Despatches - Mark Thomas on Coca Cola

Must see TV tomorrow night (Monday 19th November @ 8pm) as Mark Thomas investigates Coca-Cola and its business practices. While you mull over that prospect, check out these images

Buffett's Role in Sudan Questioned

Warren Buffett was confronted over the week-end by a Sudanese refugee and by Karuk native Americans during the annual general meeting of his business empire. The reason? Buffett continues to make money from his investments in Sudan, despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis, particularly his investments in PetroChina (which is currently hawking its Corporate Social Responsibility Report on its website). According to James Miller, from the Sudanese Divestment Taskforce, CNPC is:

"....by far the most irresponsible and abusive oil investor in Sudan. At least 70% of the funds they provide to Sudan get funnelled into the Sudanese military."

Buffett's other investments have come under scrutiny in recent weeks. A recent LA Times report exposed the true nature of much of his investments through Berkshire Hathaway. Despite pledging $31 billion of his fortune to the Gates Foundation, which was established to fight disease, poverty and illiteracy, Buffett has been caught up in some dubious investments. According to the report:

About $56.4 billion, or 87% of Berkshire's stock holdings, is invested in companies criticized by the research groups for profiting from environmental irresponsibility, human rights violations and other activities that undermine the foundation's good works or its goals of improving the lot of humankind.

The report adds that:

The holdings of Berkshire Hathaway, totaling more than $4.6 billion in eight companies, came in dead last by a wide margin in a ranking of oil and gas holdings among the 100 largest investors in the United States. The ranking was based on social, environmental and governance performance ratings developed by the investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and a related ownership analysis by Cary Krosinsky of CapitalBridge, a capital markets intelligence firm.

So just what does Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway invest in? Well, they also own shares in the notorious, union busting Wal-Mart (parent company of Asda in the UK). Berkshire currently owns shares worth $921 million in Wal-Mart Stores Inc, despite its well documented human rights abuses.

Furthermore, despite the stated goals of the Gates Foundation, Berkshire also holds:

$64 million in pharmaceutical companies, for example, whose pricing policies have tended to keep antiretroviral drugs out of reach for HIV/AIDS patients in developing nations.

And here is what the Gates Foundation has to say on Global Health:

Millions of people—most of them children—die each year in developing countries from diseases that are preventable and treatable. Moreover, tragically little research is done to prevent or cure some of the world’s biggest killers, such as malaria and tuberculosis.

The foundation is guided by the belief that all lives, no matter where they are lived, have equal value. The mission of our Global Health program is to encourage the development of lifesaving medical advances and to help ensure they reach the people who are disproportionately affected. We focus our funding in two main areas:

• Access to existing vaccines, drugs, and other tools to fight diseases common in developing countries
• Research to develop health solutions that are effective, affordable, and practical.

Berkshire's investment also include tobacco firm Altria (the parent company of Philip Morris - the passive smoking deniers), despite the fact that the Gates Foundation avoids investments in the tobacco industry due to the health implications. Perhaps someone should tell Mr Buffett of the true goals of the Gates Foundation.

During the AGM, Berkshire shareholders were addressed by a woman from the Karuk Indian reservation who explained the how her community has been destroyed by hydroelectric dams operated by PacifiCorp (yet another Berkshire subsidiary). The dams have seriously undermined the community's salmon fishing livelihood. Confronting Buffett she said:

"My people are a river people. Our entire culture, religion and subsistence is centred around the river.

Buffett, I know you care very much about humanity. There are things you can do to help us."

Buffett's response?

"The world runs on electricity and it wants more electricity. We are a public utility responsive to public policy."

Hardly in keeping with social responsibility.

It is time that Buffett put his money where his mouth is. He talks the talk, espousing his support for causes such as the Gates Foundation, yet his investments give lie to his great claim for being a supporter of ethical causes. How can anyone claim to share the same ideals of the Gates Foundation, yet support the oil industry, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, pharmaceuticals and PetroChina? It couldn't possible be because there is money to be made, could it?

Further reading: The full LA Time report - Berkshire wealth clashes with Gates mission in Sudan

Walmart & the Nuns

Oh yes, first let's see how this came to light.

Wal-Mart has won a temporary restraining order against a fired employee who spilled the beans about the company’s spying operations to the Wall Street Journal on April 4.

Bruce Gabbard told the Journal that he was part of a sophisticated company surveillance operation that spied not only on employees but on shareholders and critics. The outfit was called the Threat Research and Analysis Group.
According to Gabbard, Wal-Mart’s spies kept tabs on several groups, including the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). After the story broke, Wal-Mart said it regretted that shareholder groups had been monitored. But that’s not enough for the Interfaith Center. On April 9, it demanded a formal apology.

