UCD Students vote to ban Coca Cola from Students Union shop

by L Wed Oct 15, 2003 14:46

I heard the Coke bottlers employees/SIPTU members on the radio yesterday talking about 1000 job losses! How did you deal with that argument?

by Conor - ucdSA Wed Oct 15, 2003 14:50 Conor at ziplip dot com

As someone who diddnt get involved in the campaign - well done to everyone involved.

In typical style, SIPTU (Spanners Industrialists Partners with Tds who wear dodgy Underwear) sent some members out to ucd to campaign AGAINST the ban. Apparantly jobs would be lost if a few thousand students stopped drinking poision(we know the ida/siptu equation 1 job = 25000 tonnes of crap in the atmosphere + 2.355 3rd world lives).

What next? coke will proberbally try a re run with mr su pres hopeful richard waghorn.

coke will proberbally flood campus with vandalisable machines.

coke wont take this lying down. This is only "the start of it all" as ICB once said. so hopefully everyone (including lazy fuckers like me) will get involved in actively mono-terrrrr-ing coke consumption on campus.

Leaving human rights aside, i think something should be done about selling cheap healthy alternatives to the demon drink on campus. any ideas. then again, what i think dosent matter, and this is the newswire anyway.

well done again. C

by pat c Wed Oct 15, 2003 14:51

i'f ask them if they were happy that trade unionists were being murdered by coke in latin america.

by Seán Wed Oct 15, 2003 14:53

Here's hoping DCU and the rest of the colleges can follow the lead.

by Maubere Wed Oct 15, 2003 14:54

I've heard and read of 3,000 trade unionists being killed by government death squads in Colombia over the past 10 years, how do you deal with that argument,

re jobs, seeing as Coca Cola is such a nice company to work for I'm sure the workers in Ireland can put pressure on the management to stop killing people in Colombia

by Dermot Looney - UCD Students' Union - personal capacity Wed Oct 15, 2003 15:02

A wonderful victory for the students of UCD, for the left in UCD, but most importantly a step along the way to forcing the Coca-Cola Corporation to clean up its act in Columbia. Congratulations are due to the excellent "Yes" campaign team who never gave up despite predictions from almost all that they would be beaten. Their extra effort on Tuesday evening ensured the narrow margin by which the motion was passed.

The renegade actions by a single SIPTU member in attempting to influence the democratic process of UCD Students' Union was unfortunate. Granted, if someone thinks they are about to lose their job they will do what they must, but job losses are not an issue here. Any financial losses to UCD Students' Union will be negligible, despite the erroneous claims of our Financial Administrator.

I would hope that SIPTU would be more concerned about the deaths of their fellow workers, their brothers-in-arms in Columbia. About the anti-union violence carried out by paramiliaries supported by Bebidas and Panamco along with Coca-Cola. It's very patronising for the likes of this small SIPTU branch to come out and say "oh these aare only typical lefty students acting up, real jobs are on the line here, etc etc." The truth is this is a real and serious issue of human rights for all workers and students.

UCD Students' Union will ensure that all products of the Coca-Cola Corporation and its subsidiaries are removed from all of its outlets within 60 days.

by finbar Wed Oct 15, 2003 16:17

the amount of Coca Cola sold by UCD is not going to make or break COke in Ireland. WIll a boycott force coca cola to move to a more "friendly " country? No Coca Cola Will do what makes economic sense in the HQ in Atlanta. They dont see the world as we do they see it as profitable and non profitable regions. If they are going to pull out what is going on here will have no influence due the fact that such decisions are not taken here but thousands of miles away. The job issue is the multinational line to hinder boycotts. Effectively coca cola are saying we employ irish people so you dont have a right to comment on such issues. Siptu seen to have fallen for the bait from coke and did their dirty work for them. Coke were probably laughing away. They never had to speak to us face to face and the trade union was distracted from real issues that could cost jobs such as the automation of plants like in ballina and the creation of "superplants" by coca cola.
This boycott would be useless on its own but its not. Other universities in other countries such as yale Berkley etc make it effective Aproper international campaign which Ireland is an integral part of will make it register in Atlanta and stop the colombian atrocities

by the way Wed Oct 15, 2003 19:11

Sinn Féin members from the Coca Cola plant in Dublin have been to the fore in distributing 'Vote No' leaflets asking UCDSU members at the Belfield Campus on Tuesday. Sinn Féin's branch in UCD has also been very quiet on the matter.

Sinn Fáin received large amounts of money from Coca Cola- is this a pay back for that donation? I think that it is disgusting that SF can pretend to stand up for working people when in practice they are stabbing workers in the back.

