Boycott Killer Coke!

We are boycotting Coca-Cola to make a statement: We will not stand by silently as Colombian trade unionists are murdered. Boycotting Coca-Cola is a simple act, an act anyone can do. We refuse to participate in the purchase or consumption of a drink made by a big corporation with the blood of Colombian workers on its hands. By boycotting Coca-Cola and their dozens of other products, we make a statement of human solidarity. Joining with the food and beverage workers union, SINALTRAINAL.

Boycotting goes beyond an individual act however. We want students to kick Coca-Cola off their campus. With every passing year, corporations are coming to control more aspects of life on high school and university campuses. Coca-Cola has exclusive contracts that shut out all competitors with a kick back going to the institution. Campus administrators are then held responsible for sales and are required to promote Coca-Cola to students, despite any cultural or health concerns. We say that high schools and universities should not be complicit in the murder of trade unionists in Colombia by Coca-Cola death squads. In some cases this simply means removing Coca-Cola vending machines from campus. In many cases, principals and administrators must formally eliminate exclusive Coca-Cola contracts. Start your campaign to kick killer Coke off campus now!

The grass roots "Campaign To Boycott Killer Coke!" is already spreading out from the Midwest like a prairie fire. Lake Forest College, outside Chicago, has already removed Coca-Cola by petition of the student body. Campuses from University of Chicago to Yale, Madison to Berkeley are taking up the "Campaign To Boycott Killer Coke!" Students are plastering their notebooks, book bags, and even their clothes with stickers saying, "Ice cold…Killer Coke can't hide its crimes in Colombia!" Unions are removing Coca-Cola vending machines from their staff rooms and writing articles in union newsletters explaining the consumer action against Coca-Cola. We look forward to seeing the AFL-CIO and International Unions like SEIU, AFSCME, USWA, UAW, but especially the Teamsters and the teachers' unions IFT and NEA printing articles and promoting the "Campaign To Boycott Killer Coke!" As we build a student movement around the issue, there will be greater response from the unions.

There are some who worry that a boycott will harm our effort, especially with Coca-Cola workers. Not to worry. The response from workers has been supportive of their Colombian brothers and sisters in the struggle for better wages, benefits, and conditions, including the right to a union and the right to not be murdered by a death squad. As long as activists approach workers with a sense of humility, it is easy to convince them of the "Campaign To Boycott Killer Coke!" Workers in the U.S. understand the need for a strong union and solidarity given the wage cuts and slashing of benefits they have been offered by Coca-Cola in recent years. Workers understand the reason behind their declining standard of living is the same reason for death squads in Colombia: CORPORATE PROFITS. We already see in the U.S. that the union leaders joining the international consumer campaign against Coca-Cola are the union leaders who run honest, strong, fighting unions. An injury to one is an injury to all!

Boycotting, a weapon of struggle used by poor Irish peasants against British Imperialist landlords, has an honorable history in the U.S. We are following in the steps of the Black Civil Rights Movement and the heroic Montgomery Bus Boycott. We act in the tradition of the United Farm Workers whose Filipino and Mexican field workers called a nationwide grape boycott to protest low pay and deadly work conditions in the Southwest. Students across the U.S. are currently boycotting Taco Bell with a "Boot The Bell" campaign to support Immokalee tomato field workers in Florida. Likewise, Colombian workers will soon know that many in the U.S. are willing to make small sacrifices to support their right to assembly, right to free speech, and right to life, liberty, and happiness. We will not stand by as U.S. corporations or the U.S. Government fund and direct death squads. The SINALTRAINAL Union Statement calling for an "International Day of Action Against Coca-Cola" says it best:

For the love of life - I do not consume Coca-Cola
Because they finance war - I do not consume Coca-Cola
I do not consume Coca-Cola - I do not finance death

Porque amo la vida...No consumo Coca Cola
Porque financia la guerra...No consumo Coca Cola
No consumo Coca Cola...No financio la muerte

Colombia Action Network
www.colombiasolidarity.org

SINALTRAINAL Statement on Coca-Cola Boycott

International Campaign Against Coca-Cola To Stop The Violence In Colombia!
(english | español)

Boycott Killer Coke Flyers

Boycott Killer Coke! Support Colombian Workers' Right to Organize! (pdf)
Posted on 9/04/03.

Local flyer you can customize (pdf)
Posted on 9/04/03.

Boycott Killer Cola: List of Coke Products (doc)
Posted on 9/04/03.