(no subject)

[violachic]

I'm feeling enough better that I'm bored. I don't feel well enough to try to take a shower yet, and I don't have the attention span to read a book. I'm too awake to lie down. So now you all have to suffer my wrath, and endure my postings.

But I wanted to share with you all about my guilt over consuming Coca-Cola products. At CPT, organizational-wise, we try to encourage a boycott of Coca-Cola, and its products. Because of our work in Colombia, we tend to be very sensitive about the issue.

Killer Coke is the most definitive website out there regarding this issue. Basically, the workers at the plant keep trying to organize, and when they do, they turn up dead. Pretty much across the board. The deaths have been linked to paramilitary involvement (Colombia has three different major armed groups- the regular state military, paramilitaries, and guerilla groups- who erratically work with and against each other, and all working against your average Colombian citizen) in regards to the plant management. The Coca-Cola corporation could easily step in to prevent this, but they don't. Of course, most corporations discourage unionizing- it isn't in their interest, financially. Ethical corporations (often an oxymoronic phrase), however, don't go so far as to allow their union organizers to be killed in order to prevent this.

So, yeah, I definitely have strong feelings about this.

However, I have mixed feelings about boycotts. Part of me says "Oh, what can one person's stopping consuming (hey look, its a gerund!) a product do to make a difference? How can it matter?" But of course, history is full of instances where boycotts do make a difference. The instance I'm sure most of us think of first in regards to boycotts is the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott that was sparked when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white passenger on her way home from work one day. Her arrest and trial for this "crime" was a crucial turning point in the march towards Civil Rights (I say "towards" because we are obviously not there yet). The other one that comes to my mind, that may not be nearly as recognizable, was the boycott on Nestle products in the late 70s and 80s. I know about this because in my household, we actively did boycott Nestle products, and my sister and I were quite young when my mother explained to us why. It was one of our first lessons in social justice. While boycott coordinators are still fighting with Nestle to become an ethical corporation, the boycott brought enough attention to eventually stop them from fucking* over women and children in Third World countries (now called, charmingly, "underdeveloped" nations) with its baby formula scandal.

The other thing that gave me more of a mixed feeling was what I discovered in Israel/Palestine. There, RC- which is what we usually drink at the office instead odf Coke- is an Israeli company, while the Coca-Cola plant is in Palestine, employing Palestinians. Boycotting Coke products there means taking away from the very economy whose infrastructure we are there to support. Also, as far as I'm aware, there is no union organizing issues at that plant. There may be no union, which is why there is no union organizing issues. They may not want or need a union. I should probably look into that further before I go back to the country. I also would like to see if I can track down some Mecca Cola, but in my two trips over there so far, I haven't run across it.

At any rate, I feel like I should technically be not consuming Coke products. I am horrified enough at what is happening in Colombia that I feel a boycott is necessary. Its really easy to forget, though, and especially now, when Coke is something that I know can help me through nausea stuff, its hard to put it down. Also, I've not historically liked Coke. It always had a weird aftertaste for me. But there is something, probably due to meds, that has changed my taste, and it actually tastes good now. I guess I have to make a decision and stick with it.

If anyone else is interested, if this moves you, a list of all Coca-Cola brands can be found here. Unfortunately, Coke also makes Mr. Pibb, my all-time favorite soda (now that SoBe apparently doesn't make Mr. Green anymore), and Minute Maid juices. An Alternative Beverage list can be found here.


Again- feedback?

(Damn, there's a lot of HTML in this post. Here's hoping it all works right the first time.)


*I could never get a job writing for a magazine or a major blog, like CounterPunch. I couldn't watch my language long enough.

Comments

[belmikey.livejournal.com]

My understanding -- which may not be complete -- is that Coca-Cola is an extremely distributed operation -- in the geeky sense, like distributed computing. The various bottling operations throughout the US and indeed throughout the world are not directly owned and operated by Corporate Coca-Cola in Atlanta, but are more akin to franchisees (although I don't believe they're quite THAT detached, either).

If my understanding is correct (insert more disclaiming mumble here), then the Coca-Cola you drink in Chicago is so detached from the Coca-Cola produced in Columbia that nothing you do in Chicago is likely to have the slightest effect. Coke, Inc in Atlanta may well want to fix the situation and be utterly powerless to do so without withdrawing entirely from the market, which, of course, is something that really doesn't occur to them as a real possibility.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

Yes, something along those lines has definitely occurred to me, as well. There's something to be said for solidarity, however, which is often mostly a mental thing more than a physical thing. Of course, if enough people boycott Coca-Cola in the US, it could pressure Atlanta to want to take more of an interest in what goes on other places. I hear that plants in India are also suspect in terms of the way it treats its employees and its environment. I'm aware that it is all very complicated.

[belmikey.livejournal.com]

I guess what I really should have been getting at is that, if you boycott Coke in Chicago, then the people you're really going to be hurting are the (presumably unionised) workers in the Coca Cola Bottling facility for the midwest. Even if you got lots of people to do it, Coca Cola, Inc. will have no reason to tie your lack of consumption to what's going on in Colombia, and will instead assume that for some reason Coca Cola is becoming less popular in Chicago.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

I definitely understand the point about hurting the workers in the midwest. But as to the thing about the corporation thinking it got less popular in Chicago- I don't know, I'm inclined to think its part of the bigger picture of the protest. I mean, it took almost fifteen years of protesting, boycotting and negotiating to get the Nestle formula off the market in Third World countries. I suppose, though, that even if one boycotts a product, one can't end there anyway. Writing letters and all sorts of other seemingly mundane stuff is always part of any kind of civil disobedience or public action. Perhaps in our case, encouraging a boycott is not as effective as the other means. I definitely think putting pressure on Atlanta can eventually make a difference in Colombia, no matter how franchised the plants are. If anybody is in a position to say "hey, look here, you're playing really dirty and we don't like it- stop!" its them. They still must have a modicum of authority over the foreign plants, which is more control than citizens have.