A new group on campus is trying to remove products of the
Coca-Cola Company from UCLA.
Coke Free Coalition, a coalition of students from several
student groups, demonstrated last week in opposition to having
Coca-Cola products on campus.
The group cites human rights violations by Coca-Cola involving
Colombian paramilitary fighters and alleged murders of Colombian
union organizers, among other issues.
The coalition, formed late fall quarter, includes the Student
Worker Front, MEChA, the Social Justice Alliance, the Muslim
Students Association and the Asian Pacific Coalition.
Megan Markoff, a second-year political science student and a
member of the coalition, said William Mendoza Gomez, the head of
the Sinaltrainal, the Colombian workers’ union, spoke in
January at UCLA as part of a speaking tour, and discussed his
first-hand experiences of labor abuses by Coca-Cola.
“Our objective is to make students aware of how Coca-Cola
is affiliated with murder and other kidnapping and torture
cases,” Markoff said. “Students should know that by
having Coca-Cola products on campus we’re supporting these
violations.”
Such allegations are nothing new to Coca-Cola, as colleges
across the country have taken measures to investigate the company,
and some have eliminated it from their campuses.
But Kari Bjorhus, a spokeswoman for the Coca-Cola company,
denied the allegations and said the murders have been investigated
by both the Colombian courts and the attorney general. Both found
no evidence of any Coca-Cola involvement with the crimes, she
said.
The coalition is also concerned with possible environmental
hazards Coca-Cola factories create in India.
Second-year sociology student and coalition member Lizzy Keegan
said Coca-Cola has set up factories in India that contaminate and
drain the water resources which makes it impossible for the local
farmers to grow crops.
Bjorhus said it is in the best interest of Coca-Cola to make
sure workers have access to water, adding that it did not make
sense for Coca-Cola to invest in a plant which would use up all the
ground water.
More recently, the student coalition has been talking with
Associated Students UCLA to discuss the sale of Coca-Cola products
at on-campus eateries. The group expressed its concerns at the
January ASUCLA Services Committee meeting, Markoff said.
“ASUCLA responded by saying they’d start
investigating the issue, but we’re still pushing through with
action,” Markoff said.
ASUCLA Executive Director Bob Williams said ASUCLA has formed a
group to look into researching the issue and said a decision would
be made in the near future.
Eliminating Coca-Cola products from college campuses is becoming
a nation-wide effort, Markoff said.
The University of Michigan announced Dec. 29 the temporary
suspension of its contract with Coca-Cola due to the
company’s lack of cooperation with a third party review of
Coca-Cola’s conduct.
Coca-Cola issued a statement in response to the Michigan
announcement, stating it “is facilitating the design and
development of a credible, objective and impartial independent
third party assessment in Colombia during the first quarter of
2006.”
With reports from Sara Taylor and Derek Lipkin, Bruin senior
staff.