“We were surprised and disappointed to read the results of the Wall Street Journal investigative report,” four leaders of the group said in a statement. “We view such actions as a serious breach of the trust relationship between shareholders and their company. . . . We ask that Wal-Mart formally apologize to investors and to others whose expectations of privacy has been breached.”

Signing the letter was Sister Judy Byron of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, U.S.-Ontario Province; Sister Susan Mika, who represents the Benedictine Sisters of Boerne, Texas; Father Michael Hoolahan, the interim executive director of the ICCR; and Mark Regier, chair of the ICCR’s governing board.

The Wall Street Journal article said that Wal-Mart had done “some preliminary background work on the potential threat assessment” of the Benedictine Sisters of Boerne, Texas.

So Walmart has a corporate spying division that engages in surveillance and counter espionage on its critic, especially if they are that most devastating of enemies NUNS! But you know these are some admirable ladies, Sister Susan Mika is leading a campaign against evil in all its corporate forms

They say the spirit of St. Benedict's legacy of stewardship to the community and the earth drives them to file dozens of shareholder resolutions every year on a wide variety of issues, from workers' wages at Alcoa (AA) to genetically modified crops at DuPont (DD). Sister Susan has traveled several times to the U.S.-Mexican border to see the working conditions at American companies operating in special Mexican economic zones. This year as proxy season begins, Sister Susan and her order are going after Coca-Cola

Now they are asking Walmart why they have been labelled a security threat:

"In no way have we ever been a threat to the company in that sense. We might be a threat in the kind of question that we're asking, but not a security threat," Sister Mika said.

The sisters have raised questions on wages, human rights, health care and the pay disparity between CEOs and workers. They believe that's why Wal-Mart has launched a surveillance operation on the small church group.

"We wanted to find out more about what was actually happening, and did they do any surveillance on us, either personally or as a community, and to let us know what that would be, and to apologize to us," Sister Mika said.

It remains to be seen if the UK can stop ASDA from going to hell. The Nuns are watching you!

Coke Continues to Profit in Sudan

While people around the world gather to call for action in Sudan, it is worth remembering that some companies continue to do business there. Coca Cola continues to operate in Sudan, despite sanctions, thanks to the exemption on gum arabic. Furthermore, as Killer Coke has noted:

Warren Buffett who left Coca-Cola's board in 2006, but remains the company's largest shareholder with 8.3% of common shares outstanding worth about $10 billion, is also a major investor in the PetroChina Oil Company which gets oil from Sudan and is targeted by the Sudan divestment community. "Oil has turned it [Sudan] into one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa - if not the world - emboldening the nation's already belligerent government and giving it the wherewithal to resist the Western demands to end the conflict in Darfur.

In fact, Berkshire Hathaway, of which Buffet is CEO, is the largest foreign shareholder of PetroChina owning 1.3% of shares. Buffet continues to resist calls to divest in PetroChina. He claimed that:

"I can be a direct descendant of William Jennings Bryan, but I will not be changing the Chinese government's policy… I doubt I could change the policies of the Douglas County [ Nebraska] Board."

However, CFO Asia (a leading magazine for CFO's in Asia) contradicts this assessment. It claims that:

"If Buffett were to sell for any reason, PetroChina's stock would almost certainly tank - and the company's reputation would sink along with it…PetroChina already had a foretaste of this in August [2003] when its stock price fell 2.1 percent in one day. Buffett disclosed to US regulators that he had sold US$5 million worth of PetroChina's American Depositary Shares in the second quarter of 2003. Flustered investors rushed to the exits. Was Buffett's confidence in PetroChina wavering? The markets were reassured when it was revealed that Buffett's ADS sales were made before he accumulated the 2.3 billion in H-shares he bought in Hong Kong."

There is clear evidence that were Mr Buffet to re-assess his investments in PetroChina, there would be a knock-on effect to China's attitude towards the humanitarian disaster. The Chinese government is already becoming sensitive to international pressure on Sudan and if Buffet was to divest, PetroChina would have to rethink its opertions in the region. However, it would appear that as long as Coca Cola and PetroChina continue to bring in the money, Buffet will continue to overlook the humanitarian disaster in Darfur. After all, business is business.

For more information: PetroChina, CNPC, and Sudan: Perpetuating Genocide - a report by the Sudan Divestment Task Force.

