Trinity Students vote in landslide in favour of Coke Boycott
dublin |
worker & community struggles and protests |
news report 
Thursday March 01, 2007 22:45
by Boycott Killer Coke
Trinity Students have voted in a landslide victory for the boycott of Coca Cola products due to the murder of Coke workers and trade unionists in Colombia. Since 2004 the Trinity Student Union controlled shops have ceased to sell all Coca Cola products. Over 2,000 students voted in support of the boycott – the largest number of Trinity students ever to support the boycott.
This is the 3rd time that student in Trinity have voted against selling Coke products and in favour of human rights. This is also the largest ever vote by Trinity students in favour of the boycott – showing that the campaign is growing rapidly in strength. Since 2004 over 34 colleges around the world together with several trade unions have now joined this campaign. It is time for Coca Cola to clean up its act in Colombia. This campaign will continue to grow until Coke respects the right to join a union.
This is a clear message from Trinity students to the Trinity College authorities to stop selling Coke. It is unacceptable that the college continues to ignore the democratic wishes of the students and we are calling on them to immediately cut all contracts with Coca Cola. Colombia Coke workers have been tortured, intimidated, threatened, kidnapped and killed simply for joining a trade union. It is time that Trinity College ceases to be associated with such human rights abuses.
2004 2005 2007
For Coke Boycott 1816 1926 2029
Against Coke Boycott 1680 1737 1199
Margin of victory 136 186 830
Total Valid Poll 3496 3663 3226
Comments (10 of 10)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10A huge victory again for the Boycott Killer Coke campaign in Ireland and internationally. Congrats to all in Trinity on a magnificent success, and hopefully its one we can all build on.
This is a very good message of solidarity with the Colombian Coca-Cola workers & to the workers and oppressed of Latin America generally. I think that the people that are doing Coke's work in trying to get their products re-introduced should just let it rest. The 'Freedom of choice' argument does not wash. You can still get a can of Coke around the corner, and anyway many shops do exclusive deals with a soft drinks firm - I never saw you be motivated against that!. The people that want Coke back in are in reality opponents of workers' rights (or at best, willfully turning a blind eye to human rights abuses). The TCDSU verdict is clear.
When will Trinity students start a campaign for equality of access to third level education for all. It seems when people get their bums on the revered pews at Trinity they stop seeing the gross injustices close to home. Or maybe they need an underclass on their doorsteps to exploit when they graduate!
Can you still buy Coke in the Buttery?
'Can you still buy Coke in the Buttery'
Oh yeah. Its only banned in su shops.
I hope that Trinity student Union maintains the awarenss surrounding the reasons why Coke is banned and dont just hold a referendum and leave it at that as its what happend in UCD.
I expect there to be a joint nestle and coke referendum at some stage this year in belfield but I expect the outcome to be a lot differnt to Trinitys.
Coke may be banned but are all the other brands owned by the coca cola company banned also eg Deep River Rock,Fanta etc?
Including Fanta, Lilt, Powerade, River Rock etc.
Can't see why a vote in UCD would be any different - the boycott was never as strong in Trinity as it was in UCD - this vote now shows once and for all that students in Ireland are overwhelmingly in support of human rights and the right to join a union in Colombia.
Another vote in UCD would be a great way of increasing the pressure on Killer Coke.
The boycott killer coke campaign seems to be more interested in generating publicity for itself than supporting trade unionists in Colombia or anywhere else. They aren't really all that interested in coke either from what I can see , or otherwise they would have surely made a bit of a fuss about the coke workers fight against the Venezualan branch of the company last year. I don't even remember any mention of it on indymedia .
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6079334.stm
No-one can say whether of not the "political climate" of UCD students has changed. There is no way of measuring that. SU Council is not necessarily representative of UCD students. There are loads of rotten boroughs with no compeditive elections especially since the Constitutional Change recently. This assists the Right as they get more of their type elected without being answerable to a public vote, while elections suit campaigners. The victory of the anti-Coke side twice in 03-04 was due to a few things. Firstly the camapigning work by a large number of students. If I remember the 3 left-wing Sabbatical Officers did campaign but no more than many regular students. In fact, due to their other work committments they probably did less on the Coke vote than others! Secondly there was a general swing to the left among students in 2002-05 due to threat of fees and cuts in College budgets. This certainly did assist the 2 victories on the Coke ban.
Plato:
When will you start such a campaign? What position are the students of Trinity in to affect the educational system in Ireland? And why ask them anyway? It's akin to asking workers to start a campaign about unemployment, surely those affected should initiate it (like, for example, SINALTRAINAL did in the case of the Coke boycott). Your point makes no sense and is a petty attempt to detract from this victory.
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