Campaign to Stop Killer Coke Update

Join Campaign Events: Newsletter October 27, 2004

Contents of This Newsletter

1. Protest Coca-Cola on Halloween
2. Gateway Green Alliance/Universal African Peoples Organization Black & Green Wednesday. The Missouri Greens have voted to support the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke.
3. Washington Square News, "Students Can Stop 'Killer' Coke," by Jason Rowe, Oct. 21, 2004
4. The Mac Weekly Online, Coca-Cola Contract Pending Company Investigation, Says Administration, Macalester College, Minnesota
5. Report from Ray Rogers's Canadian Tour
6. The Taylor Report, Radio interview in Canada with Ray Rogers
7. Coca-Cola's Profit Falls 24% As Sales Decline
8. Campaign Leaflets Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Lincoln Center in NYC
9. Special Report: Why Does the IUF Attack SINALTRAINAL? The IUF, SINTRAINAGRO and SICO
10. National PTA and Coke
11. Call Coca-Cola and tell them to stop their worldwide abuses.

(Over the past couple of weeks, many supporters have signed on to our Newsletter list. We would like to know in which country or which region of the U.S. our supporters are from. Can you send us your name and city/state/region/country to stopkillercoke@aol.com?)

1. Protest Coca-Cola on Halloween. Join your local parade in costume.
Join the Halloween Parade in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, on Sunday, Oct. 31 at 4:00 pm. Coca-Cola is a sponsor of the 15th annual Jackson Heights Halloween Parade in Queens, New York. Members of the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke will be meeting at 3:30 pm at the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and 82th Street. The best subway stop is 82th Street on the 7 line. The parade will start at 37th Ave. and 89th Street and march down to 76th Street. We can be contacted on cell phones at: (917) 318-9712 and (917) 693-1442.

We are intending to dress as Coke paramilitaries and dead Coke workers or whatever Coke theme you would like. We will supply the blood, protest posters, as well as leaflets for distribution in both Spanish and English.

If time permits, we would like to participate in the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade at 7 pm on 6th Ave. between Spring and 23rd Street.

2. Gateway Green Alliance/Universal African Peoples Organization Black & Green Wednesday.
Campaign Director Ray Rogers will join Don Fitz of the Green Party of St. Louis and Lori Reed of the American Friends Service Committee in a forum on Wed. Nov. 3 at 7 pm at Genesis House, 6018 Delmar, St. Louis.
Read about forum
Read leaflet

The Missouri Greens voted this month to support the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke.

3. Washington Square News, "Students Can Stop 'Killer' Coke," by Jason Rowe, Oct. 21, 2004, New York University, New York City
Read article

4. The Mac Weekly Online, Coca-Cola Contract Pending Company Investigation, Says Administration, Macalester College, Minnesota
Read article

5. Report from Canadian Tour
Last week, we reported on the first three days of Campaign to Stop Killer Coke Director Ray Rogers's Canadian Tour (Newsletter of 10/20/04).

In Canada, we had Campaign activities at six universities — the University of Toronto and York College in Toronto, the University of Western Ontario in London, Guelph University, McMaster University in Hamilton and Queens University in Kingston. With the exception of York University, all the other campuses have exclusive contracts with Coca-Cola. York is a Pepsi campus. Hundreds of students, faculty and staff attended Campaign events, with standing-room-only crowds at three of the universities.

At the University of Toronto, a meeting was held with a group of campus activists to discuss the development of a Campaign to Stop Killer Coke on their campus. At York, the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean and the Centre for Research on Work and Society (CRWS) sponsored a forum where Ray Rogers and Larry Wells, Human Rights Chair of the Oakville and District Labour Council spoke. (See article by Caitlyn Vernon, Graduate Asst., CERLAC)

At all these events, two pieces of Campaign literature were distributed. One was the two-sided leaflet for campuses in the form of "An Appeal to Students, Faculty and Staff" and the other was the "Royal Bank of Canada: 'Dump Reinhard from Your Board or We'll Dump You!'"

There will be future reports from these campuses where Campaign activities will continue.

On the tour, a number of meetings were held with union and human rights leaders who were very supportive.

