Friends, It is disgusting to note that the proposed IIMC Alumni Meet 2013 scheduled for Feb 17 in IIMC, Delhi campus has sought the sponsorship/partnership of corporates such as Coca-Cola, HCL and Iffco-Tokio, that is evident in its newly revealed logo and poster last day.
We have witnessed such attempts in the past too, one of those failed thanks to some dissenting voices, but this time it seems there is an alround consent on the name of Coca-Cola among office bearers of the association, barring a few ex-students who have registered their dissent on my facebook post last night. It is very important at this moment to recollect the crimes of Coca-Cola so as to put this dissent into larger perspective.
India
Of the 200 countries where Coca-Cola is sold, India reportedly has the fastest-growing market, but the adverse environmental impacts of its operations there have subjected The Coca-Cola Co. and its local bottlers to a firestorm of criticism and protest. There has been a growing outcry against Coca-Cola's production practices throughout India, which are draining out vast amounts of public groundwater and turning farming communities into virtual deserts. Suicide rates among Indian farmers whose livelihoods are being destroyed are growing at an alarming rate. Every day for years there has been some form of protest, from large demonstrations to small vigils, against Coca-Cola's abuses in India. One target of protest has been the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Plachimada, Kerala, which has remained shut down since March 2004 as a result of the community-led campaign in Plachimada challenging Coca-Cola's abuse of water resources.
The International Environmental Law Research Centre issued a report in 2007 that stated, in part, "The deterioration of groundwater in quality and quantity and the consequential public health problems and the destruction of the agricultural economy are the main problems identified in Plachimada. The activity of The Coca Cola Company has caused or contributed a great deal to these problems…The availability of good quality water for drinking purposes and agriculture has been affected dangerously due to the activity of the Company. Apart from that, the Company had also polluted the agricultural lands by depositing the hazardous wastes. All these points to the gross violation of the basic human rights, that is, the right to life, right to livelihood and the violation of the pollution control laws."
Columbia
Lawsuits were filed in the United States in 2001 and 2006 by the United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund on behalf of SINALTRAINAL, several of its members who were falsely imprisoned and the survivors of Isidro Gil and Adolfo de Jesus Munera, two of its murdered officers. The lawsuits charged Coca-Cola bottlers "contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that utilized extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders." The lawsuits and campaign were developed to force Coca-Cola to once and for all end further bloodshed, compensate victims and provide safe working conditions.
Guatemala
On February 25, 2010, another human rights abuse lawsuit against Coca-Cola was filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York and later moved to federal district court. "This case involves a campaign of violence – including rape, murder, and attempted murder – against trade unionists and their families at the behest of the management of Coca-Cola bottling and processing plants in Guatemala."
Turkey
In Turkey, in 2005, 105 workers at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Istanbul joined a union and were terminated. They organized a lengthy sit-down strike in front of the main offices of Coca-Cola in Turkey. After several weeks of protesting, Coca-Cola workers entered the building to demand their reinstatement. While leaders of the workers were meeting with senior management for the company, the company ordered Turkish riot police to attack the workers who were by all accounts peacefully assembled, many with their spouses and children. Nearly two hundred of them were beaten badly and many required hospitalization. Lawsuits are pending.
China
In China: Based on undercover investigations at several Coke plants, Chinese press reported in December 2008 that Coke employees are "involved in the most dangerous, intense and tiresome labor, work the longest hours, but receive the lowest wages and face arrears and even cutbacks in their pay." One investigator claimed that Coke violated Chinese labor laws and reported that workers "often worked 12 hours per day for an entire month without a single day off."
In a report, "Violence in Coca-Cola's Labor Subcontracting System in China," it was revealed:
"On the 12 August 2009, a labor dispatch company hired by Coca-Cola's designated Hangzhou-based bottling plant was discovered to have threatened two university student-workers who asked for their own and their two other fellow workers' back pay upon their resignation. Xiao Liang, 24, was beaten up by two managers at the labor dispatch company's office, resulting in serious wounds over his left eye, left hand, and right ear. Xiao Xu sent Xiao Liang to the Dongfang Hospital immediately after police arrived on the scene. Xiao Liang was later diagnosed with a ruptured eardrum, resulting in compromised hearing capacity…"
BBC News (5/21/07) reported that Coca-Cola has been accused of benefiting from prison labor in China.
Much details could be found on www.killercoke.org
In this context I would like to give a boycott call for the scheduled IIMC Alumni Meet 2013 and request others who are/have been associated with IIMC directly or indirectly whatsoever to clear their positions categorically (approve the involvement of Coca-Cola or disapprove) with respect to the involvement of Coca-Cola in this event.
More so, I would appeal to the larger journalist fraternity and IIMC faculty to disapprove of this event and endorse the boycott call.
Regards,
Abhishek Srivastava
IIMC HJ (2002-03)
