Killer Coke
A Never-ending Story of Exploitation, Greed, Lies, Cover-ups and Complicity in Kidnapping, Torture, Murder and other Gross Human Rights Abuses

Campaign for a Coca-Cola Free Campus


College, university and secondary school students, faculty members and other campus personnel are in a special position to pressure Coca-Cola to stop its widespread human rights and environmental abuses and become a responsible corporation. Young people, especially students, are Coke's highest priority marketing target. It is on campuses worldwide that Coca-Cola builds its brand name identity and addicts students to its products. If Coke can win the loyalty of a student before their competitors do, he or she is likely to be a customer for life.

Campuses are a huge target for beverage companies. No school was established to become a marketplace for irresponsible corporations such as Coca-Cola. In allowing Coke to place its logo, advertising, beverages and machines on a campus, the school is lending its prestige to a company that evidence shows is rife with immorality, corruption and complicity in murder.

Study Phase

  1. Study the killercoke.org website, which includes a wealth of well-documented information in various formats that highlights Coca-Cola's criminal conduct and worldwide abuses.
  2. If you speak or have friends who speak another language, any page on our site can be translated into many languages. The button to "Translate" is on the bar at the bottom of the page.
  3. In the menu at the top of the home page is a Google search engine to help you find any information on the site.
  4. In the contents on the left side of the website's home page:
    • You will find information about "The Coca-Cola Company," its officers and directors who must be held accountable.
    • A very important option is "Coke's Crimes (By Country)" where you can find documents regarding Coke's abuses in many countries including China, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Pakistan and Turkey.
    • Important "Reports" about Coke's abuses can be read at "Reports, Sensitive Issues & Exposes." These reports include books and other exposes by leading experts and organizations emphasizing investigations and research done about the company.
    • Our "Newsletters" section includes the Campaign's newsletters back to March 5, 2004 through the present as well as our "News Archive" highlighting issues and Campaign activities.
    • "Lawsuits and Judicial Misconduct" includes the text of the lawsuits filed against Coca-Cola for its abuses in Colombia and Guatemala and highlights the issues involved in lawsuits relating to abuses in Egypt and Turkey.
    • "Breaking News" will highlight current issues about Coca-Cola's abuses and information about Campaign activities
    • If you are interested in Coca-Cola's impact on health, go to our "Health Issues" section to read about the dangers of aspartame, high fructose corn syrup and phosphoric acid and Coke's fraudulent claims about the health benefits of its products such as VitaminWater.
    • And there's lots more--films and videos, books, artwork, interviews, flyers and posters

Preparation Phase

  1. Locate the contract(s) between Coke and the school or its departments. Identify the basic provisions of the contract(s). Who at the school influences and makes the decisions regarding the contract? Is it an exclusive contract which does not allow competing beverages to Coca-Cola to be sold?
  2. Contact competitors to see if they would match or better Coke's offer. In addition to major competitors, look for local beverage companies, particularly those that are unionized. (Ethical and health considerations, not solely economics, should be uppermost in choosing a replacement for Coke.)
  3. Identify sympathetic organizations on campus concerned about ethics, human rights, environmental, labor and health issues.
  4. Locate appropriate staff at campus publications and media outlets to get stories, op ed articles and editorials about the Campaign.
  5. Develop an e-mail database for students, faculty, staff, administrators, campus organizations and media outlets on campus so that the Campaign can send timely information and respond to Coke's lies and propaganda.
  6. Are student, faculty and staff activists allowed to place Campaign flyers in campus mailboxes?
  7. Does your university have investments in The Coca-Cola Co. or other Coca-Cola operations?
  8. If your university has more than one campus, who can we link up with who can help promote the Campaign on the other campuses?
  9. Are employees of the school participants in TIAA-CREF (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund), which is a large investor in Coca-Cola and its bottlers?

