Coke and Cointreau leave a bad taste
One wouldn't think of mixing Coca-Cola and Cointreau. But
the U.S.-based soft-drink monopoly and the French-based luxury
liqueur have at least one thing in common besides a worldwide
market for their drink: they rely on death-squad tactics to
keep workers in line in the global sweatshop.
That's what demonstrators on 5th Avenue and 56th Street
outside Coke headquarters in New York were telling passersby on
Aug. 23 who were rushing home for the weekend.
The countries are Colombia--where Washington is currently
sending "advisers" to intervene against revolutionary
guerrillas--and Haiti.
In Haiti, management goon squads assaulted workers
attempting to stake a claim to land for the time between
harvests of oranges--the fruit used to flavor Cointreau. Two
workers were hacked to death.
In Colombia, management at Coke plants in Carpega reportedly
instigated the murder of a worker and, at Coke facilities in
Cucuta and Barrancabermeja, incited paramilitary death squads
to threaten, kidnap and torture trade unionists.
Colombian trade unionist Louis Adolfo, who has faced death
squad threats, spoke to the Aug. 23 demonstrators in New York.
Adolfo is currently in the United States as a guest of the
AFL-CIO.
The Batay Ouvriye Solidarity Network and the Committee for
Social Justice in Colombia sponsored the rally and
informational picket.
--John Catalinotto
Reprinted from the Sept. 5, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
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