August 7, 2006

For more information, contact
Pat Clark or Ray Rogers at (718) 852-2808

"I hope the next governor of my home state will be a credible leader who is strongly committed to the public interest, rather than selfish corporate interests," said long-time labor and human rights advocate Ray Rogers. "By those standards, Deval Patrick is completely disqualified."

Rogers, whom Business Week recently described as a "legendary union activist," is a Beverly, Mass. native who graduated from UMass-Amherst and later founded Corporate Campaign, Inc. He is the director of the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke, launched in 2003 in response to Coca-Cola's collaboration with Colombian paramilitaries who have kidnapped, tortured and even murdered union leaders and workers.

As a top policymaker and consultant for Coke from 2001 to 2005, Democratic gubernatorial wannabe Deval Patrick "represented multinational corporate misconduct at its worst," according to Rogers.

Massachusetts' prospective primary voters will soon be hearing a lot more about Patrick's unfitness to be governor as workers, students and environmental activists bring their bodies, banners and thousands of leaflets (Read leaflet)to events all over the state. Additional updates and extensive background information on Patrick's record are available online at www.killercoke.org/devalpatrickexposed.htm.

"No one who served as a top executive of Coca-Cola or the big oil companies like Texaco (where Patrick was general counsel from 1999 to 2001) should ever hold a position of public trust such as governor," Rogers said. "Patrick made millions in salary, bonuses and stock options at Coke while downsized and laid-off workers here and abroad struggled to survive. He tolerated and defended Coke's vicious, union-bashing conduct in Colombia and ignored the severe environmental damage Coke inflicts on the people of India by exploiting and polluting their water resources. All the while, he pocketed plenty of the ill-gotten profits that came from Coke's aggressive marketing of unhealthy soft drinks to schoolchildren.

"There can be no question about Deval Patrick's allegiances," Rogers said. "No matter how much spin control is applied, you can't turn Coca-Cola's collaborator and Big Oil's bagman into the people's choice."