uksac - how you can play a part

YOU Can Play an Important Part in UK Students Campaign against Coke

Over the past two years the campaign against Coca-Cola in our Students Unions has been steadily growing and during the next few months we want it to explode! On the 28th - 30th March, at NUS Conference, students will vote on whether we should continue to do business with Coca-Cola. We are adamant that contracts should not be renewed. Only strong ecomomic action will put critical pressure on Coca-Cola to make REAL operational change.

If your Student Union buys its beverages through NUSSL then:

Coca Cola has an exclusive contract with NUSSL: your Student Union must purchase from Coke
Your union cannot fully boycott Coca-Cola whilst it uses NUSSLs services
NUSSL must follow NUS conference policy. Hence if students choose to hold the company to account by choosing to end contracts with Coca-Cola then Coke will no longer be sold or able to advertise in our student union.

NUSSL's Ethical and Environmental committee is currently "constructively engaging" with Coca-Cola, however nearly two years since this process was started, Coca-Cola has still not responded satisfactorily to the allegations made by the communities in India and Colombia. They recently published a document entitled 'Key Arguments for Consructive Engagement' which was both misleading and innacurate. Read our critical response to it here.

SINALTRAINAL responded to it, requesting that NUSSL respect their initiatives and the memory of the victims. Edgar Paez, SINALTRAINALs President asks them " if they feel unable to support our campaign, not to condemn it or seek to undermine it."

The Colombia Solidarity Campaign also responded, putting forward the case for an alternative methodology to Constructive Engagement -one which engages with Social Movements from the Global South who are resisting the abuses of multinationals.

By choosing to not do business with Coca-Cola we will put critical pressure on the company to engage with the people actually effected by its policies. This pressure in already growing after recent severe economic action was taken against the company in the US. The University of New York banned Coca-Cola after the company failed to adhere to the deadline for agreeing to an independent investigation to Colombia. This was followed on January 1st 2006 by the University of Michigan who have also removed Coca-Cola products from campus.

This resulted in more than 200 articles being written about the campaign, SINALTRAINAL being interviewed by all the major press in Colombia and Coke under increasing scrutiny over its behaviour and failure to resolve the issues.

Our actions here can make a difference.

If your student union does not buy its beverages through NUSSL then:

You are free to mandate your Students Union to boycott Coca-Cola
Speak to a sympathetic sabbatical for advice on how to do this and check out St Hilda's motions.
You can also vote at NUS conference so get yourself there.