IBARW...Coco Cola: Drinking death and destruction of POC

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INDIA

Always Coca-Cola - India (VIDEO)

June 2006
As a principal sponsor of FIFA, Coca-Cola is keen to trade in on the World Cup's image of fair play and good sportsmanship. But many believe its business practices make a mockery of this reputation.

For thirsty fans at the World Cup, there's only one choice of soft drink available. Whether it's Coke, Sprite or Bonaqua, all the brands on sale belong to coca-cola. Many of theses drinks are produced in India, where Coca-Cola's business practices have elicited widespread condemnation. "The coca cola factory ruined my life," despairs one farmer. Producing 0.33L of coke requires 1L of water. In some villages near cola factories, water levels have dropped by 60m. Harvests have fallen by more than 40% because there is not enough water to irrigate fields. But Coca-Cola denies all responsibility. "We are not the problem", states spokesman Rajiv Singh. "There are simply too many people living here who are wasteful with water." Coca-cola also stands accused of pollution and union busting. Many workers in their factories receive around 50 cents for a 12 hour shift. They have no unions and sometimes receive no compensation for injuries sustained. As Bhagwab Das Yadav states: "All we want is for coca cola to respect India's labour laws

From India resource.org

Campaign to Hold Coca-Cola Accountable

Coca-Cola Crisis in India

Communities across India are under assault from Coca-Cola practices in the country. A pattern has emerged as a result of Coca-Cola's bottling operations in India.

• Communities across India living around Coca-Cola's bottling plants are experiencing severe water shortages, directly as a result of Coca-Cola's massive extraction of water from the common groundwater resource. The wells have run dry and the hand water pumps do not work any more. Studies, including one by the Central Ground Water Board in India, have confirmed the significant depletion of the water table.
• When the water is extracted from the common groundwater resource by digging deeper, the water smells and tastes strange. Coca-Cola has been indiscriminately discharging its waste water into the fields around its plant and sometimes into rivers, including the Ganges, in the area. The result has been that the groundwater has been polluted as well as the soil. Public health authorities have posted signs around wells and hand pumps advising the community that the water is unfit for human consumption.
• In two communities, Plachimada and Mehdiganj, Coca-Cola was distributing its solid waste to farmers in the area as "fertilizer". Tests conducted by the BBC found cadmium and lead in the waste, effectively making the waste toxic waste. Coca-Cola stopped the practice of distributing its toxic waste only when ordered to do so by the state government.
• Tests conducted by a variety of agencies, including the government of India, confirmed that Coca-Cola products contained high levels of pesticides, and as a result, the Parliament of India has banned the sale of Coca-Cola in its cafeteria. However, Coca-Cola not only continues to sell drinks laced with poisons in India (that could never be sold in the US and EU), it is also introducing new products in the Indian market. And as if selling drinks with DDT and other pesticides to Indians was not enough, one of Coca-Cola's latest bottling facilities to open in India, in Ballia, is located in an area with a severe contamination of arsenic in its groundwater.

MORE

Coca-Cola Destroys Indian Villages, Despite Warning by Coca-Cola Study

San Francisco: As the summer of 2009 approaches, the village of Kala Dera in north India is bracing itself for yet another season of acute water shortages - thanks largely to Coca-Cola.

As it is, accessing water is a daunting task for the villagers of Kala Dera. Kala Dera is located in the desert state of Rajasthan - one of the driest parts of India. Kala Dera has experienced eight years of drought in the last twenty five years!

In 1998, the Central Ground Water Board, a government agency, classified the groundwater in Kala Dera as overexploited - declaring that the existing demands on the groundwater were not sustainable.

Yet two years later, in the year 2000, Coca-Cola started its bottling plant in Kala Dera.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened next.

Groundwater levels dropped dramatically, and wells ran dry, farmers did not have enough water to have successful crop yields, and women now had to walk miles longer just to access potable water. Over 60 villages in the vicinity of the Coca-Cola bottling plant felt the dramatic impacts once Coca-Cola started its operations in Kala Dera.

According to government figures, the water tables in Kala Dera fell nearly 10 meters in just the first five years of Coca-Cola's operations!

