Campaign to Stop Killer Coke Update

Newsletter August 18, 2004

1-Republican National Convention: "Los Amigos"
Coca-Cola will be co-sponsoring an event with New York State Gov. George Pataki at the Copacabana for convention delegates at 560 W. 34th Street near 11th Avenue from 10 pm to 2 am on Wednesday, Sept. 1. Please join the Campaign at 9 pm at the Copacabana to greet the Republican delegates, Gov. Pataki and Coke representatives with our literature and protest signs.

If you can, please let us know if you will join us. Call us at 718-852-2808 or write us at stopkillercoke@aol.com.

2-Update of Coke Brands
We've moved the link to "Coke Brands" to the bottom of the home page at www.killercoke.org. In addition, we added the link to the "Responsible Shopper" which also lists a few of the hundreds of Coke brands, as well as the companies owned by Coke.

A supporter wrote us after the last newsletter to notify us that Coke had updated their list on their website. However, the old list included asterisks indicating products NOT produced by Coke, but distributed in some regions - that asterisk has been eliminated by Coke, perhaps to confuse matters. We have a link to that updated list.

In addition, the Responsible Shopper's list is not as complete as Coke's list; for example, Odwalla juices, a Coke product since Oct. 2001 is not listed.

3-O'Dwyer's PR Daily - Sidebar
We've added a sidebar that was included in O'Dwyers PR Daily's print edition. The sidebar highlighted the removal of Coke products from the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn, NY. In addition, the print version included photos taken by supporters, including the die-in at Yale and the Coke dump at Carnegie-Mellon.

4- Maximillian's Old-Style Mexican Restaurant
Joe Naughton, member of UAW Local 22 and his wife Sandra Engle, who works on in UAW's organizing dept, often frequented Maximillian's Old-Style Mexican Restaurant. They brought Coca-Cola's human rights abuses at it bottling plants in Colombia to the attention of the family-run restaurant. This resulted in the owners of the restaurant removing its Coca-Cola fountain syrup and switching to a local supplier. (James: 734-284-3991; Joe: 734-284-8178)

Those of you who live in the Detroit area or will visit, stop by the restaurant and have a delicious authentic Mexican meal and thank the proprietors for their act of conscience. They are located at 125 Elm St., Wyandette, Michigan, Phone number 734-284-3991.

5. American Federation of Teachers: Resolution on Colombia
At this year's AFT convention in July, a resolution about Colombia was passed. Below are excerpts from the resolution, which are critical of The Coca-Cola Co.:

"...take additional note of the responsibility of the international business community, particularly U.S. firms such as the Coca-Cola Company, to increase their own efforts to ensure that the workers who produce and deliver their products are treated with dignity and respect in accordance with the law, collective bargaining agreements and international treaties; and

"encourage AFT locals and individual members to participate in a letter writing campaign to the Coca-Cola Company to pressure its Colombian branch to stop its harassment of employees seeking union representation and to respect basic trade union rights..."

Resolution passed July/04