SINN FÉIN ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS: why were your members looking for a No Vote in Belfield yesterday? Will these people be expelled or disciplined? if not, why not?

by Eoin Dubsky Wed Oct 15, 2003 19:41

That's WONDERFUL news!!!

by mart Wed Oct 15, 2003 20:17

it's a very cool outcome.
no jobs will be lost because of the ban, those who still want to buy that crap can do so in one of the many vending machines scattered around campus, which were not included in the referendum.
it's not the ban which will affect jobs, it's coca-cola's human rights violations.

by Cathal Wed Oct 15, 2003 20:58

Congratulations to all those involved in the Yes side. If anyone is any doubts about the issue they should go to www.killercoke.org
It has downloadable petitions about the situation in Colombia, the nation that Des O'Malley recently reffered to as the oldest democracy in South America!

by An Púca Wed Oct 15, 2003 21:06

Ar feabhas. Well done to everyone involved.

by Orla Ni Chomhrai Wed Oct 15, 2003 22:21

Congrats everyone involved in this. I thought SIPTU acted disgracefully. Their comments might have more weight if they had done anything to publicly hightlight what was going on in Columbia. The report on the referendum was the first reference I heard on the radio to what was going on in Columbia (I knew about it from other sources).

Fair play to the students on this one. I will pass this on to people I know in Galway colleges and hopefully will get something similar going there.

by ollie - katalyzer Wed Oct 15, 2003 23:58

As someone who was involved in the Nestle boycott all those years ago in UCD, it's great to hear that this one went the same way .

Who knows, maybe sometime soon the SU shop will actually become something to be proud of. (Not refering to staff, just products) Maybe now is the time to start with the catagories and rankings of the ethical consumer
and work out towards a non, or less exploitative shop, one which acts as an example to the rest of the retail industry and consumers.

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/

The thing is, ppl use that shop cos it's there - we went over all the other 'will the shop loose out' arguments for the Nestle campaign - ppl will just buy sth else. They still have the option of goin to the student residency shops and the thing formerly known as Hilpers (I presume, I'm not in Dub anymore) and on bal won't go trudging around D4 lookin for killer Koke on principle. If they do, good luck to them. You can't beat a bit of personality.

The trick then is to have sth else more ethical than pepsi as an alternative. This might involve some creative work by maybe the welfare officer, of a sympathetic union hack (prob on a wage) to approach various ethical food places with potential sales figures etc etc....

by John Meehan Thu Oct 16, 2003 01:37

Congratulations to Finbarr and everyone in UCD who organised this campaign.

Are there any plans to spread the idea elsewhere?

by Degenerate Thu Oct 16, 2003 12:49

Perhaps the only reason why the 3 where there was to get tips on installing vending machines.

by the way Thu Oct 16, 2003 13:14

It was revealed in the summer that Sinn Féin received money from Coca Cola. Just this week Sinn Féin members were involved in camapaigning against a Coca Cola ban.

Is it just me or do others see a link there?

Could Sinn Féin members please clarify their pocition.

by Seán - Sinn Féin Thu Oct 16, 2003 13:58

I haven't heard about the incident in question.
"Sinn Féin members from the Coca Cola plant in Dublin have been to the fore in distributing 'Vote No' leaflets asking UCDSU members at the Belfield Campus on Tuesday.
I would be very surprised if it were true and I'd be very angry that another idiot is tarnishing whatever credibility we have left regarding the Coca Cola issue.

"Sinn Féin's branch in UCD has also been very quiet on the matter."
There have been members of Sinn Féin involved in the campaign but so far as I know most of the cumann is made up of new members due to the nature of college Cumann, people leaving college, in their final year etc.
But I do know that they fully support the Boycott Coke Campaign.

I do admit however that I don't think that Republicans in general, have been involved enough in the Boycott Coke Campaign.

Hopefully this situation will be rectified.

by publo Thu Oct 16, 2003 15:28

Congratulations to all involved, not only will the boycott impact on coke's acal sales but will force a large amount of students to begin to question the products they may unthinkingly consume.

Dilemma for me though. Im in Ramallah at the moment and though i usually refrain from buying coke products, here ive got a meagre choice between palestinian produced coke or israeli soft drinks. Perhaps ill stick to water.

Take the offensive and spread this accross the island.

by Cormac - UCD Yes campaign Thu Oct 16, 2003 18:15

Id just like to reitterate the above comments and express my joy at the result.I would have been physically sick thad the supporteres of human rights violators been successful.This shows that even the most powerful corporations in the "civilised" world can be challenged and i hope that we do not rest on our laurels and that the other NUI colleges will follow.
Fair play to all those involved and all the people who took the time to vote and say yes to human rights.
Dunno bout those 6 o clock starts though..

by finbar Thu Oct 16, 2003 18:41

there is a workshop on tthe Coke issue at the isf this weekend. Hopefully someone from LASC will also be there. Should be good.

by denise Fri Oct 17, 2003 14:01

excellent news lads, well done. its great the stuff that ye're doing up there. setting a great example for the other colleges and universities. hopefully Limerick will get its ass in gear and get coke & nestle off campus once and for all.
its a long battle for sure but its about time the irish students and lecturers send a clear message to these capitalists trampling over people and our earth.
well done lads*

by Seán Fri Oct 17, 2003 16:13

What day is it on?

by ! Fri Oct 17, 2003 17:52

adf

by angry liberal - amnesty ucd among others Sat Oct 18, 2003 11:45 renrir666 at hotmail dot com

to answer john's question and everyone else who brought up spreading the word,go ahead and get the same boycott in place in your college,workplace,etc.our intention in the yes campaign was always to spread the boycott and to make coke a dirty word until the abuses in colombia stop.so if anyone wants to know more about the campaign or wants to do something themselves in their own area then please e-mail me.thanks.