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

Killer Coke Update | November 29, 2005


Contents of the Newsletter

  1. NYU's Ultimatum: Agree to Investigation by Dec. 8 or we Ban Coke!
  2. Fox News, "NYU Seeks Campuswide Coca-Cola Ban, November 18, 2005
  3. Hunter College, CUNY: Dec. 7 Event to Kick Coke off Campus
  4. Michigan Hillel Bans All Coke Products
  5. Coke Banned at Rallies in Support of the 4,400 Striking Northwest Airline Employees. Hear Campaign Director Ray Rogers and Labor Leaders at Strike Rally Against Northwest Airlines in Southgate, Michigan on Sunday, Dec. 4
  6. Help Get Coke Out of US Airways!
  7. International Labor Rights Fund Executive Director Terry Collingsworth files another Alien Tort Claims lawsuit Against Coca-Cola because of human rights and labor abuses in Turkey.
  8. Terry Collingsworth and Coca-Cola Director of Global Affairs Ed Potter Exchange Combative Letters
  9. USAS Responds: "Coca-Cola Distorts the Truth on Union Busting and Violence in Turkey"
  10. Italians Begin Attack on Coca-Cola, a Sponsor of the Olympics
  11. Students Campaigners Demonstrate at School of the Americas and World of Coca-Cola
  12. Mexican Shopkeeper Victor in Coke Suit
  13. Poems by Lisa Carol Fremont
  14. Do you need a customized Campaign leaflet?
  15. The Campaign's 'Campus Activism' Section
  16. Take Actions Against Coke!
  17. Please send photos, reports of events, etc. for the Campaign website

1. NYU's Ultimatum: Agree to Investigation by Dec. 8 or we Ban Coke!

Washington Square News (New York University), "Ban to kick juice, water? If Coke ban takes effect, other Coca-Cola beverages will go too," By Brittani Manzo, November 28, 2005
Read Article

Washington Square News, "Senate finally gets it right," by WSN editorial board, November 8, 2005
Read Editorial

Washington Square News, "Coca-Cola given ultimatum: Unless Coke complies, ban to be enacted Dec. 8," By Barbara Leonard, November 4, 2005
Read Article

2. Fox News, "NYU Seeks Campuswide Coca-Cola Ban, November 18, 2005
See Video and Read Article

3. Hunter College, CUNY: Dec. 7 Event to Kick Coke off Campus
Event to kick Coke off the Hunter College campus (open to the entire CUNY community, the public and media), sponsored by the Colombian Club.

Featured speakers include former Colombian Coca-Cola worker Luis Adolfo Cardona (Luis barely escaped assassination after witnessing the murder of colleague and union leader Isidro Gil inside Coca-Cola's bottling plant in Colombia.), Campaign to Stop Killer Coke Director Ray Rogers and student leaders from other New York campuses that have banned Coke and taken other strong actions against the Company for its human rights and environmental abuses.

Wednesday, December 7, 2005
8-10 pm
Thomas Hunter Conference Room #105.
Enter the building on Lexington Avenue between 68th and 69th Street, New York City.

For further information, contact Lina Giraldo at: chicainvu@yahoo.com.

4. Michigan Hillel Bans All Coke Products
The Michigan Daily, "Hillel votes to ban all Coke products," By Jeremy Davidson, November 23, 2005
Read Article
"Coca-Cola is also under fire at the University, where the campus chapter of Hillel voted last week to ban all Coke products at Hillel-sponsored events, saying Coke's labor practices in India and Colombia are not in line with Jewish values of labor rights and environmental justice."

5. Coke Banned at Rallies in Support of the 4,400 Striking Northwest Airline Employees. Hear Campaign Director Ray Rogers and Labor Leaders at Strike Rally Against Northwest Airlines in Southgate, Michigan on Sunday, Dec. 4
Forty-four hundred mechanics, custodians and cleaners at Northwest Airlines have been on strike for three and a half months. The company has outsourced the jobs of and permanently replaced nearly all the workers in one of the most ruthless attacks on labor unions in recent history. No one should fly Northwest Airlines until the strike is settled. Below are links to the flyer prepared for the Sunday, Dec. 4th Solidarity, Strategy & Fightback rally at the Crystal Gardens Convention Center, Southgate, Michigan (near Detroit). Killer Coke