Coca-Cola and Sudan

From Killer Coke:

On May 15, 1998, the African Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania reported in a Sudan Update: " 'When the U.S. government announced sanctions against Sudan four months ago, officials here shrugged their shoulders,' reports IPS. `Trade between the countries was low,' they said, so the measure would hardly affect the economy. Now, however, the effect is being felt: Coca-Cola, for example, pulled out of the country this week and, as a result, at least 7,000 workers and technicians have lost their jobs, according to the Sudan Standard, an official weekly. Coca-Cola Ltd. was one of the leading employers in Sudan, economists here say.

"Sudan Standard said that Coca-Cola International had requested that Egyptian industries stop shipping concentrate and chemical mixtures needed to manufacture Coca-Cola drinks to its subsidiary in Sudan. The paper quoted company authorities as saying that they had not received permission from the U.S. government to ship the inputs to Sudan."

On October 24, 2006, Jeffrey Gettleman reported in The New York Times ("War in Sudan? Not Where the Oil Wealth Flows") that "In 2002, Sudanese investors opened a new Coca-Cola factory, with Coke syrup legally exported to Sudan under an exemption for food and medicine. The $140-million plant churns out 100,000 bottles of Coke, Sprite and Fanta per hour..."

In 1997, the American government imposed a trade embargo freezing Sudanese government assets in the U.S. and prohibiting exports to and imports from Sudan. The reason as reported in The New York Times: "human rights abuses connected to the north-south war and Sudan's links to terrorists."

In 2002, The Coca-Cola Co. exploited a loophole in the U.S. sanctions that gave the company an opportunity to ignore genocide in Darfur and to open a new plant in Sudan, thus propping up the Sudan economy and the government of Sudan's President Hassan al-Bashir. According to the Times article, President Bashir, an army general, seized power in 1989 through a military coup. Among the biggest beneficiaries of government revenues have been his troops - this in a country where the per capita income in 2005 was $640.

The New York Times story stated: "Sudan still marches to a martial tune. Army officers enjoy special status, foreign visitors must register with the police and schoolchildren are required to wear camouflage uniforms to class..."

An excerpt from a U.S. Treasury Dept. document entitled: "An overview of the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations..." states: "Except for information or informational materials and donated articles intended to relieve human suffering, such as food, clothing and medicine, and the licensed export of agricultural commodities, medicine and medical devices, no goods, technology, or services may be exported from the United States to Sudan, either directly or through third countries, without a license..."

Certainly, Coca-Cola soft drinks, Coke, Sprite and Fanta, hardly meet the standards of a food or medicine "intended to relieve human suffering." And the syrup for these products is certainly not being donated.

Nat Hentoff reported in the Village Voice: "We all know that the United States has placed certain trade restrictions on Sudan. Yet gum arabic is exempted, and it is the number one export of Sudan. Coca-Cola and the other major soft drink conglomerates need gum arabic. So what do we do? We proudly proclaim that we've got sanctions on Sudan, but we exempt gum arabic."

According to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Dept. of Treasury, Coca-Cola has paid fines "to settle allegations of violations of the Sudan sanctions...OFAC alleged that Coca-Cola exported to its bottler in Sudan services not authorized by its OFAC license and disregarded or evaded certain OFAC license restrictions. The services included financial and market support."

I believe The Coca-Cola Company should take the following action to help end genocide in Sudan's Darfur.

1. Allocate $15 million to run a three-month public relations and lobbying campaign to pressure the Sudanese government to stop the genocide in Darfur. This sum is $4 million less than the $19 million Coca-Cola spent in 2003 to advertise Sprite.

2. If this doesn't work, The Coca-Cola Co. should shut down its operations in Sudan and the company should compensate every worker affected by the shutdown the equivalent of at least four times Sudan's per capita income or one year's salary, whichever is greater, to help those Sudanese Coke workers' families adjust while seeking other means of making a living. Even if there were 7,000 employees, as reported in 1998, this would cost The Coca-Cola Co. less than $20 million, a drop in the bucket compared to the annual profits of $4 -5 billion or the compensation paid to its executive officers. E. Neville Isdell's compensation for 2006 as reported by the Atlanta Business Chronicle was $32.3 million.

This could serve as a model for other companies operating in the Sudan. Furthermore, the public everywhere should demand that gum arabic not be imported from the Sudan.

It should be noted that Warren Buffett who left Coca-Cola's board in 2006, but remains the company's largest shareholder with 8.3% of common shares outstanding worth about $10 billion, is also a major investor in the PetroChina Oil Company which gets oil from Sudan and is targeted by the Sudan divestment community. "Oil has turned it [Sudan] into one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa - if not the world - emboldening the nation's already belligerent government and giving it the wherewithal to resist the Western demands to end the conflict in Darfur."

Statement by Ray Rogers of Killer Coke.

