Coca Cola, Refreshing Soft Drink or Colombian Murder Juice?
Everyone has cracked open a ice-cold can of coke before, but how many times have you thought about whta goes into it? Im not talking about turning the can on its side and reading the ingredients list, I'm talking about what Coke REALLY contains. It's much more than the dozen or so spoons of sugar, or the small country's worth of caffeine.
Each time you hand over 50p for a can, you're giving 40p-odd (thats the price without the shopkeepers profit) to a Multi-National company that not only fuels America's Capitalist machine, but also oppresses the working class people, like you and me. Every time you hand over your money, you're supporting a firm that quashes Trade Unions, in an attempt to stop workers fighting for their rights.
Time and Time again, Coke produce great injustices in Colombia, and it's evidence of how Capitalism pays no regard to human rights (along wth worker's rights). Managers of Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia have allowed, and encouraged, the right-wing paramilitaries and government forces to threaten, detain, kidnap and murder union workers. Instead of taking effective action to protect the workers in Colombia, Coca-Cola is attempting to portray worker's concerns as "baseless allegations."
One of these 'baseless allegations' was the murder of Isidro Segundo Gil. In October 1996, Ariosto Mosquera , the manager of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Carepa, publicly boasted that he would use the paramilitaries to "sweep away the union." The uniopn sent a letter to Coca-Cola expressing concerns about these threats, but the company never responded. On December 5, 1996, Isidro was murdered inside the bottling plant by paramilitaries. Four days later, a group of paramiltitaries entered the plant, rounded up the workers and hgave them until 4 P.M. to resign from the union. Fifty workers signed identical resignation letters that had been prepared by Mosquera, and the union was eliminated at the plant.
Another of these 'baseless allegations' involves the ongoing threats against William Mendoza and Juan Carlos Galvis and thier families. William is the president and Juan the vice president of the local union in Barrancabermeja. Reinaldo Gonzalez, one of the managers of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in the city, maintains close relations with the paramilitaries. On March 16, 2001, he allowed Alex Prisco (regional paramilitary leader) and ten other armed paramiltiaries to enter the plant and arranged for their truck to be filled with bags of water produced at the plant. On October 2, 2002, Saul Rincon and a nother paramiltary were seen entering the plant and meeting with Gonzalez. He admitted the two men were paramiltaries and said they were clients.
Boycott Coca-Cola, I tell you fellow workers. Fight Capitalism and let's show solidarity with our comrades in Colombia. Viva la Revolution.