Also linked is a leaflet focusing on one of the directors, John Engler, and the issues surrounding the strike. Northwest Airlines Director John Engler is the former governor of Michigan and now president of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), a fanatically anti-union employer association. (Samuel Prescott Bush, great-grandfather of President George W. Bush, founded and became the first president of NAM.) Engler, while governor, "pushed an aggressive agenda of cuts in social spending, slashing public school funding and attacking public employee unions. While decimating welfare programs for the poor, he made sure the state dished out vast amounts of corporate welfare."
See Dec. 4th Rally Flyer
Read about NWA Director John Engler and the Issues and send him and NAM a strong message that their primitive style of labor relations, like those of Coke in Colombia and Turkey, has no place in the 21st century.
See additional leaflets

6. Help Get Coke Out of US Airways!
Recently, US Airways and America West Airlines merged. As described in the linked article, "The Bottom Line: Pepsi versus Coke: US Airways at a sticky crossroads," US Airways served Coke, while America West served Pepsi. A decision must be made about which beverage to serve on the newly-merged airline. Please send the airline a strong protest message urging them to dump Coke in order to avoid bad public relations with a growing segment of the flying public.

Contact Ron Cole, Vice President of Customer and Inflight Services of US Airways, Tempe, Arizona: Email: delana.folz@usairways.com; Phone: (480) 693-5538.
East Valley Tribune, The Bottom Line: Pepsi versus Coke: US Airways at a sticky crossroads," By John Yantis, November 11, 2005
Read Article

7. International Labor Rights Fund Executive Director Terry Collingsworth files another Alien Tort Claims lawsuit Against Coca-Cola because of human rights and labor abuses in Turkey.

Below are links to the text of the filed complaints in two parts:
Read the complaint, part 1
Read the complaint, part 2
Newsday (AP), "Coca-Cola sued over Turkish labor dispute," November 15, 2005
Read Article

8. Terry Collingsworth and Coca-Cola Director of Global Affairs Ed Potter Exchange Combative Letters regarding their Nov. 11th meeting in New York City
Read Collingsworth Letter of Nov. 14
Read Potter Letter of Nov. 16
Read Collingsworth Letter of Nov 21

9. USAS Responds: "Coca-Cola Distorts the Truth on Union Busting and Violence in Turkey"
Read Response by USAS

10. Italians Begin Attack on Coca-Cola, a Sponsor of the Olympics

Corriere Della Sera.it, "Olympics and Coca-Cola Promote Clash on Left," By Alessandro Capponi, November 7, 2005
Read Article

Reuters, "Olympic host Turin's Coke boycott seen lacking fizz," November 16, 2005
Read Article
"MILAN, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Turin's city council voted to boycott Coca-Cola, sponsor of the 2006 Winter Olympics which the city is hosting, arguing the company ignored workers' rights in Colombia, but the mayor dismissed the decision…

"But the Turin vote, which made Italian headlines on Wednesday, proved the second case of bad Olympic publicity for Coca-Cola within the space of a few weeks.

Coke, Sponsor of the Olympics, "COCACOLA SPONSOR DELLE OLIMPIADI" — by juku — www.nococacola.info
Watch Video

11. Students Campaigners Demonstrate at School of the Americas and World of Coca-Cola
More than 130 students participated in a demonstration at the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Georgia on November 18 on their way to protest at the School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, Ga. The students distributed thousands of Campaign to Stop Killer Coke leaflets, posters and stickers to the more than 19,000 participants in what has become an annual event to shut down the School.

Ledger-Enquirer.com, "Record number of protesters: 16,000 gather at post maintain peaceful vigil," By Harry Franklin, November 20, 2005
Read Article

The Daily Northwestern, "NU activists follow call to action to Georgia protest," By Corrie Driebusch, November 22, 2005
Read Article
"When he returns to campus, Crain says his goals are fighting against Coca Cola's bottling factories in Colombia, a campaign mentioned often during the weekend."
Take a look at the SOA Watch website for up-to-date news Killer Coke Killer Coke
View more photos

12. Mexican Shopkeeper Victor in Coke Suit

All Things Considered, NPR News, "Mexico Slaps Record Fine on Coca-Cola," By Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, November 17, 2005
Listen to segment

The Sydney Morning Herald, "Shopkeeper battles Coke to $20m fine," By Jo Tuckerman, November 18, 2005 Read Article

SignOnSanDiego.com, "AP Exclusive: Shop owner beats Coca Cola, prompts largest Mexican antitrust rulings," By Mark Stevenson, AP, November 15, 2005 Read Article
"Everybody got scared and told me I was crazy and I'd be ruined," Raquel Chavez recalled. "I said I'd rather die with my dignity intact than be trampled on."