The Colombian Chainsaw Massacre

Initially established in Panama in 1946, it was kicked out of that country in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Former Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.” The SOA, frequently dubbed the “School of Assassins,” has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned.

The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), located at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, is the Defense Department's principal Spanish-language training facility for Latin American military and law-enforcement personnel (though some civilians attend as well). It is the successor to the School of the Americas (SOA), a facility established in 1946 and legally closed in 2001. The WHINSEC is located in the same building, and offers many of the same courses, as the school it replaces-

-he was forcibly taken out of his house by a mixed group of soldiers and paramilitaries, along with three of this brothers and other peasants from the village. They were led to the estate of a drug trafficker which at the time housed the Army's center of operations. They were all dismembered with a chainsaw by Army Major Alirio Antonio Urueña, a graduate of the School of the Americas.-

SOA/WHINSEC trains more Colombian military than any other nationality, when it transmogrified into WHINSEC it was much like the business owner who declares bankruptcy then reopens the next day in the same premises with a new name, but no ones buying, it's SOA.

SOA provided an essential component of Plan Colombia a scam started by Clinton, ostensibly it provided aid to combat drug growing and trading, most of its money went into military and police, it was the war on drugs writ large now mutated into the war on terror. Now it's time to mention that three letter word that makes so many things fall into place- Oil.

''Colombia's petroleum production today rivals Kuwait's on the eve of the Gulf War. The United States imports more oil from Colombia and its neighbors Venezuela and Ecuador than from all Persian Gulf countries combined."

Thus we are back to the old great game, any country with resources the Empire needs becomes a client state, they collude with right wing politician's (those damn lefties might want to share the oil profits) and any number of covers are used to hide the money sent to back the states forces of repression to maintain the flow of product. In this case the war on drugs was the initial cover, now the war on terror is a catch all justification for imperial interference.

Another target in this war against Washington's bogeyman are the revolutionary forces in Colombia (FARC/ELN). Indeed, statements made back in the fall of 2001 by the US Ambassador to Colombia and various State Department spokespeople compared the guerrilla forces in Colombia to Bin Laden and the Al-Queda network and called for "appropriate" armed intervention. The FARC-ELN have been fighting the oligarchy in Colombia for over thirty years. Along with a few other now-defunct revolutionary groups, they tried armed insurgency for several years and then, in an attempt to bring peace along with justice, lay down their arms and formed political parties. After winning many local elections and several seats in the Colombian legislature, they found themselves being killed off one by one in the early 1990s by the Colombian military and paramilitary forces aligned with the government and the oil/coffee/drug cartels it represents. So, the remaining forces returned to armed struggle. Since that return, the war has intensified, as has US involvement. In 1999 Plan Colombia began--a multi-billion dollar US strategy that includes aerial spraying of coca and poppy crops (along with whatever and whoever happens to be in the surrounding areas), more military aid, increased involvement of the CIA and its fronts, and the presence of US advisors and commandos. Since September 11th, the aid provided by Plan Colombia is being supplemented by additional counterterrorism funds.

This increased US involvement has brought more environmental destruction of the countryside, greater repression of labor and social justice activists including murder by paramilitaries, the displacement of tens of thousands of Colombian citizens because of aerial spraying and fighting between revolutionary forces (FARC/ELN) and the military and paramilitaries aligned with the government, and the deaths of thousands of mostly poor Colombians. Why? Once again, to establish, expand and maintain US markets and domination in the region, and to exploit Colombia's resources and plentiful cheap labor. Indeed, in the opening paragraphs of Plan Colombia, it states that very clearly: "The plan also involves the implementation of measures that would serve to encourage foreign investment and further promote trade expansion. These include the completion of the necessary steps to comply with existing Uruguay Round agreements, especially those dealing with customs valuation, intellectual property protection, and investment measures, as well as implementing business facilitation measures proposed in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations." Also, once again, that resource that defines most of the US's wars, comes into the picture: oil. In fact, according to Americas.org,-

And the motor that drives the brutalisation of personnel to implement the strategies is the SOA-

Walk into the marble-floored and track-lit headquarters of Colombia's national antinarcotics police and the generosity of that aid, as well as the incestuous relationship between Washington and Colombia's military machine, are suddenly evident. Outside the door of Commanding Gen. Gustavo Socha's office, mounted on a tripod, is an oversize photo of a grinning George W. Bush celebrating his election. Next to it is a full-color promotional illustration of a US-made Black Hawk attack helicopter. In the general's waiting room, visitors are attended to by a young, uniformed press officer, a polished graduate of the recently renamed School of the Americas, run by the US Army. Also present is an equally young security officer just returned from an intelligence training course at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

In case there's any doubt about the level of American involvement here, the office adjoining General Socha's is occupied by a craggy, Clint Eastwood clone in civilian clothes, a former US Army colonel. A veteran trainer at the School of the Americas, the ex-colonel now works with the State Department's Narcotics Affairs Section and is deployed as full-time adviser to General Socha.-

So just what can you learn as a student at the SOA? SOA watch has a fine collection of the manuals here.

