Mobilization to halt murders of Colombian unionists
Coca-Cola: Unthinkable! Undrinkable!
By Nathalie Alsop
It is dangerous in Colombia to be a unionist,
a student, a campesino, anyone who organizes for justice. The
government of Alvaro Uribe Velez, with the political and
financial support of the U.S. government, is broadening the
more than 40-year-old civil war and paramilitarism in Colombia.
Paramilitaries, who are closely allied with the Colombian
military, routinely intimidate, torture and murder union
organizers and others.
In the year 2000, three of every five unionists murdered in
the world were killed in Colombia.
Transnational corporations have moved much of their
operations to countries like Colombia where neoliberal policies
have destroyed obstacles to profit making. They take advantage
of the rampant paramilitarism in Colombia.
Coca-Cola, Drummond and Nestle have all been accused of
collaborating with paramilitaries to intimidate and murder
union organizers.
An international campaign is being organized to call
attention to the abuses of transnationals in Colombia. It is
focusing in particular on Coca-Cola, one of the most brutal and
greedy corporations.
Coca-Cola routinely exploits workers by subcontracting
employees, laying them off without benefits, and by overworking
and underpaying. But activists charge it also collaborates with
paramilitaries to further repress workers who organize against
these conditions.
Eight Coca-Cola workers have been murdered, half of them as
a response to the unions' demands for better working conditions
or wages; 38 workers are displaced and 67 are living under
death threats. Their families have been threatened and
relatives kidnapped. Demon strations have been attacked and
union offices searched, bombed and burned.
The United Steelworkers of America and the International
Labor Rights Fund on behalf of SINALTRAINAL--the National Union
of Food Industry Workers--filed a suit in U.S. courts in July
of 2001 against Coca-Cola.
The suit maintains that Coca-Cola is responsible for the
intimidation and murder of union organizers in its bottling
plants in Colombia.
Javier Correa, president of SINALTRAINAL, said in a Dec. 5
speech that "According to a published article, in 1998
Coca-Cola officials met with paramilitary leader Carlos Castano
in Cordoba."
The defendants in the case include Coca-Cola Corp.,
Coca-Cola Colombia, Panamco Beverages, Bebida y Alimentos, and
Richard Kirby--the U.S. citizen who owns three of the bottling
plants where union organizers have been murdered.
In March, a U.S. district court judge awarded the unions a
partial victory. Judge Jose E. Martinez ruled that the unions
can go ahead with the suit against Panamco, Bebida y Alimentos
and Richard Kirby. However, they removed Coca-Cola Corp. and
Coca-Cola Colombia as defendants in the case. The unions are
appealing the decision.
Unthinkable! Undrinkable!
An international campaign is beginning July 22 to demand
that Coca-Cola stop collaborating with paramilitaries, respect
workers' rights and pay reparations to the workers. The union
is asking people to support the campaign in any way
possible.
The campaign is the result of three town hall meetings held
in Atlanta, Ga., Brus sels, Belgium, and Bogotá,
Colombia, in 2002. SINALTRAINAL, along with organizations that
participated in these public tribunals, decided to call on the
world to protest the abuses that Coca-Cola has committed
against Colombian unionists.
On July 22 there will be a general strike and a protest in
Colombia to begin the campaign against Coca-Cola.
In the United States on that date there will be media
conferences and actions in New York, San Francisco and other
cities to begin the "Unthinkable! Undrinkable!" campaign
against Coca-Cola.
Teresa Gutierrez, co-director of the International Action
Center, reported that the International ANSWER
coalition---which has organized massive protests against the
war in Iraq--has officially endorsed the campaign and will hold
a major media conference in Washington, D.C., on July 22.
Gutierrez told Workers World, "As Colombian workers and
students, peasants and teachers continue their fight against
privatization, dire economic crisis and repression, the Bush
and Blair governments are arming the Uribe government to stop
the struggle of the Colombian people for social change. The
Bush administration has just released $800 million more for
Colombia. The U.S. and Britain are carrying out overt and
covert warfare to protect Occidental Petroleum and other
transnational corporations that are exploiting our sisters and
brothers in Colombia.
"Just as SINALTRAINAL make clear their opposition to the
imperialist war against Iraq," Gutierrez concluded, "ANSWER
sees the urgent necessity to link the struggle against the
military occupation in Iraq with this dirty war against the
Colombian people and to mobilize to get the U.S. out."
Reprinted from the July 24, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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