAL, a judge has ruled that Coca Cola do have a case to answer, yet the multinational refuses to cooperate with the union, and continues its policy of violent repression.

Some of the reasons SINALTRAINAL called for the boycott:

• For the violation of human rights of workers and communities.
• For profits made on the back of assassinations, imprisonment, displacement,
  kidnapping, death threats and the dismissal of trade unionists in Colombia, Brazil,
  Guatemala, Peru, USA, Venezuela, Palestine, Turkey, Iran and other countries.
• For the contamination of water sources with the waste from their bottling plants.
• For racial discrimination against black communities and AIDS sufferers.
• For using coca to make its products, while supporting the criminal policies of the
  USA against communities whose culture and survival depends on coca leaves.
• 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’s attempt to bring dignity to the lives of its people, and for its historic
  interference in the internal affairs of peoples.
  
  We ask you as individuals or organisations to take part, to throw out the Coca Cola
  vending machines from your school, college or workplace, to actively participate in
  this campaign against corporate slaughter, to organise in your area. Contact us to
  arrange for speakers, information or materials about Coca Cola’s killing in Colombia.
  
  SINALTRAINAL members assassinated by Coca Cola
  
  Avelino Achicano Erazo, 1990, Pasto; Jose Eleasar Manco David, 1994, Carepa;
  Luis Enrique Giraldo Arango, 1994, Carepa; Luis Enrique Gomez Granado,
  1995, Carepa; Isidro Segundo Gil Gil, 1996, Carepa; Guillermo Gomez Maigul,
  1998, Pasto; Oscar Dario Soto Polo, 2001, Monteria; Adolfo de Jesus Munera
  Lopez, 2002, Baranquilla.
  
  “We ask Coca Cola to stop killing … and you to stop drinking Coke”
  ~ Carlos Julia, Sinaltrainal
  
  Colombia Solidarity Campaign, PO Box 8446, London N17 6NZ, tel 07932 034477
  Email: colombia_sc@hotmail.com Website: www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk
  

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Page last updated July 8, 2003