Some highlights include:-

-counterintelligence agents could use fear, payment of bounties for enemy dead, beatings, false imprisonment, executions and the use of truth serum,
On several occasions it uses the words "neutralization" or "neutralizing," which was commonly used at the time as a euphemism for execution or destruction, a Pentagon official said.
CI (counter intelligence) targets for neutralizing. The CI targets can include personalities, installations, organizations, documents and materials ... the personality targets prove to be valuable sources of intelligence. Some examples of these targets are governmental officials, political leaders, and members of the infrastructure."-

Maybe time to take a break for a nice refreshing Coke:-

After the leader of their union was shot down at their plant gate in late 1996, Edgar Pa?z and his co-workers at the Coca-Cola bottling factory in Carepa, Colombia, tried for more than four years to get their government to take action against the responsible parties. Instead, some of the workers themselves wound up behind bars, while the murderers went free.
The level of violence against Colombian unionists is staggering: In 2000, assassinations took the lives of 153 of the nation's trade-union leaders. In 2001, the figure had reached 143 by the end of November. According to H?ctor Fajardo, general secretary of the United Confederation of Workers (CUT), Colombia's largest union federation, 3,800 trade unionists have been assassinated in Colombia since 1986. In the year 2000, three out of every five trade unionists killed in the world were Colombian, according to a recent report by the United Steelworkers. -

This reminds me of Iraq, because in the neo-con dreamworld constitution that Paul Bremer implemented for Bushco where corporations were given free reign, flat tax, zero regulation and no profit caps on exports, the only thing that remained regulated, in fact tighter than under Saddam was- trade unions. Clearly a picture of the true vision that the empire promulgates is emerging here, unregulated capitalist tyranny backed by torture and death, in other words a war of terror to establish it's rule. And Coke? Sugary shit that rots your teeth, the world needs clean water not the polluted waste from coke plants. It takes much more than 1 liter of water to produce 1 liter of bottled coke, so its production is a motor for environmental degradation and creating a scarcity of the one essential for all life. Of course that's no bad thing to a budding entrepreneur, constant demand meets shrinking supply =profit baby! We cannot afford the unregulated brutal capitalism of the empire, but... America is bankrupt and China owns most of the debt, the Americas are electing leftist govts. and Bushco's brutality has caused the scales to fall more quickly from more people's eyes than ever before. Did someone say tipping point?

Colombia - A Terrorist State

This is the story of a country that is run by terrorists with the financial support of the Bush regime. This is the story of Uribe's Colombia. (Also in Spanish.)

Colombia - Un Estado Terrorista

Esta es la historia de un país regido por terroristas con la ayuda financiera del régimen de Bush. Esta es la historia de la Colombia de Uribe.

DEATH THREATS AGAINST SINALTRAINAL

At about 10:30 a.m. on 10 February we learnt of the contents of an envelope thrown by unknown persons under the door of the offices of ASTDEMP trade union, which functions as the Santander regional headquarters for the (trade union federation) CUT. The office is at floor 2, No 14 - 09, 42nd Street, Bucaramanga. The envelope contained the following threat against members of SINALTRAINAL who work in the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Bucaramanga:

AUC BLACK EAGLES

The demobilized [paramilitaries] of Magdalena Medio - Black Eagles make a call to the terrorist Coca-Cola trade unionists Javier Correa, Luis Garcia (alias El Chile), Domingo Flores (alias Fatty) and Nelson Perez that they stop bad mouthing the Coca-cola corporation given they have caused enough damage already, stop this campaign against corporations in Santander that help the f**ked of this country. [If there is] no response we declare them military targets of the Black Eagles as they prefer - death, torture, cut into pieces, coup de grace - in Magdalena Medio style - this defines you as terrorists of the guerrillas - no more noisy fuss - remember our commander Mancuso does not like noise. "

This threat comes after the claim by Vice-President Francisco Santos on radio Caracol News of 12 December 2006, in reference to the Attorney General's investigation into Colombian football clubs, that "there are campaigns to malign Coca-Cola and Nestlé as well as other private corporations led by sectors of the extreme radical left, infiltrated in trade unions, that are generating absolutely absurd campaigns against the corporations".

