Killer Coke
A Never-ending Story of Exploitation, Greed, Lies, Cover-ups and Complicity in Kidnapping, Torture, Murder and other Gross Human Rights Abuses

Stop Bush & Stop the War; Boycott SunTrust Banks & Ban Coke Products


The Campaign to Stop Killer Coke/Corporate Campaign, Inc. is calling on anti-Bush and anti-war supporters and leaders of the Stop Bush/Anti-War Movement to aggressively support and promote a boycott of SunTrust Banks, and the removal of Coke machines, advertising and all Coke products from school campuses, labor unions, government facilities and other venues. SunTrust, one of the largest commercial banking operations in the U.S., and The Coca-Cola Co. are so intertwined through directorate interlocks, stockholdings and credit relationships that it is hard to recognize them as separate entities.

SunTrust, The Coca-Cola Co., and its largest bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises, all headquartered in Atlanta, are all major backers of Bush foreign policies. Top executives and most board members of all three companies have been heavy contributors to Bush, the Republican National Committee and the hawks in Congress.

Patricia Frist, an ardent Bush backer and sister-in-law of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, sits on SunTrust's board of directors along with Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO E. Neville Isdell and SunTrust Chairman and CEO Phillip Humann. Humann also sits on the board of Coca-Cola Enterprises.

Other than Coca-Cola, SunTrust's largest investments include major military contractors and oil companies profiting from the war such as ExxonMobil, Chevron (which shares a director with Coca-Cola), General Electric, Honeywell International, Raytheon, United Technologies, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Boeing.

SunTrust Banks is the primary mortgage holder on Deval Patrick's principal residence in Milton, and was also the primary creditor for Patrick on property he owned in Atlanta, Georgia until the mortgage on that property was terminated on May 19, 2006 according to Patrick's disclosure filings with the Massachusetts Ethics Commission.

The following list of director interlocks and SunTrust portfolio investments shows some of the connections between SunTrust Banks, Coca-Cola and the war profiteers:


E. Neville Isdell
Coca-Cola Co.
Chairman & CEO;
SunTrust Director

Phillip Humann
SunTrust Banks
Chairman & CEO;
Coca-Cola Enterprises Director

Douglas Ivestor
Coca-Cola Co.
Former CEO;
SunTrust Director

James Williams
SunTrust Banks
Former CEO;
Coca-Cola Co. Director
Company # of Shares Value
Coca-Cola Co. 103,509,205 $4,507,825,878
SunTrust Banks 13,324,172 $1,044,481,843
ExxonMobil 15,352,447 $991,921,601
General Electric 26,204,272 $850,590,669
Chevron 4,604,395 $301,818,092
Wal-Mart Stores 4,782,472 $206,459,316
Honeywell International 4,668,387 $175,251,248
Raytheon 3,895,836 $169,858,450
Altria 2,103,655 $163,117,409
United Technologies 2,595,024 $152,795,013
Lockheed Martin 1,831,951 $136,553,628
Coca-Cola Enterprises 4,386,171 $92,285,038
General Dynamics 1,133,396 $77,467,617
Boeing Co. 431,798 $34,185,448

As a major partner of, and investor with, Wal-Mart, SunTrust is opening scores of bank branches in Wal-Mart Stores, and holds more than $200 million in Wal-Mart's stock. Former Coca-Cola Chairman & CEO and SunTrust director Douglas Daft sits on Wal-Mart's board of directors. Among corporations with consumer brands, the giant tobacco company, Altria (formerly Philip Morris), made the largest donations to the Republican Party during the 2000, 2002 and 2004 election cycles, according to Ethical Consumer magazine. Wal-Mart, Chevron and ExxonMobil were also among the top 15 consumer brand companies contributing to the Republican Party.

Support the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke

Since 2003, the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke has built an extensive worldwide network of organizations and individuals aimed at holding Coca-Cola and its bottlers accountable for widespread labor, human rights and environmental abuses. A major focus of the Campaign is to stop the violence, including kidnapping, torture and murder, directed at union leaders at Coke's bottling plants in Colombia.

There has been widespread international media coverage of colleges, universities, labor unions and others that have removed and banned the sale of Coca-Cola products from their facilities and functions (www.KillerCoke.org). Labor unions and their members, which also have billions of dollars on deposit and managed by SunTrust, are starting to use their economic leverage with the bank.

In July 2001, the International Labor Rights Fund and the United Steelworkers filed a lawsuit on behalf of SINALTRAINAL (the main Colombian union representing Coke workers), several of its members and the survivors of Isidro Gil, one of its murdered officers. The lawsuit charges that Coca-Cola bottlers "contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that utilized extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders."

In June 2006, a similar lawsuit was filed against Coca-Cola and its largest Colombian bottler, Coca-Cola FEMSA, in connection with the murder of another SINALTRAINAL leader and Coca-Cola worker, Adolfo de Jesus Munera. It charges that managers at the Coke bottling plant in Barranquilla, Colombia, conspired with both the Colombian Administrative Department of Security ("DAS") and the AUC paramilitaries to intimidate, threaten and ultimately kill Munera. The Complaint further alleges that, despite a number of warnings to Coca-Cola management in Atlanta, that the management at the Barranquilla bottler has continued to meet with and provide plant access to paramilitaries. The paramilitary infiltration of this bottling plant continues unabated to this day. Meanwhile, these same paramilitaries have continued to threaten SINALTRAINAL members and leaders with death and even kidnapped the child of one SINALTRAINAL leader to pressure his father into refraining from his union activities.

These allegations come at a time when the DAS in Colombia has come under fire for collaborating with paramilitary forces. In particular, credible allegations have surfaced recently that the DAS, which has responsibility to protect trade unionists under threat has actually been creating and maintaining hit lists of trade union leaders and providing these lists to the paramilitaries to act upon.

Terry Collingsworth, executive director of the International Labor Rights Fund, said: "This new Complaint underscores the need for The Coca-Cola Company to spend more of its effort and resources in protecting the lives and well-being of its workers in Colombia in lieu of focusing on its public relations campaign to deflect the allegations of abuse being leveled against it."

The 2001 lawsuit against Coca-Cola and its bottlers in Colombia, which is still languishing in federal court, describes how Colombian troops connected with the paramilitaries were trained at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Georgia. Trainees were encouraged to torture and murder those who do "union organizing and recruiting," pass out "propaganda in favor of workers;" and "sympathize with demonstrators or strikes." This was made public when the Pentagon was forced to reveal the contents of training manuals used at the school. (For more information, see www.soaw.org, the website of SOA Watch.)

According to United Steelworkers Associate General Counsel Daniel Kovalik, "The continued assassination of trade unionists in Colombia with the complicity of the Colombian DAS and military, as well as corporate interests, calls into grave question the propriety of the U.S.'s continued commitment to aid for the Colombian military forces."

Peace & Justice,

Ray Rogers
Director
Campaign to Stop Killer Coke/Corporate Campaign, Inc.
(718) 852-2808
www.KillerCoke.org
info@KillerCoke.org
www.corporatecampaign.org