Killer Cola Referendum Kicked Off In UCD.

national | anti-capitalism | news report Friday October 10, 2003 16:50 by antrophe antrophe at hotmail dot com

Now That you Know; Boycott Them.

And so it has started. Strewn with literature, manifestoes and flyers, wallpapered with posters. On Monday and Tuesday next week, UCD Students’ Union will decide. Will it boycott Coca Cola in solidarity with workers in it’s Bebidas and Panamco bottling plants in Columbia? Workers that have been subjected to a campaign of torture, kidnap and murder that has left eight dead and hundreds silenced. As part of a campaign facilitated by Coke in order to crush trade unions in its plants.

As the manager of one of these plants, Ariosto Mosquerio put it he wanted to ‘exterminate the trade union.’ Somewhat not surprising to see then that in 1994 two trade unionists, Jose David and Luis Granado wound up dead for engaging in trade union activity on behalf of the SINALTRAINAL union.

Later that year on the 27th of September SINTRAINAL specifically warned Coca Cola about the severity of the threats been directed at their workers in Carepa. On the 5th of December 1996 Isidro Gil was murdered by paramilitaries whilst actually working within the Coca Cola plant. A coincidence that the same day paramilitaries burnt out a trade union office? By the nature of these attacks it is clear that Coca Cola have facilitated and refused to act against any threats to their workers. As the July 2001 lawsuit on behalf of SINALTRAINAL states coke have “contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that utilize extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders,”

Like most multinationals, Coke have a tendency to be product-less, legally and technically they exist just as a brand, the physical aspect of production and distribution meted out to subsidiaries that exist independently but are bound economically to Coca Cola. The bottling plants in Columbia are not Coke but exist under another name; yet their workers wear uniforms with Coca Cola emblazoned on the front and are subjected to a neon sign glowing above. After the murder of Isidro Gil paramilitaries returned and forced workers to resign from their union at the threat of execution. With a ‘controlling interest’ and two directors on the board of Panamco and the bottling plants’ total dependence on Coca Cola for subsistence; they could easily stop the violence.

Yet they haven’t. Union-less, they workers were replaced by scabs earning $250 less per month. This campaign of murder is benefiting them and it is not in their economic interest to intervene. Colombian troops connected with the paramilitaries have trained at the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Ga., where trainees were encouraged to torture and murder those who do “union organizing and recruiting;” pass out “propaganda in favour of workers;” and “sympathize with demonstrators or strikes.” The agenda of these paramilitaries supported by the US state and it’s major corporations were made public when the Pentagon was forced to reveal the contents of training manuals used at the school.

In 2001 the Coca-Cola Co. made $4 billion in profits and paid its CEO, Douglas Daft, more than $105 million. Coca-Cola continues to rake in billions each year, yet the frightening conditions at the Coke plants remain unchanged.

Those proposing the referendum are calling for a boycott of Coke and its host of products which monopolise the mineral drinks industry in response to the SINALTRAINAL trade union.

After the difficulty of pursuing the legalistic route to put a stop to what is happening in Columbia, the only option open now is a boycott directed at Coca Cola and in Solidarity with the Columbian workers that called for it. As one of those workers said ‘We want justice. We want people to know the truth about what is going on in Colombia against Coke workers. Now that you know will you please help us?’