Killer-Cola

When branding is successful, a product transcends its own reality as a mere consumer good becoming something more—an icon. A symbol which represents a complex array of memories and emotions when its visage is invoked. In the case of the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Company, over one-hundred years of marketing have transformed a simple carbonated concoction of caramel-colored syrup into a globally recognizable representation of the American way. Now operating in more than two-hundred countries and spending $7 million per day on advertising, Coke has become emblematic of the very essence of American life. The Coca-Cola Company’s CEO, Neville Isdell, claims the fundamental nature of the Coke brand is it “is a decent thing, honestly made.” Unfortunately, much like American culture, a glimpse beneath the glamour of glossy PR reveals an underbelly of seedy business practices that fly in the face of common conceptions. Today, allegations of human rights violations in Columbia and egregious environmental practices in India are tarnishing this nostalgic American icon.

Murder and Intimidation in Columbia

In 1996 at 9 a.m. on the 5th of December, Isidro Segundo Gil was assassinated inside a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Carepa which operates near the Columbian border with Panama. The leader of the local branch of a food and drink workers trade union, SINALTRAINAL, Gil was shot to death by right-wing paramilitaries—the fourth such killing in the Carepa plant since 1994. After killing Gil, the paramilitaries burned out and occupied the local union office. Two days later they returned to the bottling plant and forced employees to sign letters of resignation from the union—printed on company machines—which were in turn collected by the management. After a four year battle to obtain justice for the murder of her husband, Gil’s wife, Alcira del Carmen Herera Perez, was murdered in front of their daughters.

This is only one instance in a long list of premeditated violence and intimidation experienced by SINALTRAINAL members in Columbia’s Coca-Cola bottling plants. According to an independent fact-finding delegation sent to Columbia from New York City in 2004, there have been 179 major human-rights violations of Coca-Cola’s workers. Nine union members have been murdered, and family members of union activists have been abducted and tortured. Others have been fired for participating in union activities. The delegation concluded that there was no way for the paramilitaries to gain access to the bottling plants without “company knowledge and/or tacit approval.” The bottling plant managers continue to deny they made any arrangements with paramilitaries, however, numerous witnesses have seen bottling company officials meeting with, and making payments to, paramilitary leaders. Regardless, since 1993 membership in the union has fallen from 1,440 members in Coke plants to 389 members in 2004.

These issues were brought to the attention of the American public in July of 2001 when a civil action was lodged on behalf of SINALTRAINAL by lawyers with the United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund. The claim for relief and damages was filed under the 1789 Alien Tort Claims Act in a Miami district court against the bottling companies operating in Columbia and the Coca-Cola Company.

Pollution and Water Exploitation in India

Meanwhile in Plachimada, India, Coca-Cola was busy expressing its supposed generosity to local aboriginal peoples in the form of free toxic “fertilizer.” In July 2003, a BBC Radio-4 report discovered the “bio-sludge” byproducts which Coke had given to locals to spread on their fields was dangerously laden with heavy metals—particularly cadmium and lead. Contrary to the claims made on the company website, the sludge also had no value as fertilizer, the report said. Cadmium is a known carcinogen which causes kidney damage and exposure to lead can cause mental derangement and death. Lead is especially dangerous to children; exposure can result in severe anemia and mental retardation.

Even the Coca-Cola products distributed for consumption in India have been found to be toxic, containing levels of pesticides—including DDT, lindane and malathion—up to 30 times higher than US and EU allowances. The pesticides were discovered by the Center for Science and Environment (CSE), a new Delhi-based non-governmental organization. Some Indian farmers are even spraying Coke on their crops because it is cheaper than obtaining actual pesticides. Much to the detriment of both the Coca-Cola Company and its rival PepsiCo, on December 2004 India's Supreme Court ruled that both companies must label all cans and bottles of the respective soft drinks with a consumer warning of high pesticide content.

As if this isn’t enough, wells around Indian bottling plants—already polluted from toxic sludge and waste water—are drying up due to Coca-Cola’s excessive water extraction. It takes nine liters of water to manufacture one liter of Coke, and the plant in Plachimida is capable of drawing 500,000 liters a day from local aquifers with disastrous results for the surrounding villagers. These larger water privatization issues have motivated six communities in India to take action against Coca-Cola. Their vigils and hunger strikes are well documented by the India Resource Center, an organization set up to aid the fight against corporate globalization in India. In August of 2005 activists gained a major victory when the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) ordered the plant shut down. Their struggle continues as they focus on forcing the closure of bottling plants in Mehdiganj and Kala Dera, while ensuring Plachimida’s remains closed. To the Indian villagers, the few low-paying jobs these bottling plants provide (they are largely mechanized and bring in outside contractors) aren’t worth the costs of operation.

Coke Denies Responsibility

Expectedly, the Coca-Cola Company has absolved themselves of any wrongdoing by attempting to spin their problems away. While the company’s stance is filled with inconsistencies, it is mainly based around a strategy of distancing themselves from their bottling companies while stigmatizing SINTRAINAL and communities in India. The company maintains it can't be held responsible for the actions of its bottling companies since they are in fact "independent businesses." This argument allowed Coke to be dismissed from the Tort Claims lawsuit in Miami, but their rhetoric quickly becomes laughable upon closer scrutiny. Workers who apply for a job at any bottling plant fill out a Coca-Cola application form, wear a Coca-Cola logo on their uniforms, and follow Coca-Cola’s product guidelines. The Coca-Cola Company even owns 46 percent of voting stock in Coca-Cola Femsa-Panamco—one of the “independent” bottling companies involved in the lawsuit. Coca-Cola would no doubt take action if their meticulous bottling standards were ignored and yet it ignores the violations taking place in Columbia. One can only conclude this is because the convenient executions of union members are beneficial to the company.

Through a website ironically called “Coke Facts,” the company is attempting to discredit the first hand accounts of villagers in India, the findings of the BBC and the CSE, and the testimony of SINTRAINAL members. The site makes claims about the protection it offers its union members in Columbia (the workers deny this exists) while quoting another union, SINALTRAINBEC, who has publicly stated they’ve seen no evidence plant managers are working with paramilitaries. The statement doesn’t hold much weight as SINALTRAINBEC only has ten members and was set up by the company. Close analysis of the site’s other assertions reveal them for what they are—skillful sleights of hand.

Perhaps using Coca-Cola’s sugary, mildly-addictive soft drink as a metaphor for the American way is fitting after all. The rationale employed by Coke to distance itself from the repercussions of its deplorable business practices sounds eerily familiar to the techniques the Bush Administration has used to separate itself from the results of its foreign policy. This fragile façade of marketing magic is crumbling away, revealing the atrocities necessary to keep an American icon afloat in an age of corporate expansionism. It is going to take more than ubiquitous advertising and appeals to the company’s core values of “uplifting refreshment, stubborn optimism, and universal connections,” to resurrect the image of this degenerate brand. Around the globe, entire cities and universities are boycotting Coca-Cola products—including Minute Maid and Frutopia—and demanding the corporation be held accountable for the actions being carried out in its trademarked name. It is time to join them in solidarity and just say no to Coke.

For more information visit killercoke.org or indiaresource.org

Written By Jason Glover

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