The Wake

Many students make it through morning lecture by chugging down cans of Coke. This is partly because of the caffeine, and partly because there is no other soft drink available on campus. What the numerous Coke machines will not advertise to U students is that Coca-Cola has been tied with murders and torture in its bottling plants in Colombia.

One Scottish university has taken a stand against the actions of Coke. The Department of Geography and Sociology at Strathclyde University in Glasgow decided to boycott Coca-Cola and Nestle this year. The head of department, Professor David Miller, says Coca-Cola is refusing to respond to the issues raised about their involvement with Colombia and ignoring the wishes of local communities in India where Coca-Cola plants are diminishing ground water and poisoning water supplies in surrounding areas. Miller says Nestle is refusing to change their marketing of baby formula in the developing world, resulting in the deaths of thousands of babies. Students in Britain and Ireland have already been working to remove Coca-Cola products from student unions. Miller says he hopes the boycott will contribute toward university decisions to remove Coca-Cola from campuses across the UK.

According to www.killercoke.org, the website that campaigns for the Coca-Cola Columbian union, there has been an undisclosed cycle of murders, kidnappings and torture of SINALTRAINAL (National Union of Food Industry Workers) union leaders at Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia. In July 2001, the United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit on behalf of the union, aiming to prevent further bloodshed from Coca-Cola. The lawsuit states that Coca-Cola bottlers contracted with paramilitary security forces that have been trained at the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas where they were encouraged to torture and murder those who do union organizing or pass out propaganda in favor of workers. From 1989 to 2002, eight union leaders from Coca-Cola’s Colombian bottling plants have been killed

Although other universities are taking action, the recent controversies do not seem to faze the University of Minnesota’s relations with Coca-Cola. According to the U’s Board of Regents consent report, the U extended the existing Exclusive Beverage and Sponsorship Agreement with Coca-Cola for July1, 2006 through June 30, 2008. This contract, which gives Coke exclusive vending rights on campus, will bring in an estimated $2,992,780 to the U. It allows the U to buy Coke products cheaply, and provides revenue that goes toward athletics and “academic and community-building initiatives.” The U also buys Coke syrup and re-sells it to Aramark, which brought in $150,000 worth in 2000. The agreement began in 1996 when Coca-Cola outbid Pepsi.

The “academic and community-building initiatives” include grants from Coca-Cola to groups organizing campus life events. The guidelines state that grants will not be awarded to support the full funding of any event or activity, and any beverages served at events funded by the initiatives must be Coca-Cola products.

When there is no other soft drink choice on campus, it can be hard for students to see past the familiarity of Coke. While holding a can of Diet Coke, U student Ainsley Risberg says she had not heard about the murders in Colombia before, but would stop drinking Coke if she had known. “Nobody knows what’s going on in big corporations, it’s all hush-hush,” Risberg says. U student Mary Ellen Six says the school should not be solely one soda. “Coke tries to monopolize everything,” Six says.