Several of the threatened comrades have been unjustly imprisoned, have suffered previous attempts on their lives, their families have been victims of attempted disappearances, they are permanently under legal sanction by Coca-Cola, suspended from their work contracts, and its precisely at this time that we confront employer's attempt to thwart the incorporation of the union's executive committee in Bucaramanga, according to an announcement by the Ministry of Social Protection. We are suffering a dirty campaign in the Coca-Cola bottling plant against the National President of SINALTRAINAL and other comrades, with the purpose of creating terror and confusion.

We hold the government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez and all its officials responsible for the form of their public accusations against trade unionists and the opposition. This demonstrates that the process of demobilisation of the paramilitaries is purely rhetorical, since the death threats, assassinations, displacement, criminalisation and torture and other like practices are all continuing.

We demand that the government and the corporations guarantee the lives of the trade unionists and our right to association.

Yours,

LUIS JAVIER CORREA SUAREZ
President, SINALTRAINAL
Bogotá D.C., 10 Febrero 2007

[Colombia Solidarity Campaign adds:

We apologise for not having a pre-prepared model letter. Nonetheless we urge all readers to send e-mails, and letters to the Colombian authorities and to Coca-Cola Corporation expressing concern.

In the UK, write to: Colombian Embassy in UK E-mail: mail@colombianembassy.co.uk
Write to Charlotte Oades, President, Coca-Cola Great. Britain, 1 Queen Caroline Street, London W6 9HQ

In the United States, write to: Carolina Barco Isakson, Colombian Embassy, 2118 Leroy Place, NW, Washington, DC 20008 Phone: (202) 387 8338 Fax: (202) 232 8643 emwas@colombiaemb.org

In Canada, write to: Jaime Giron Duarte, Colombian Embassy, 360 Albert Street, Suite 1002, Ottawa, ON. - K1R 7X7 Tels: (613) 230-3760/1 Fax: (613) 230-4416 embajada@embajadacolombia.ca

In the U.S. and Canada, call: 1-800-GET-COKE

To find out contact information in other countries, click here.

with a copy to the Colombia Solidarity Campaign E-mail: info@colombiasolidarity.org.uk

Click here to see the threatening note superimposed over a map.

[Via Killer Coke]

Coke Ignores Genocide in Darfur; Continues Operations in Sudan

From Killer Coke:

Why is Coca-Cola back operating in Sudan?

On May 15, 1998, the African Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania reported in a Sudan Update: " 'When the U.S. government announced sanctions against Sudan four months ago, officials here shrugged their shoulders,' reports IPS. `Trade between the countries was low,' they said, so the measure would hardly affect the economy. Now, however, the effect is being felt: Coca-Cola, for example, pulled out of the country this week and, as a result, at least 7,000 workers and technicians have lost their jobs, according to the Sudan Standard, an official weekly. Coca-Cola Ltd. was one of the leading employers in Sudan, economists here say.

"Sudan Standard said that Coca-Cola International had requested that Egyptian industries stop shipping concentrate and chemical mixtures needed to manufacture Coca-Cola drinks to its subsidiary in Sudan. The paper quoted company authorities as saying that they had not received permission from the U.S. government to ship the inputs to Sudan."

On October 24, 2006, Jeffrey Gettleman reported in The New York Times ("War in Sudan? Not Where the Oil Wealth Flows") that "In 2002, Sudanese investors opened a new Coca-Cola factory, with Coke syrup legally exported to Sudan under an exemption for food and medicine. The $140-million plant churns out 100,000 bottles of Coke, Sprite and Fanta per hour…"

In 1997, the American government imposed a trade embargo freezing Sudanese government assets in the U.S. and prohibiting exports to and imports from Sudan. The reason as reported in The New York Times: "human rights abuses connected to the north-south war and Sudan's links to terrorists."

In 2002, The Coca-Cola Co. exploited a loophole in the U.S. sanctions that gave the company an opportunity to ignore genocide in Darfur and to open a new plant in Sudan, thus propping up the Sudan economy and the government of Sudan's President Hassan al-Bashir. According to the Times article, President Bashir, an army general, seized power in 1989 through a military coup. Among the biggest beneficiaries of government revenues have been his troops — this in a country where the per capita income in 2005 was $640.

The New York Times story stated: "Sudan still marches to a martial tune. Army officers enjoy special status, foreign visitors must register with the police and schoolchildren are required to wear camouflage uniforms to class…"

An excerpt from a U.S. Treasury Dept. document entitled: "An overview of the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations…" states: "Except for information or informational materials and donated articles intended to relieve human suffering, such as food, clothing and medicine, and the licensed export of agricultural commodities, medicine and medical devices, no goods, technology, or services may be exported from the United States to Sudan, either directly or through third countries, without a license…"

Certainly, Coca-Cola soft drinks, Coke, Sprite and Fanta, hardly meet the standards of a food or medicine "intended to relieve human suffering." And the syrup for these products is certainly not being donated.