13. Poems by Lisa Carol Fremont

Coke is Murder

Dedicated to Isidro Segundo Gil

The sugar-coated teeth,
The sugar-coated lies,
A Postmodern Peasant,
I, cannot save their lives.

The bitter - sweet sugar cube,
Colombians eroding,
The crisp-white fur of bears,
Hung over eyes, a roaming.

Umbilical cords cut,
Where the bottles are born,
Trade unionists shot dead,
Black teeth, black worn: they mourn.

Holidays are coming?
The reaper comes for them.
For Fascism faux pas,
Campaign corpses condemned.

Lisa Carol Fremont 2005

C.O.K.E

Colombian's outrage kindles exigency?
Colleague's onslaught, kamikaze events,
Corrupt odysseys, knotted emotions,
Cunning outlaws, killing exhibitionists,
Crimson oracles, kismet evokes.
Callous obituaries kept eclipsed,
Crying: ousted knells, epitaphs,
Condolence-less odours, knifed elegies.
Clouds outlaw, klaxons echo,
Cola ostracizing keen exemplary!
Chaotic opulence - kosher etiquette?
Cockroaches obdurate, kilns entice,
Cutting off key elocution,
Cologne of killing evident.
Customer's outlooks kidnapped eligibly,
Canines oared kinetically emptying,
Cans ordinary, keepers evil.
Crooks, outlaws kissing epicures,
Culinary outlaws, kismet eerie.

Lisa Carol Fremont 2005.

14. Do you need a customized Campaign leaflet?
In mid-September, the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke sent out a bulletin that listed links to customized leaflets for numerous colleges. We invited supporters to contact us to "customize a leaflet for your campus, union or group." The response was terrific! We immediately began getting emails asking us to produce customized leaflets for numerous colleges, universities, high schools and middle schools. We put them up as soon as we could. We have leaflets for Australia, Canada, Colombia (in Spanish), India, Ireland, the UK and the US. And now, in late-November, we still get daily requests for customized leaflets.
Look for your customized leaflets

If you would like a customized leaflet, please contact us at info@KillerCoke.org. Please state the name of your school and the name of the sponsoring group and a local email address, if you want us to put them into the flyer. If you want the flyer for a group, please state the name of the group and an email address.

15. The Campaign's 'Campus Activism' Section
Students have been writing us from schools interested in beginning a Campaign to Stop Killer Coke. We recommend that students begin by checking out the two organizing packets in our "Campus Activism" section:

1. "Unthinkable! Undrinkable! A Campus Campaign Overview," a USAS Campus Guide

2. Campus Activism Packet — Campaign for a Coca-Cola Free Campus

In addition, there are numerous reports, resolutions and articles in the "Campus Activism" section that can be useful to students.

16. Take Actions Against Coke!
a. Call Coca-Cola and tell them to stop their worldwide abuses at 1-800-GET-COKE.
b. Sign a Petition protesting Coke's abuses:
Sign the Petition
c. Join the Boycott at Karmabanque's web site at: www.karmabanque.com

17. Please send photos, reports of events, etc. for the Campaign website Please send photos, reports of events, and if you are in a school, union or organization that has banned Coke products, please send us the resolution or description of how the decision was made. We would like the Campaign website to be up-to-date and to share the information with all supporters via our newsletter.


Campaign to Stop KILLER COKE

We are seeking your help to stop a gruesome cycle of murders, kidnappings, and torture of union leaders and organizers involved in daily life-and-death struggles at Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia, South America.

"If we lose the fight against Coca-Cola, we will first lose our union, next our jobs and then our lives." SINALTRAINAL VIce President Juan Carlos Galvis


Please donate to the Campaign.


Learn the truth about The Coca-Cola Co.

"We believe the evidence shows that Coca-Cola and its corporate network are rife with immorality, corruption and complicity in murder."
Campaign to Stop Killer Coke/Corporate Campaign, Inc. Director Ray Rogers

Visit www.KillerCoke.org