Community Protests Coca-Cola Plant in India
October 25, 2007
http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2007/1054.html
Over 600 people marched and rallied against the Coca-Cola bottling plant in
the village of Sinhachawar in Ballia district in India yesterday, demanding
that the plant be shut down permanently. The community has accused the
bottling plant of pollution and also illegally occupying land held by the
village council. "We are demanding that the Coca-Cola bottling plant cease
its operations permanently because they are destroying our land and water,
the very source of our livelihoods," said Mr. Baliram Ram of the Coca-Cola
Bhagao, Krishi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, the main organizer of the protest.
*Norway Students Launch Campaign Against Coca-Cola
October 19, 2007
The India Resource Center has just completed a speaking tour of 5
universities in Norway - Oslo, Trondheim, Bergen, Vestfold and Ås.
Organized by ATTAC Norway, the speaking tour was very successful, and now we
have active and strong campaigns at all these universities. The student
parliaments at Bergen and Vestfold have already passed resolutions against
doing business with the Coca-Cola company. All universities have a single
contract with Coca-Cola Norway that ends in December 2009, and students are
mobilizing support to ensure that the contract is not renewed. Let us know
if you want to join the campaign.
Criminal Charges Against Coca-Cola Likely in India
October 15, 2007
http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2007/1053.html
The state government of Kerala has initiated the process of filing criminal
charges against the Coca-Cola company for pollution. In a notice to the
Coca-Cola company on Friday, October 12, the Kerala State Pollution Control
Board has asked the company to show cause as to why a criminal case should
not be filed against it for polluting the environment. The action by the
state government comes directly as a result of a longstanding demand of the
campaign that the Coca-Cola company must also be held criminally liable for
the damages it has caused in the community of Plachimada in India.
Campaign Expanding to Europe
Help us build a strong campaign against Coca-Cola in Europe. We would like
to be in dialogue with friends in Europe to see how we can work together to
challenge the abuses of Coca-Cola in India. In particular, we are
interested in bringing the campaign to some of the company’s larger markets
– Sweden, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and the UK. Contact us if you are
interested!
Coca-Cola Loses University of Illinois Contract
August 6, 2007
http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2007/1051.html
The Coca-Cola company has lost its contract with the University of Illinois,
giving another boost to the international campaign against Coca-Cola.
Students and faculty at the University of Illinois, a prestigious public
university with over 40,000 students, have campaigned for over two years to
end the 10-year, exclusive “pouring rights” agreement with Coca-Cola because
of the company’s unethical practices in India and globally. "This is a
tremendous victory for the campus community and sends a strong message to
the Coca-Cola company that it must respect human rights and the
environment," said Shivali Tukdeo of the Coalition Against Coke Contracts, a
broad coalition of campus and community groups that led the campaign to
remove Coca-Cola from campus.
Indian Campaign Forces Coca-Cola to Announce Ambitious Water Conservation
Project
July 30, 2007
http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/2007/cokewwf.html
The Coca-Cola company has recently announced, to much fanfare, a three-year,
US$20 million partnership with the World Wildlife Fund on water
conservation. At face value, such an announcement is obviously welcome.
After all, who would object to water conservation projects in a world where
over 1 billion people still lack access to clean drinking water? But the
announcement by Coca-Cola deserves scrutiny - something sorely lacking from
the media and even NGO’s - primarily because it is the Coca-Cola company
that is announcing water conservation projects.
Factsheet on Coca-Cola in English
http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/2004/Brochure.pdf
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