Nat Hentoff reported in the Village Voice: "We all know that the United States has placed certain trade restrictions on Sudan. Yet gum arabic is exempted, and it is the number one export of Sudan. Coca-Cola and the other major soft drink conglomerates need gum arabic. So what do we do? We proudly proclaim that we've got sanctions on Sudan, but we exempt gum arabic."

According to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Dept. of Treasury, Coca-Cola has paid fines "to settle allegations of violations of the Sudan sanctions…OFAC alleged that Coca-Cola exported to its bottler in Sudan services not authorized by its OFAC license and disregarded or evaded certain OFAC license restrictions. The services included financial and market support."

We believe that the public everywhere should demand that gum arabic not be imported from the Sudan and The Coca-Cola Co. should shut down its operations in that country. Furthermore, Coca-Cola should compensate every worker affected by the shutdown the equivalent of four times the per capita income for Sudanese to help those workers' families adjust while seeking other means of making a living. Even if there were 7,000 employees, this would cost The Coca-Cola Co. less than $20 million, a drop in the bucket compared to the annual profits of $4-5 billion or the compensation paid to its executive officers.

It should be noted that Warren Buffett who left Coca-Cola's board in 2006, but remains the company's largest shareholder with 8.3% of common shares outstanding worth about $10 billion, is also a major investor in the PetroChina Oil Company which gets oil from Sudan and is targeted by the Sudan divestment community. "Oil has turned it [Sudan] into one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa — if not the world — emboldening the nation's already belligerent government and giving it the wherewithal to resist the Western demands to end the conflict in Darfur.

The Association Effect

The way the world views America is often seen through the prism of foreign policy. The assumption is often made that the main reason why America is hated in certain parts of the world, is the constant interference by the US government in a military context. Whilst this is certainly true, other factors play a crucial part in the American PR machine.

A good example is the behaviour of certain American corporations across the globe. McDonalds, Disney and Coca-Cola are as identifiable with America as the Stars and Stripes. They are ambassadors for their country whenever they go abroad. How they treat the people in the regions they operate, has serious consequences for the way the people view the US. The preferential treatment that US corporations face in the poorest parts of the world, breeds contempt and loathing. This contempt then turns to hatred of the US and everything they feel it represents.

Of course, the Middle East and Asia is the biggest breeding ground for this contempt at the present time. One country in particular, Pakistan, is on the verge of being consumed by a growing anger towards the West. This anger will not have been stemmed by Coca-Cola's activities in the region. The IUF have recently reported the following:

"While Coca-Cola Company (CCC) executives in Atlanta, Georgia, USA were preparing to celebrate the holidays and enjoy their buoyant third quarter results, management at Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan Limited (CCBPL, owned by CCC) were carrying out a vicious attack on employment and trade union rights at the company's Karachi operations in defiance of a local court order to desist.

"Union-busting is a traditional management reflex at Coke Pakistan. In Central Pakistan, unions were busted in Lahore and Gujranwala and union officers have been dismissed. At Rahim Yar Khan, the union president was dismissed in 2001 and only reinstated after a tough 3-year legal battle the company continues to contest.

"Where dismissals alone fail to break the union, massive casualization has become the main management tool for maximizing insecurity and limiting union bargaining power. At the Rahim Yar Khan plant, 6-700 casual workers are employed at peak season - including 250 "seasonal" workers employed year round and some 50 who have worked at the plant for 5 or more years. To further restrict the potential union membership base, 200 permanent workers are excluded from union membership after having been reclassified as "managers" or "supervisors" — despite the fact that they work as operators and have no management authority." [via Killer Coke]

It is the perception of the workers in situations like this, that leads to a growing resentment to the West. In conjunction with the utilisation of the military by the West, it is little wonder that so many people in this region feel that America is an enemy. As long as Western companies with such strong brand identities and cultural links, continue to attack the workers, so the countries that they represent will become tainted by the same brush. Certainly, foreign policy is key to the distrust of the West, but it is not the only factor that is taken into account by those who mistrust the West.

Colombia - Haven for Tourists, or Terrorists?

The latest reports suggest that officers of the Colombian army have been accused of placing car bombs around the capital city. Apparently, the motivation for the placement of these bombs was to receive reward money of up to $400,000 for information on Marxist rebels. This is just one example in a long list of corruption by the military in Colombia.

