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  • From: "Jocelyn Paquette" <sixdegrees@baynet.net>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Killer Coke
  • Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 07:25:28 -0400

International Labor Rights Fund Campaign to STOP KILLER COKE

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

We need your help to stop a gruesome cycle of murders, kidnappings and
torture of SINALTRAINAL (National Union of Food Industry Workers) union
leaders and organizers involved in daily life-and-death struggles at
Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia.

In July 2001, the United Steelworkers of America and the International
Labor Rights Fund www.laborrights.org) filed a lawsuit on behalf of
SINALTRAINAL, several of its members and the estate of Isidro Gil, one of
its murdered officers. The lawsuit and campaign aim to force Coca-Cola to
prevent further bloodshed and to provide safe working conditions.

Coca-Cola bottlers "contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary
security forces that utilize extreme violence and murdered, tortured,
unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders," the lawsuit
states. It also notes that Colombian troops connected with the
paramilitaries have trained at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas (SOA)
at Fort Benning, Ga., where 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.) The year that the lawsuit was filed, The Coca-Cola Co.
made $4 billion in profits and paid its CEO, Douglas
Daft, more than $105 million. Coca-Cola continues to rake in billions
each year, yet the frightening conditions at the Coke plants remain
unchanged. Labor unions and human rights advocates in the United States can
stop these atrocities at Coca-Cola's bottling plants.

www.killercoke.org





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