U of M students boot Coca-Cola off campus

The University of Michigan announced on Dec. 29 that it is suspending its contract with the Coca-Cola Corp. This makes U of M the 10th university in the U.S. to kick Coca-Cola off campus in the wake of revelations about murders and other abuses of Coca-Cola workers in several countries, especially Colombia.

Rutgers in New Jersey and New York University are among those that have already banned Coca-Cola products. But with 50,000 students, U of M is the largest university so far to suspend its Coca-Cola contract.

U of M’s announcement comes after a year-long campaign by students at the university. Similar campaigns are occurring on campuses nationwide. The students at U of M formed an organization called the Coalition to Cut the Contract with Coca-Cola. It represents a broad range of U of M students and includes among its members Asian, Indigenous, Latin@ and Muslim student organizations, as well as student-labor solidarity organizations, environmental groups and others.

According to a statement released by the coalition, the students, through the university, have been trying to force Coca-Cola to consent to an independent investigation of the murder of nine Coca-Cola workers and union organizers by right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia. The Colom bian workers say these murders were ordered and paid for by the Coca-Cola Corp. The workers have sued Coca-Cola and currently have a case pending in Miami against the company.

The students also demanded an investigation into the environmental devastation Coca-Cola has caused in India, where the company’s plants have caused severe contamination of the groundwater. The coalition also raised the issue of Coca-Cola’s operations in Turkey, where 100 union supporters and organizers were fired in May of 2005 and then beaten when they demanded their jobs back.

According to the coalition, Coca-Cola refused to consent to any independent investigation without assurances that the information gathered in that investigation would not be used in the current lawsuit against the company.

Workers in Colombia and in other parts of the world have been struggling for years to bring attention to the crimes of the Coca-Cola Corp. The university bans are part of an international boycott called originally by the Colombian union Sinal trainal. Unions in Colombia hailed the recent decision by U of M and other schools.

“Coca-Cola is a frequent violator of union rights, and that’s why several universities in the United States have decided to protest their conduct,” said Fabio Arias, vice president of Colombia’s CUT trade union confederation, which represents 550,000 workers. (Associated Press, Jan. 3)

A victory such as this at a school as large as the University of Michigan surely adds to the momentum of the international Coca-Cola boycott. But the fight is not over yet. The U of M students noted that the ban at their school was officially only a temporary one and that the university administration continues to insist that the Coca-Cola Corp. is acting in “good faith.”

Students at the U of M and other universities plan to keep up the pressure on their campuses to make sure that the ban stays in place until the workers win their demands.

Julie Fry is a former University of Michigan student.