22nd July 2003, International Day of Action, and Boycott Launch

As you are hopefully aware, the World Social Forum has declared the 22nd
July, as the International Day of Action against Coca Cola, and the
start of a boycott of all its products. These actions are in solidarity
with SINALTRAINAL, the Colombian Food and Drinks Workers Union.
SINALTRAINAL have suffered the assassination of 8 union leaders, killed
by paramilitaries financed by Coca Cola management, as well as the
disappearance, arbitrary detention, torture, kidnap and sacking of
hundreds more of their workers at Coca Cola bottling plants throughout
Colombia.

In a court case in the USA, brought by the United Steelworkers Union, in
solidarity with SINALTRAINAL, a judge has ruled that Coca
Cola's bottlers have a case to answer, but the multinational refuses to
cooperate with the union, and continues its policy of repression. In a
similar case in Guatemala during the 80s, Coca Cola stood by and watched
as union members within their bottling plants were assassinated by death
squads. Coca Cola only acted to protect the lives of their workers when
pressured into it by a consumer boycott.

For this reason, we are asking you to participate in this boycott, to
throw the Coke machine out of your school, college or workplace, to
organise in your area, and to demand that Coca Cola be answerable for
the heinous abuses of their workers in Colombia. Join us for the
International Day of Action at 6pm in Piccadilly Circus, London, or
organise an event in your area. Help make the day as truly international
as Coca Cola's corporate abuses, help out in activities planned for all
over the world!

If you need help, materials, information or speakers, contact the
Colombia Solidarity Campaign, PO Box 8446, London N17 6NZ tel : 07932
034477: Email: colombia_sc@hotmail.com website:
www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk <http://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk>

Message from SINALTRAINAL, Colombia:

INTERNATIONAL CONSUMER CAMPAIGN AGAINST COCA-COLA

This consumer campaign is one of the international actions approved at
all three sessions of the Public Tribunal (Audiencia Pública Popular),
therefore it is necessary to clearly establish the operating guidelines
of the campaign.

The consumer campaign is a method of pressure and constant, sustained
denouncement against the policies of the transnational corporation
Coca-cola in the world, so that they integrally repair the damages that
they have caused, modify their policies, and commit to respect the human
rights of both their workers and the population as a whole.

Our struggle is for peace with social justice and for the wellbeing of
all peoples, for this we embrace the anti-war struggle, we contribute to
the construction of the movement against capitalist globalization, we
participate in the struggle against the FTAA, and we share in the
initiatives taken by the Continental Social Alliance, the World Social
Forum, and all others that are allowing the people to strive for
happiness, sovereignty, and freedom.

The struggle against capitalist globalization is a struggle against the
policies of the transnational corporations; the initiative that we are
raising from different parts of the world against the transnational
Coca-cola is part of that fight against war and for the wellbeing of all
peoples.

The social organizations, the human rights groups, the religious
communities, and the activists who participated in the three sessions of
the "SINALTRAINAL Clama Justicia - Héctor Daniel Useche Beron" Public
Tribunal Against Impunity have announced an international consumer
campaign against Coca-cola, for the following reasons, among others:

* For the violation of the human rights of its workers and of its
community members.
* For the benefits they obtain from the assassination, imprisonment,
displacement, kidnapping, threatening, and firing of union leaders
in Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil, the United States,
Venezuela, Palestine, Turkey, Iran, as well as in other parts of
the world.
* For the contamination of water sources by pollution from its
bottling plants.
* For racial discrimination against the Black community and against
people with AIDS in Africa and the United States.
* For the utilization of coca in its products and for their support
of the criminal policies of the United States against the
indigenous communities, especially in Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia,
who have traditionally preserved their culture and made their
subsistence in the growing of coca leaf.
* For the irrational use of water in the world and for their
criminal robbery of water sources to the detriment of communities
in India.
* For supporting the criminal oligarchy of Venezuela, which is a
threat to the government and political project of the sister
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and for their historic
intervention in the internal affairs of the Venezuelan people.

The consumer campaign will begin as of July 22, 2003 and will have, in
its initial phase, a duration of one year. The Second World Social Forum
declared July 22 the International Day Against Coca-cola.

The consumer campaign does not solely consist of NOT CONSUMING THE
PRODUCTS OF THE TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION COCA-COLA, but is also a
permanent and sustained campaign of denouncement, organization, and
struggle against the policies of the company.

