On July 19, the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke joined the rest of the Make TIAA-CREF Ethical coalition in a protest outside and inside the TIAA-CREF annual shareholders' meeting held at TIAA-CREF offices in New York City

"Taking a cue from the anti-apartheid campaigns of the 1980s, activist staged a small rally outside TIAA-CREF Midtown office yesterday to change the pension powerhouse's investment practices.

"The protesters — which numbered about 20 and included human rights and environmental advocates — want the $340 billion pension management company to divest from what they called socially irresponsible companies.

"Nike, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola and Philip Morris/Altria and other international companies were cited by the protesters. They accuse the companies as employing practices such as using sweatshop labor.

"'They need to divest from corporations involved in human rights violations and in public health, community, and environmental degradation,' said Neil Wollman, a psychology professor at Manchester College and critic of TIAA-CREF.

"Stephanie Cohen Glass, a TIAA-CREF spokeswoman, told amNew York that her company has had a long-running dialogue with Wollman and other protest groups.

"'We have 3.2 million investor participants within TIAA-CREF and we have a fiduciary obligation to make investments in their best interest,' she said.

"She added that TIAA-CREF has a $7 billion account for people who share the protestors concerns. That account screens out Wal-Mart, Altria and Unocal, she said."

(Editor's Note:)Ms. Glass failed to include Coca-Cola in that list of screened companies since the Social Fund does include Coca-Cola stock in addition to the Coke stock held in their other accounts.

In addition to Neil Wollman, TIAA-CREF members, health, labor and human rights advocates spoke. Campaign to Stop Killer Coke Director Ray Rogers stated: "I do not believe that TIAA-CREF participants want to accept responsibility for the terrible harm done by a company like Coca-Cola - a company that is complicit in gross labor and human rights abuses including kidnapping, torture and murder of union leaders at its bottling plants in Colombia; a company that gives a handful of executives hundreds of millions in bonuses and stock options while simultaneously lays off thousands of employees, a company that engages in all sorts of fraudulent, illegal and unethical business practices, and that degrades the environment and seriously undermines the health and well-being of children worldwide.

"Will the trustees immediately act to remove Coca-Cola from CREF's Social Choice Account? The company by any stretch of the imagination doesn't belong there.

"Will the trustees use TIAA-CREF's hundreds of millions invested in Coke stock as a club to force Coca-Cola to clean up its act or else remove Coca-Cola from its portfolio of investments."

(Read Ray Rogers' entire statement)

Fern Gale Estrow, a certified nutritionist representing the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), a national coalition that counters the harmful effects of marketing to children said:

"Obesity rates have risen in tandem with a startling increase in soft drink consumption. The chance that a child will be overweight increases with each daily serving of sugared soft drinks they consume. There is a growing consensus that soft drinks are contributing to health problems for children, which is why the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Word Health Organization, and others in the public health community have called for restrictions on soft drink marketing.

And yet, as the epidemic of childhood obesity worsens, Coca-Cola is spending more money and finding new ways to market products to children in the hopes of developing lifetime brand loyalty. Coca-Cola's guidelines for marketing to children state, "The Coca-Cola Company and its local bottling partners do not aim or direct any marketing activity from any source to children under the age of 12, but a quick glance at some of Coke's marketing practices demonstrates this claim simply is not true. There are Coke toys such as checker sets and cars that are designed to introduce kids as young as two to the Coca-Cola brand. Coke's product placement is ubiquitous on American Idol, the top-rated show for children ages 2-11. Coke's sponsorship of films such as the Harry Potter movies is clearly designed to reach young children.

"And Coca-Cola markets aggressively to children in schools. In 2003, in response to growing concern about he presence of soft drinks in schools, Coca-Cola announced its so-called Model Guidelines for School Beverage Partnerships. These self-serving guidelines do nothing to restrict soda sales to middle and high school students. They also permit the marketing of sugar-laden "sports drinks" to younger children. The guidelines even permit the use of the Coca-Cola logo on materials promoting health and nutrition education.

"Across the country, advocates for children and public health have fought for legislation that would remove soda from our nation's schools. But time and time again - in states such as Oregon, Kentucky and most recently Connecticut - these efforts have been undermined by Coca-Cola intense lobbying efforts

"A company that actively lobbies against policies that would combat childhood obesity is not a social choice. A company that aggressively markets empty calories to children is not a social choice. It is time for TIAA-CREF to offer a real Social Choice to its investors by offering funds that do not include Coca-Cola.

(Read Fern Gale Estrow's entire statement)

Sam Hirsch, Chair Emeritus of the New York City Labor-Religion Coalition, asked TIAA-CREF to take into consideration concerns raised in a recent television interview with NYC Comptroller William Thompson. Thompson worried that a growing worldwide opposition to Coke's refusal to adequately address allegations of human rights abuses against workers in Colombia could adversely affect the value of the hundreds of millions of dollars New York City pension funds have invested in Coca-Cola stock.

Brooklyn College professor Nancy Romer who is a Senior College officer of the Professional Staff Congress, City University of New York, and a TIAA-CREF participant, suggested that investing in companies such as Coca-Cola, which is seen internationally as anti-labor and anti-environment, might be a poor long-term investment. Since Coke is seen internationally as an example of the ugly side of America, such companies would ultimately create a negative business environment for all American-based businesses and thus create major problems for our economy both now and down the road.

The long-term health of the US economy translates into more pro-social jobs such as those in education, health, social services, all areas in which most TIAA-CREF participants are employed and who contribute to the fund.

Romer also questioned the wisdom of short term investment in a socially irresponsible company such as Coke whose stocks are falling and, with such a large international boycott, especially strong in labor unions and on college campuses, those stocks are sure to fall further.

Certainly, the Coca-Cola issue brought up at the TIAA-CREF shareholders meeting raised serious questions about CREF's Social Choice account and its research provider, KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. KLD describes itself as "the leading provider of social research for institutional investors. It claims to have the largest corporate social research staff in the world. Based on KLD's research, Coca-Cola is considered a socially-responsible company and is included in CREF's Social Choice account. One has to wonder how a company like Coca-Cola can be included in any Social Choice fund which leads one to question what kind of research is being done by KLD.

Perhaps you might want to contact TIAA-CREF at (800) 842-2776 or (212) 916-4000/fill out email form to TIAA-CREF and KLD at (617) 426-5270/KLD's email to ask these questions.