Students campaign against Coke

Brian Farkas Assistant News Editor

Vassar student organizations, along with students and administrations from several colleges and universities across the United States, are questioning the human rights practices of the Coca-Cola Corporation. In response, they are beginning to demand the removal of the company’s products from campus.

A number of campus organizations have teamed up to address the issue, including the Vassar Green Party, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano/a de Aztlán, the Vassar Greens, and the Student Activist Union.

The coalition alleges that in the past two decades, the company has committed a number of human rights violations at its bottling and manufacturing plants around the world. In addition to child labor, racial discrimination, and avoidance of union regulations, the company’s factories have been charged with polluting the water supply in Mexico, Ghana, and India. Kick Coke, a national group addressing the situation, calls the company’s practices “one of the ugliest chapters in labor history.”

Reed Dunlea ’09, a Vassar campaign organizer, said that Coca-Cola “needs to be held responsible for its human rights violations around the world, namely the intimidation of union organizers at bottling plants in Colombia, kidnappings, public intimidation, and the attacking of union offices.” According to Kick Coke, eight Coca-Cola employees in Colombia have been killed by paramilitary groups hired by the corporation to quell the formation of unions.

Jenny Nigro ’10, another coordinator of the Vassar effort, explained that after Coca-Cola workers formed a labor union, plant managers in Colombia hired paramilitary forces to murder, beat, and torture union leaders. “These paramilitary forces are the same that the Colombian drug lords use, and they qualify as major terrorist groups,” said Nigro.

Swarthmore College’s student newspaper, The Swarthmore Phoenix, reported that all Coca-Cola products will be banned from its campus starting this spring. Student leaders there are confident that although a Coke boycott by small liberal arts colleges will not affect the company financially, the publicity that they will generate will be widespread. New York University made national news when the University Senate imposed a 12-month ban on Coca-Cola products in the fall of 2005.

“We are joining a strong and growing international movement of schools, colleges and universities who are telling Coca-Cola that their crimes will not be ignored,” said Dunlea. Campus organizations are focusing their efforts on educating the Vassar community about the alleged crimes of the company through flyers, tabling, and a possible guest lecturer. Their hope is that “students, faculty and staff will support our goal of removing all Coca-Cola products from campus.”

Nigro explained that the project is still in its beginning stages. “We are discussing methods of terminating Coca-Cola’s contract with the school. If we successfully kick Coke off campus, we are looking to replace them with either local or healthy alternatives.” The groups are currently talking to Campus Dining about the removal of the various Coca-Cola products.

Coca-Cola’s products include not only its flagship soda, but also Dasani, Fanta, Minute Maid, Nestea, Odwalla, Powerade, and Sprite. The company earns an average of $4 billion in annual profit. Most of its drinks are available at dining venues at Vassar, including The Retreat, the All-Campus Dining Center, the Kiosk, and dormitory vending machines.

The coalition’s next meeting will take place on Dec. 11. in the Student Activist Union office. The movement is being publicized through a Facebook group entitled, “Killer Coke: Vassar’s Campaign to Get Coca-Cola Off Campus.”