In order to make this declared consumer campaign a reality, we will
follow the international plan of action listed below:

* We delivered to Coca-cola a proposal for reparations on February
11, 2003, accompanied by the signatures of the participants and
the political declaration of the three sessions of the Public
Tribunal. We are currently waiting for the company to propose a
meeting with SINALTRAINAL in order to achieve an agreement which
will deal with the facts that we have denounced.
* On July 22, 2003, we will organize press conferences in Rome,
Chicago, and Bogotá, where we will announce to the world the
initiation of the consumer campaign. We ask our supporters who may
be able to get the attention of the press to do so as well on the
same day.
* On Tuesday, July 22, 2003, we aim to organize pickets, meetings,
and protests, in each one of the cities in which Coca-cola has
factories. At each of the entrances should be a an area in which
the campaign materials can be distributed. We also suggest that
galleries of remembrance should be constructed in different cities.
* We aim to edit a video that shows the experiences of the three
sessions of the Public Tribunal, the violations that we are
denouncing, and the actions of the consumer campaign. This video
should be shown and distributed in public spaces, schools,
universities, and other places which may be open to the campaign.
* We aim to create a petition in support of the consumer campaign,
and start a worldwide collection of signatures, which should then
be sent from each coordinating country to the global headquarters
of Coca-cola in Atlanta.
* We aim to create a postcard with the text of the above-mentioned
petition and with five reasons why we are conducting this consumer
campaign which can then be sent to the global headquarters of
Coca-cola in Atlanta.
* We aim to start an educational campaign to show why Coca-cola
products should be taken out of union offices, community centres,
universities, schools, sports clubs, and other spaces where there
is interest in the consumer campaign.
* The campaign should make a thorough review of all Coca-cola
products and the companies in the Morgan Group (Monsanto, Phillip
Morris, and Citibank) along with the attacks that these companies
have made against communities all over the world, in order to
bring together the 15 international cases.
* All of the materials of the campaign should clearly allude to the
problems of capitalist globalization and specifically to the
reality of the Colombian experience.
* We will create five slogans and five logos that will identify the
international campaign. Afterwards, we will send them to the
European Network so that they can make their suggestions and then
make them official all over the world.
* We will urgently pursue contacts with the organizers coordinating
the campaigns against Coca-cola in Venezuela, Turkey, Iran, along
with any other country involved in this effort.
* We will create a media outreach strategy for the launch and the
duration of the international campaign. It is important to send
materials and requests for assistance to alternative media outlets
in the countries that we have visited.
* In Colombia, we should seek out all the alternative outlets,
politicians, congresses, etc., where we can share our initiatives
and secure resolutions and endorsements in support of the campaign.
* In each one of the countries or cities where the campaign is being
organized, we should organize meetings with Coca-cola workers,
with activists, unions, and other organizations that have
relations with them, in order to educate them about the campaign.
In the same way, we should also lobby celebrities, institutions,
governments, political organizations, religious communities, and
human rights groups to ask them to support the campaign. One of
the problems that we may encounter could be the permissive
attitude of the IUF (International Union of Foodworkers) towards
Coca-cola, but this could also be a way of confronting the
offensive this union organization has taken against SINALTRAINAL
and the groups that support it.
* We aim to centralize all of Coca-cola's worldwide email addresses,
sho that we can flood them with messages and images of the
aggressions committed at the bottling plants of this transnational
company.
* At different sporting and cultural events that Coca-cola sponsors,
we aim to make our presence shown with the official posters and
materials of the campaign. We can also collect petition signatures
at these events.
* During the duration of the campaign, all of Coca-cola's delivery
trucks should carry a black stripe and all of the union offices
should hang the official campaign poster and a flag at half-mast.
* We aim to organize conferences and workshops in which we can
discuss the reasons behind this consumer campaign and why people
should not consume Coca-cola products.
* It is necessary to familiarize ourselves with consumer campaigns
against other transnationals, and then share our experiences and
successes. We should seek out the campaigns against Danone, Shell,
Nike, Nestlé, Coca-cola, and especially the Palestinian campaign
against American and Israeli transnational corporations, as well
as the campaign launched in Venezuela from the Coletivo Aureliano
Buendía.
* We aim to massively distribute the proposal for reparations so
that the people are clear about the objectives of the campaign.
* We aim to create: t-shirts; banners and posters to be distributed
all over the country; SINALTRAINAL banners to use at protests;
buttons; stickers; cassettes that can be played in public transit
systems; flyers; graffiti on Coca-cola's buildings; materials
about the campaign placed on Coca-cola bottles, vending machines,
advertisements, and vehicles; and CDs of Colombian and Latin
American protest music.
* All these materials should be in the appropriate languages.
* We aim to create coordinating committees in the different cities
supporting the campaign in order to guarantee its success.
* We aim to create a website, which will be permanently updated with
information about the initiatives launched against Coca-cola and
other transnational corporations.
* It is urgent that we start an intensive international campaign to
secure funding in order to guarantee the development of this plan
of action; we ask the organizations and individuals who support us
for their immediate economic support.

25th June 2003