How many people in Kirkby drink Coca Cola? - Probably quite a few, and this article is referring to Coca Cola, the original branded fizzy drink - not any of the imitations out there , which are just as good, or bad as the so called 'real thing'. Coca Cola is something we should boycott and here is why.

Coca Cola and the Murders of Trade Union Officials at their Bottling Plants

Tuesday, July 22, saw the launch of a global campaign to boycott Coca Cola products in solidarity with Colombian trade unionists. Last year, 184 Colombia unionists were assassinated by paramilitaries just for being trade unionists. Over 4000 have been murdered since 1986.

Sinal Trinal, a Colombian foodworkers union, are currently suing two Colombian-based Coca-Cola bottlers - Bebidas y Alimentos and Panamerican Beverages - in US courts over their alleged role in the murder of trade unionists by right-wing paramilitaries. Coca Cola itself is not facing the lawsuit after a March 31 ruling dismissed them from the action, although this could still be reversed.

Columbia - most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist

Colombia is currently the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist. Local lawyers have gathered evidence suggesting that Coca Cola bottling plant managers have acted in complicity with right-wing paramilitary death squads in order to have union leaders assassinated.

Coca Cola "must acknowledge that the killing and abuse of its workers is far more than a marketing problem"

Veteran American union leader James P Hoffa, general president of the Teamsters recently warned Coke that it "must acknowledge that the killing and abuse of its workers is far more than a marketing problem. This company must take responsibility for its employees and negotiate an enforceable rights agreement with its unions."

UK Unions must Act

Kirkby Times has given English Unions a fair bit of incoming fire, but the principle on which they were founded, to protect the worker against those who would exploit them, is a noble principle. The Trade unionists in Columbia and the bereaved families of the murdered need our support and solidarity - many of us here have grown sick to death of politics, but those of you using the internet will maybe have discovered that there are still people fighting back in a manner which is neither boring or self serving.

Anarchists show the way to go

A number of Anarchists from Cardiff and London managed to bring the Coca Cola plant in London to a standstill on the 22nd July 2003, they done so by simply using u-locks to lock themselves to various things - the resulting chaos saw dozens of cops turn up (more than you'd get if you phoned up to say you were being burgled). What's more, Coca Cola refused to prosecute the protestors, fearing the publicity a resulting trial would have bought.

They must have the right to organise without being put in a coffin by thugs.

The action drew attention to the plight of the Columbian Trade Unionists and puts pressure on the UK Unions to act and show solidarity to these workers trying to fight for the basic right to organise without being put in a coffin by thugs. The people who took part in the protest were working class heroes and we should congratulate them and wish them well for having the guts to make a stand for people who have no voice. The protestors in London demanded that Coke issue a statement guaranteeing the physical safety of their workforce, and to respect their workers' right to belong to a trade union.

Coca Cola's Metallic Taste

A lesson too should be learned. We CAN take on the big corporations and win some kind of victory. This action was organised fairly easily - it never cost a great deal of money - but it cost Coca Cola a lot - not just in money but in the growing realisation that the Coca Cola brand name itself is being eroded by these sorts of actions. The media may not have publicised it - but the internet has - and a lot of people will now realise that that metallic taste in coca cola is in fact the bitter taste of the blood of murdered trade unionists.

Please Boycott Coca Cola products until the matter has been resolved. Whilst some may believe boycotts to be futile - please remember that Kirkby itself was the epicentre almost for the magnificent boycott of the Sun. Boycotts do work - Direct Action does work. Fighting back does work. Compared to the Columbians trade unionists, our own, by comparison, are having it very easy indeed. It's about time they began to show solidarity and joined in the boycott of Coca Cola.

National Union of Food Industry Workers - Boycott Begins….

"We're starting a boycott against the consumption of Coke products," said William Mendoza, a leader of the National Union of Food Industry Workers (Sinaltrainal) unit in Barrancabermeja, a river port in central Colombia. "We want to improve the labor conditions here in the factory, and to do that we need to show the company that our union is strong."

At the Barrancabermeja plant, Mendoza said, paramilitaries come and go freely. "They get soda and other Coke products all the time for free, and it's not just for their parties," he said. "They're selling the product and turning a profit. It's another way Coke executives can pay these guys who are known as international terrorists."

Mendoza presented a petition with more than 1 million signatures at Coke's annual shareholders' meeting April 16 in Houston, urging the company to put an end to violent attacks against Colombian unionists. He was among 40 protesters accusing Coke's Colombia plants of using paramilitary groups to intimidate workers.

"Our union is trying to improve the life of the workers, which in Colombia has always been difficult," said Mendoza, one of 65 Sinaltrainal members who've received death threats. "But with the intrusion of the paramilitaries, it's not only difficult but deadly."

Some of this article was copied off the internet - thanks to the authors - thanks also to the photographer for allowing use of the photographs even though we never asked!

Although Kirkby Times is a local website - this story shows how even a local town like ours relies on the labor of other workers throughout the world. We buy a bottle of coke not really thinking about how the people who made it are treated. Now we know, we can make a choice.

More Anti Coca Cola links……….

Boycott Coca Cola

American Plumbers and Fitters Union resolution 2003

anti coke posters to download