If a company was publicly known for human rights violations and extreme environmental degradation would you buy their product?
News flash- You already are.
Every time you buy a Coca-Cola product you are funding a company accused of hiring paramilitary groups to murder union leaders at one of their bottling plants in Columbia. As if this wasn’t enough the company is also known to cause sever water shortages in India and government tests have confirmed the dumping of toxic waste around their plants.
The Coca-Cola has been blamed for directing paramilitary organizations to murder union leaders in Columbia who were fighting for better wages, according to an article in The Nation.
The water shortages caused by one of its bottling plants in India is also widely known.
These allegations prompted the Coca-Cola company to create the website cokefacts.com which does nothing to reclaim credibility in the company but instead beats-around-the-bush with the issues by stating that only 4% of Columbian workers are unionized (what a shock!) and promising to restore water sources.
During the past couple of years this issue has been the focus of student activist across the nation, prompting several college campuses to terminate their contracts with Coca-Cola. Approximately forty college campuses since 2005 have ended their contracts with Coca-Cola including New York University, Rutgers University, and Swarthmore College. And many more are in the process of removing all Coca-Cola products from their campuses, according to an article in Time magazine.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are being threatened by this corporation and it’s up students to stand up for what is right.
Are we merely another guinea pig running the wheel for corporations or are we something more?, maybe humans with basic rights.
In 2001 Douglas Daft, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola, made $105 million while the murdered union leaders were fighting to keep their salary of $360 a month.
It’s up to you who you want to support.
