INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER CAMPAIGN AGAINST COCA-COLA


This consumer campaign is one of the international actions approved at all three sessions of the Public Tribunal (Audiencia Pública Popular), therefore it is necessary to clearly establish the operating guidelines of the campaign.

The consumer campaign is a method of pressure and constant, sustained denouncement against the policies of the transnational corporation Coca-cola in the world, so that they integrally repair the damages that they have caused, modify their policies, and commit to respect the human rights of both their workers and the population as a whole.

Our struggle is for peace with social justice and for the wellbeing of all peoples, for this we embrace the anti-war struggle, we contribute to the construction of the movement against capitalist globalization, we participate in the struggle against the FTAA, and we share in the initiatives taken by the Continental Social Alliance, the World Social Forum, and all others that are allowing the people to strive for happiness, sovereignty, and freedom.

The struggle against capitalist globalization is a struggle against the policies of the transnational corporations; the initiative that we are raising from different parts of the world against the transnational Coca-cola is part of that fight against war and for the wellbeing of all peoples.

The social organizations, the human rights groups, the religious communities, and the activists who participated in the three sessions of the “SINALTRAINAL Clama Justicia - Héctor Daniel Useche Beron” Public Tribunal Against Impunity have announced an international consumer campaign against Coca-cola, for the following reasons, among others:

• For the violation of the human rights of its workers and of its community members.
• For the benefits they obtain from the assassination, imprisonment, displacement, kidnapping, threatening, and firing of union leaders in Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil, the United States, Venezuela, Palestine, Turkey, Iran, as well as in other parts of the world.
• For the contamination of water sources by pollution from its bottling plants.
• For racial discrimination against the Black community and against people with AIDS in Africa and the United States.
• For the utilization of coca in its products and for their support of the criminal policies of the United States against the indigenous communities, especially in Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia, who have traditionally preserved their culture and made their subsistence in the growing of coca leaf.
• For the irrational use of water in the world and for their criminal robbery of water sources to the detriment of communities in India.
• For supporting the criminal oligarchy of Venezuela, which is a threat to the government and political project of the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and for their historic intervention in the internal affairs of the Venezuelan people.

The consumer campaign will begin as of July 22, 2003 and will have, in its initial phase, a duration of one year. The Second World Social Forum declared July 22 the International Day Against Coca-cola.

The consumer campaign does not solely consist of NOT CONSUMING THE PRODUCTS OF THE TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION COCA-COLA, but is also a permanent and sustained campaign of denouncement, organization, and struggle against the policies of the company.

In order to make this declared consumer campaign a reality, we will follow the international plan of action listed below:

• We delivered to Coca-cola a proposal for reparations on February 11, 2003, accompanied by the signatures of the participants and the political declaration of the three sessions of the Public Tribunal. We are currently waiting for the company to propose a meeting with SINALTRAINAL in order to achieve an agreement which will deal with the facts that we have denounced.
• On July 22, 2003, we will organize press conferences in Rome, Chicago, and Bogotá, where we will announce to the world the initiation of the consumer campaign. We ask our supporters who may be able to get the attention of the press to do so as well on the same day.
• On Tuesday, July 22, 2003, we aim to organize pickets, meetings, and protests, in each one of the cities in which Coca-cola has factories. At each of the entrances should be a an area in which the campaign materials can be distributed. We also suggest that galleries of remembrance should be constructed in different cities.
• We aim to edit a video that shows the experiences of the three sessions of the Public Tribunal, the violations that we are denouncing, and the actions of the consumer campaign. This video should be shown and distributed in public spaces, schools, universities, and other places which may be open to the campaign.
• We aim to create a petition in support of the consumer campaign, and start a worldwide collection of signatures, which should then be sent from each coordinating country to the global headquarters of Coca-cola in Atlanta.
• We aim to create a postcard with the text of the above-mentioned petition and with five reasons why we are conducting this consumer campaign which can then be sent to the global headquarters of Coca-cola in Atlanta.
• We aim to start an educational campaign to show why Coca-cola products should be taken out of union offices, community centres, universities, schools, sports clubs, and other spaces where there is interest in the consumer campaign.
• The campaign should make a thorough review of all Coca-cola products and the companies in the Morgan Group (Monsanto, Phillip Morris, and Citibank) along with the attacks that these companies have made against communities all over the world, in order to bring together the 15 international cases.
• All of the materials of the campaign should clearly allude to the problems of capitalist globalization and specifically to the reality of the Colombian experience.
• We will create five slogans and five logos that will identify the international campaign. Afterwards, we will send them to the European Network so that they can make their suggestions and then make them official all over the world.
• We will urgently pursue contacts with the organizers coordinating the campaigns against Coca-cola in Venezuela, Turkey, Iran, along with any other country involved in this effort.
• We will create a media outreach strategy for the launch and the duration of the international campaign. It is important to send materials and requests for assistance to alternative media outlets in the countries that we have visited.
• In Colombia, we should seek out all the alternative outlets, politicians, congresses, etc., where we can share our initiatives and secure resolutions and endorsements in support of the campaign.
• In each one of the countries or cities where the campaign is being organized, we should organize meetings with Coca-cola workers, with activists, unions, and other organizations that have relations with them, in order to educate them about the campaign. In the same way, we should also lobby celebrities, institutions, governments, political organizations, religious communities, and human rights groups to ask them to support the campaign. One of the problems that we may encounter could be the permissive attitude of the IUF (International Union of Foodworkers) towards Coca-cola, but this could also be a way of confronting the offensive this union organization has taken against SINALTRAINAL and the groups that support it.
• We aim to centralize all of Coca-cola’s worldwide email addresses, sho that we can flood them with messages and images of the aggressions committed at the bottling plants of this transnational company.
• At different sporting and cultural events that Coca-cola sponsors, we aim to make our presence shown with the official posters and materials of the campaign. We can also collect petition signatures at these events.
• During the duration of the campaign, all of Coca-cola’s delivery trucks should carry a black stripe and all of the union offices should hang the official campaign poster and a flag at half-mast.
• We aim to organize conferences and workshops in which we can discuss the reasons behind this consumer campaign and why people should not consume Coca-cola products.
• It is necessary to familiarize ourselves with consumer campaigns against other transnationals, and then share our experiences and successes. We should seek out the campaigns against Danone, Shell, Nike, Nestlé, Coca-cola, and especially the Palestinian campaign against American and Israeli transnational corporations, as well as the campaign launched in Venezuela from the Coletivo Aureliano Buendía.
• We aim to massively distribute the proposal for reparations so that the people are clear about the objectives of the campaign.
• We aim to create: t-shirts; banners and posters to be distributed all over the country; SINALTRAINAL banners to use at protests; buttons; stickers; cassettes that can be played in public transit systems; flyers; graffiti on Coca-cola’s buildings; materials about the campaign placed on Coca-cola bottles, vending machines, advertisements, and vehicles; and CDs of Colombian and Latin American protest music.
• All these materials should be in the appropriate languages.
• We aim to create coordinating committees in the different cities supporting the campaign in order to guarantee its success.
• We aim to create a website, which will be permanently updated with information about the initiatives launched against Coca-cola and other transnational corporations.
• It is urgent that we start an intensive international campaign to secure funding in order to guarantee the development of this plan of action; we ask the organizations and individuals who support us for their immediate economic support.

SINGNED BY THE PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS OF THE PUBLIC TRIBUNAL AGAINST COCA-COLA