See photos of Tour

6. The Taylor Report, Radio interview in Canada with Campaign Director Ray Rogers Ray was interviewed by Phil Taylor, the host of The Taylor Report on CIUT at the University of Toronto.
This might require a fast connection; it might also help to open your media program, RealPlayer or Windows Media Player, etc., first.)
Listen to interview

7. "COCA-COLA'S PROFIT FALLS 24% AS SALES DECLINE"
"The Coca-Cola Company said yesterday that its third-quarter earnings fell 24 percent as higher prices hurt sales in the United States and Europe. Net income fell to $935 million, or 39 cents a share, from $1.22 billion, or 50 cents a share, a year earlier, the company said. Sales fell 0.2 percent to $5.66 billion. Ineffective advertising, price increases and a work force suffering from poor morale have hurt sales in the United States, the company's biggest market, the chief executive, E. Neville Isdell, said. Some improvements in operations and new products will not occur until 2006, he said in a conference call with investors. Coca-Cola is based in Atlanta."
(Bloomberg News) from The New York Times, 10/22/04

Does anyone see anything omitted from this report? They have blamed the decline in sales to ineffective advertising, price increases and poor morale, even bad weather, but no mention of the worldwide Campaign to Stop Killer Coke. In addition, SunTrust Banks, heavily invested in Coke, is also having financial difficulty according to the media.

In June, Fortune magazine stated: "Coke's decision not to investigate possible union-related murders at its bottlers in Colombia has become a public relations nightmare."

Bloomberg Markets stated in July, that "New Coca-Cola CEO E. Neville Isdell faces declining U.S. market share, an antitrust investigation in Europe, labor unrest in Colombia and environmental charges in India."

Poor morale? Coke Secretary Deval Patrick resigned, according to the Washington Post, because the company retracted a promise to support an independent investigation of human rights abuses in Colombia as requested by Deval when the Campaign distributed leaflets at a forum at which he was receiving an award.

Let's keep the pressure on!

8. Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Lincoln Center in NYC
Lincoln Center in New York City opened up a new jazz venue, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola. We prepared a new leaflet for the opening of the club highlighting the contradiction between jazz, a music of freedom and justice, and Coca-Cola, a drink of oppression. We distributed our leaflets to those entering the club and will return to the club again.

If you are a jazz fan and would like to distribute the leaflet with the Campaign, please contact us at stopkillercoke@aol.com or (718) 852-2808.
Read leaflet

9. Special Report: Why Does the IUF Attack SINALTRAINAL? The IUF, SINTRAINAGRO and SICO.
This report will answer questions that supporters have had regarding the refusal of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Associations (IUF) to support the Campaign.
Read report in html — pdf

10. Call National PTA to sever ties to Coca-Cola Enterprises Coke lobbyist quits PTA board of directors (from Commercial Alert's website):
Last year, Commercial Alert discovered that John H. Downs, the top lobbyist for Coca-Cola Enterprises, had obtained a seat on the board of directors of the National PTA.

In response, we launched a campaign to remove the Coke lobbyist from the National PTA board of directors, and to sever ties between the PTA and Coca-Cola Enterprises. The National PTA is the largest volunteer child advocacy organization in the United States, and it's important that they are not corrupted or controlled by Coca-Cola Enterprises.

Here's the good news: we just won the first part of our campaign. Downs, the Coke lobbyist, has left the National PTA Board of Directors.

Thanks to all of you who sent emails and made calls to the National PTA. You made a big difference.

But we're not done yet. Coca-Cola Enterprises is still a "sponsor" of the National PTA. The National PTA should sever its ties with Coke and set up a tough conflict-of-interest policy so that it never again abets corporations that harm children.

What you can do to help
Tell the National PTA that it should (1) sever its ties with Coca-Cola Enterprises, and (2) pledge never to "partner" with or accept funding from corporations that sell products that harm the health or values of children.

The National PTA's main email address is info@pta.org. Or you can call the PTA, toll free, at 800-307-4PTA.

Learn More: Commercial Alert's Web Page

11. Call Coca-Cola and tell them to stop their worldwide abuses.
You can call Coke at 1-800-GET-COKE (1-800-438-2653), talk to a real person and register your concern about Coca-Cola's behavior around the world.