Just when most people thought they have had enough of those big corrupt companies, like Nike, GAP, and Exxon, another company, Coca Cola, emerges from the darkness to reveal its true colors. From our point of view as Americans, Coca Cola seems completely docile. So far, relatively little on the news or the TV has shown anything that bad about Coca Cola. All we’ve seen from the company are their drinks and their catchy commercials with famous pop stars.

However, just like various other companies, they take their dirty business outside their home and into other countries- specifically developing ones with large poor populations that cannot do much to defend against a powerful foreign company. Many of Coca Cola’s greatest misdeeds take place in India, where they steal precious water from the poor while poisoning their land and their drinking system at the same time.
 

The presentation “Killer Coca Cola” by Amrit Srivastava, sponsored by SJA, the Social Justice Alliance, opened our eyes to Coca Cola’s crimes against people in India. His first point was made by describing how Coca Cola contributes to water scarcity in rural Indian towns and how it has been responsible for depleting the water tables. Coca Cola has been capitalizing on the idea that in India, water is technically “free” and that no one should be paying for this life-giving resource.

In areas where rainfall and water resources is scarce, Coca Cola has been pumping out water from underground water supplies for use in their products. As a result, wells in these rural areas across India have dried up and harvests were also harmed due to the lack of water.

In addition to this, the water that has been left over in the depleted water tables has been contaminated, since most of the water that Coca Cola takes is used for cleaning of bottles. After this water has been used and polluted, it is pumped back out into the environment, complete with harmful foreign particles.

The water had also been contaminated with harmful chemicals as it was drawn upwards through the various rock strata and into the Coca Cola plants. After testing, the water was deemed unfit for human consumption and even for irrigation purposes.
 

After testing the actual Coca Cola beverage itself, the company proved to be harmful to the health of Indians yet again. The Independent Center for Science and Environment discovered that the beverages contained levels of pesticides around 30 times higher than European Union Standards. The level of DDT in the beverages, which is banned in India, was around nine times higher. These findings were linked to skin disorders and other ailments.
 

Coca Cola’s crimes do not end with water and fluid in their beverages. Coca
Cola is responsible for producing a “sludge-like waste” by-product that was given to farmers by telling them that it was a “fertilizer” that was good for their crops. After testing, results indicated that the sludge contained dangerous levels of toxic chemicals such as lead and cadmium.
 

In 2004, poor farmers in India could do little to stop the advances of this foreign invader. Protesters were beaten by armed police and placed in jail after a peaceful march on the Coca Cola plant near Varasani to request its closure. Even though the movement has gotten some movement since then, and some Coca Cola plants have been closed down across India, the company refuses to give up its ground in India.

Its next tactic will be firing off a campaign aimed at mainstream advertising, which includes using Bollywood actors and actresses in commercials to win the public’s favor.

On American college campuses however, another tactic is being used. Similar to divestment to rid South Africa of apartheid, students are now demanding that their schools divest themselves of Coca-Cola products on campus and exclusionary contracts such as the one Stony Brook has. NYU and the University of Michigan are two of the largest universities that have cancelled their contracts with Coke. Locally, last year Hofstra's faculty voted 131-1 against renewing the Coke contract and that was upheld by Hofstra's President.

To add Stony Brook to the list, campus meetings are being held every Thursday evening at 6:30pm in the Student Union 2nd floor lounge.

India Resource Center: http://www.indiaresource.org/

Killer Coke: http://www.killercoke.org/

Stony Brook grad students / GSEU endorse ban:
http://www.gseurankandfile.org/index/2006/10/gseu_stony_broo_1.html