Coca-Cola in the dock

by David Rhys-Jones

The World Social Forum has declared July 22, 2003, the international day of 
action against Coca-Cola and the start of a year-long boycott of all their 
products, in solidarity with Sinaltrainal, the Colombian food and drinks 
workers' union.

Managers at Colombian bottling plants, which are part-owned and operated by 
Coca-Cola, stand accused of paying paramilitary death squads for the 
assassinations of eight trade unionists, several counts of kidnapping and 
torture and the falsification of evidence and testimony that led to trade 
unionists being arrested on charges of terrorism.

In a March 31, 2003 ruling, US district court judge Jose E Martinez ruled 
that cases for human rights violations by paramilitaries on behalf of Coca-
Cola, brought by Sinaltrainal under the Aliens Tort Claims Act (ACTA), can 
go forward.

Significantly, the court held that the allegations were sufficient to allow 
the case to proceed on a theory that the paramilitaries were acting in a 
symbiotic relationship with the Colombian Government.

This satisfies a technical requirement of the ACTA that there was a 
component of "state action".

In a similar situation in Guatemala in the early 1980s, Coca-Cola was 
forced by a consumer campaign to terminate its bottling agreements with a 
Guatemalan bottler who used right-wing death squads to murder trade union 
leaders at that facility.

Pointing to this situation, Sinaltrainal's lawyers note that "wholly apart 
from the legal liability, Coca-Cola remains the sole entity that can change 
the practice of its bottlers.

"In the Colombian case, even though what was happening in the plants was 
well known internationally, Coca-Cola decided to do nothing."

Sinaltrainal have called on all student groups and others who are 
protesting against Coca-Cola's policy in Colombia to redouble their 
efforts, "as we saw in the Guatemala case, the company will not do the 
right thing unless it is forced by consumers".

The International Labor Rights Fund in the US is also calling on Attorney 
General John Ashcroft to prosecute Coca-Cola's bottlers in Colombia under a 
law that makes it a crime to provide material support to terrorists.

Despite close links to the CIA, Colombian paramilitaries have been declared 
terrorists by the State Department.

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Morning Star, Britain's socialist daily