It has also come to light that ten policeman who were killed in a so-called 'friendly fire' incident, were actually killed by members of the army. The policemen, and an informant, were found with their bodies riddled with 150 bullets. It was later discovered that they had been shot at point blank range and that the policemen had 'begged for their lives'.

All this comes at a time when the Colombian government are trying to present the country as a safe place to visit by tourists, despite the reality that it is home to some of the most disturbing human rights abuses in the region, if not the world. Trade union members have long been targeted by death squads in the country and human rights workers have also suffered arrest and intimidation at the hands of the Colombian government. Furthermore, as I have previously noted, according to some estimates, 164 trade unionists have been murdered or 'disappeared' in the last two years.

The presidency of Uribe is deeply flawed as he continues to encourage a tourist trade for Colombia. His fumigation policies have displaced hundreds and caused long-term genetic defects (the spray that is used, Roundup, is produced by Monsanto - the lovers of GM crops) and he has overturned the constitution to allow him to serve another four year term (something the anti-Chavez brigade use as proof of Venezuela's anti-democratic tendencies). There is no doubt that Colombia is not a place that any tourist should seriously consider as a holiday destination. It is dubious both in terms of personal safety and in terms of ethics.

For more info: Amnesty International, Organic Consumers Association, Killer Coke

Is Coca-Cola Next?

After the recent change in fortunes suffered by Wal-Mart and McDonalds, is Coca-Cola the next corporation to feel the consumer backlash? Recent events certainly seem to suggest that the drinks company is in for a rocky ride over the next few months. So is the world's largest soft drinks company really about to suffer a huge backlash?

The drinks giant is facing the threat of legal action by a Nigerian lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, representing the people of Apapa. According to The Guardian, a lawsuit is planned accusing the company of:

polluting a lagoon by pumping untreated waste into the water and killing fish.

This is just one example of the movements that are growing around the globe in reaction to the methods of Coca Cola. There has been a massive move against Coca Cola in India after accusations that their products contain 27 times the maximum permitted amounts of pesticides. The state of Kerala has already banned the production and sale of Coca Cola and Pepsi following a report into the alleged pesticide content. Both Coca Cola and Pepsi have, of course, denied the accusations, but the issue refuses to go away. The trouble doesn't end there.

The corporation has also been accused of turning a blind eye to anti-union activities in their bottling plants. It is believed that one man was actually assassinated by workers who are in league with right-wing death squads. According to Forbes:

That accusation is laid out in a lawsuit filed in 2001 in U.S. court in Miami by the Colombian food-and-drink union, Sinaltrainal. Earlier this year the judge dismissed the charges against Coca-Cola Co. but allowed the suit against the bottlers to proceed. In February Luisa Fernanda Solarte, a marketing manager for Coke, was killed in a terrorist bombing.

(you can read about the lawsuit here). There have also been accusations of anti-union activity in Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Coca-Cola has also faced increased criticism for its activities in Uzbekistan. With the backing of America and Britain, President Islam Karimov has been allowed to run a tyrannical regime with no regard for human rights. The corporation has been involved in a rather unpalatable relationship with the Uzbek regime, due to a business arrangement with Karimov's daughter, Gulnora, and her estranged husband, Mansur Maqsudi. Mr Maqsudi went into business with Coca Cola in 1993, opening their first bottling plant in the region. The arrangement began to turn sour in 2001 when Mr Maqsudi's wife left him. Consequently, Karimov nationalised Maqsudi's shares and proceeded to loot millions of dollars from the company that he had set up. It has been alleged that Coca Cola worked with the Uzbek government to strip Mr Maqsudi of his share in the bottling plant. According to one of the lawyers working on the arbitration claim:

Coke did more than just stand by with arms folded, they were affirmatively working with the government of Uzbekistan.

Once again, Coca Cola deny working with Karimov, however, they face the prospect of having their reputation tainted by association with a brutal dictatorship.

As with Wal-Mart and McDonalds, the tide is turning against Coca Cola. Like all corporations their strength is also their weakness. They are so focused on the brand, that any damage to the brand could have far-reaching effects upon them (hence the rather litigious nature of most big corporations, they know their Achilles heel). Of course, noises will come from Coca Cola about working with the International Labour Organisation to 'assess its practices in Colombia', but this will be no more than an effort to protect their brand image in the ensuing onslaught.

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If you want to read more about Human Rights in Uzbekistan, visit Craig Murray's (the UK's former ambassador to Uzbekistan) site and Amnesty International. If you want more information on Coke's activities, visit Killer Coke. For further information on the links to human rights abuses, read the NUS report (pdf file)