And to add insult to injury, Coca-Cola extracts the vast majority of the water in the summer months - exactly when the water shortages are the most acute for the villagers, even without Coca-Cola. MORE

Belching Out the Devil: Global Adventures with Coca-Cola

Right to Water National Conference and Protest Against Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola Continues Environmental Abuses in India:Community Demands Immediate Shut Down and Investigation

So I was looking at Samar Magazine, and I clicked some links and got to GHADAR which is an online magazine for inquilabi leftists. I basically just linked all their articles on the environment below...

Bottling Livelihoods AKA Fuck Coca Cola

Adivasi Groups Vs. Coca-Cola :This article marks significant turning points in the 3 year struggle against Coca- Cola’s environmental record. Listing the events, the author then goes on to ask what solutions can be made available given that the state appears to have divested itself of all autonomy in the face of multi-national capital.

Arrogance and Impunity - Coca-Cola in India pepsi isn't any better

Dump Coca-Cola:Despite Coca-Cola's devastating record on human rights and the environment, it is business as usual for universities lured by contract funding.

Ladenge, Jeetenge! (Indefinite protest against Coca-Cola

COLOMBIA


A look at Coke around globe:‘Devil’ takes readers on worldwide journey.Author chronicles how PR powerhouse ignores victims of its practices.

Thomas’ journey begins here in Atlanta at the World of Coca-Cola with an overview of the company’s carefully managed image and a peek at its net worth: $65 billion, all of it from sales of “brown fizzy sugar water.”

Next, he moves behind the scenes to interview workers from the bottling plants in Colombia, where they said fair wages, health benefits and job security were once the norm under the trade union Sinaltrainal.

What Thomas discovers is shocking: According to workers and human rights organizations, Sinaltrainal, after more than a decade of union-busting attacks and intimidation by paramilitaries allegedly hired by the Coca-Cola plants, is struggling to survive.

Eight leaders and organizers were killed between 1994 and 2002; union membership has dwindled from thousands to a few hundred; and the surviving union leaders have fled the country.

When asked to look into these human rights allegations, the Coca-Cola Co. denied accountability, claiming that the franchised bottlers were neither owned nor operated by Coke —- and, therefore, not under its jurisdiction.

However, the fact that Coke owns shares of the plants, and continues to license the production, provides the syrup, dictates the type of bottles, cans, processes, advertising and promotions used by the bottlers tells a different story. Thomas asserts: “If it’s your name on the label, then you’re responsible for sorting it out.”MORE

Colombia Continues Assault of Trade Unionists With U.S. Assistance (and our fav company is right in the middle of it

Colombia :The Coco Cola Controversy; Soft Drink Company accused of complicity in murder of union leaders Frontline investigation with video.

Killer Coke Scroll down for articles.

Coca-Cola boycott launched after killings at Colombian plants

Colombia's agony, Coca-Cola's responsibility, Americans' solidarity

Its teh real thing: Murder

The Coca-Cola Killings: Is Plan Colombia Funding a Bloodbath of Union Activists?

Sinaltrainal v. Coca-Cola Wikipedia entry

THE COCA-COLA CASE Video Trailer

The truth that refreshes'

In this feature length documentary, directors German Gutiérrez and Carmen Garcia present a searing indictment of the Coca-Cola empire and its alleged kidnapping, torture and murder of union leaders trying to improve working conditions in Colombia, Guatemala and Turkey.

The filmmakers follow labour rights lawyers Daniel Kovalik and Terry Collingsworth and an activist for the 'Stop Killer-Coke!' campaign (http://www.killercoke.org), Ray Rogers, as they attempt to hold the giant U.S. multinational beverage company accountable in this legal and human rights battle.

GUATEMALA


The Image and Politics of Coca-Cola:From the Early Years to the Present (Excerpts)

Coca Cola and Guatemala Wiki entry
 

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_yggdrasil/]

What do you read every day? I'm constantly in awe of all the quality stories you find that mainstream media totally forgets about.

[doktor-x.livejournal.com]

And on top of all that, the finished product is completely toxic to the human body!

[color-blue.livejournal.com]

This post is amazing (and you are even more so!) I'd heard a lot of anecdotes re: what Coke was doing in India, but had not gotten around to researching it, so I'm really glad that you compiled these links. I keep trying to decide which MNC I hate the most - Monsanto or Cargill or Walmart or one of the big oil companies or one of the commercial banks or ibanks or etc - and I have realized that it was very remiss of me not to have included Coke on the list!