Activity Phase

  1. Educate the campus community.
    1. Deliver Campaign information to all faculty, staff and administrators to make them sensitive to the issues.
    2. Get sympathetic faculty to show films, distribute literature and hold discussions in classes or during "club hours."
    3. Schedule and aggressively promote a film showing of "The Coca-Cola Case." Lawyers for The Coca-Cola Co. threatened legal action to prevent the film from being shown.
    4. Organize open forums/rallies/demonstrations on campus and special meetings for faculty, staff and administrators; the Campaign can provide onsite speakers or via Skype representing the Campaign.
    5. Organize Campaign communication teams to distribute literature and get petitions signed in cafeterias or other settings where Coke is served on campus.
    6. Organize teams for mass distribution of literature at dorms, classrooms, parking lots, campus events...
    7. Distribute stickers to students to place on backpacks, brief cases, notebooks, cars, bicycles, etc. to give the Campaign and its website visibility.
    8. Get posters and flyers hung in dorms, on bulletin boards and other accessible places on campus.
    9. Seek out professors who will allow you to intern on campus and receive credit.
    10. Seek out faculty to create a class project to educate the campus about Coca-Cola's worldwide abuses and a history of exploiting and lying to campus communities.
    11. Brainstorm creative ideas to highlight the issues and bring pressure to kick Coke off campus.
    12. Involve as many people as possible into the Campaign by urging them to sign up at KillerCoke.org
  2. Get resolutions passed by various groups such as, Student and Faculty Senates, sororities, fraternities, clubs, religious, human rights and political organizations to remove Coke from campus.
  3. Reach out to labor unions on campus to pass resolutions and involve their membership in calling for the removal of all Coke products from campus
  4. Arrange meetings about severing or not renewing the Coke contract(s) with the campus president and other key administrators and faculty who are involved or influential in making the decision(s).
  5. Contact the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke for help in challenging Coke representatives and answering the questions of decision-makers on campus. (phone: (718) 852-2808; email: info@KillerCoke.org)

No campus that prides itself a center of ethics and morality should be lending its name, logo and credibility to Coca-Cola, nor serve as a marketplace for its sales and advertising.

Sample Resolution to Remove Coca-Cola Products from Campus

WHEREAS, Coca-Cola is complicit in continuing death threats and the systematic intimidation, kidnapping, torture and murder of several union leaders and members of their families in Colombia and Guatemala in efforts to crush their unions;

WHEREAS Coca-Cola is a leader in preventing and busting labor unions worldwide by outsourcing jobs and promoting free-trade agreements;

WHEREAS, Coca-Cola continues to benefit from hazardous child labor in the sugarcane fields of El Salvador;

WHEREAS, Coca-Cola is depleting and polluting drinking water in Michigan, Mexico, India and elsewhere and is destroying water sources of entire communities needed for irrigation and sanitation around the world;

WHEREAS, in July 2006, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) divested 1.25 million shares of Coca-Cola Co. stock and has banned further investments in its $9 billion CREF Social Choice Account, the nation's largest socially screened fund for individual investors, because The Coca-Cola Co. does not meet TIAA-CREF's standards as a socially responsible company.

WHEREAS, more than 50 colleges and universities and secondary schools have removed Coca-Cola products from their campuses including large universities such as Rutgers, DePaul and State University of New York, Stony Brook, as well as smaller campuses such as Smith College and Union Theological Seminary.

WHEREAS, these injustices are featured in "The Coca-Cola Case," a film produced in 2009 by The National Film Board of Canada; "Mark Thomas on Coca-Cola," a film premiered on prime-time television in the UK in 2007; "Belching Out the Devil," a book by Mark Thomas published in 2008, and "The Coke Machine," a 2010 book by Michael Blanding;

WHEREAS, the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke’s website (www.KillerCoke.org) contains a wealth of well-documented information in print, video, audio and images about Coke’s widespread labor, human rights and environmental abuses;

THEREFORE, [Organization X] calls on our school to:

  • Remove Coca-Cola products from our campus;
  • Cease to serve Coca-Cola at school functions; and
  • Publicize why these actions were taken,

Until The Coca-Cola Co. becomes a responsible corporation.