Statement on
May 6 Coca-Cola Meeting with University Officials and
Students
May 4, 2005
San Franciscco, US: The Coca-Cola
company, along with DePaul University, University of
California and University of Illinois, has convened a
meeting with college and university administrators and
students on May 6, 2005 in Washington DC. The purpose of
the meeting is to "to review issues that have been raised
involving bottling plants for Coca-Cola Company products
located in Colombia and India." Furthermore,
"non-university outside parties" are not allowed to attend
the meeting.
The India Resource Center is concerned that the
meeting will serve as a forum, once again, for the
Coca-Cola company to misrepresent the facts surrounding
Coca-Cola in India.
Coca-Cola is in serious crisis in India. Communities
across India living next to its bottling plants are
experiencing severe water shortages and a polluted
groundwater resource and soil. In at least two
communities, Coca-Cola was distributing its toxic waste
under the guise of fertilizer, and repeated tests have
confirmed that Coca-Cola was selling sub-standard products
in the Indian marketplace with levels of pesticides
exceeding 30 times those allowed by the European Union
standards.
A massive grassroots movement has emerged in India to hold
Coca-Cola accountable for its crimes, and literally tens
of thousands of community members, primarily from rural
India, are taking action to put an end to Coca-Cola's
abuses. Creating water shortages in India and poisoning
the remaining groundwater and land is a sure recipe for
disaster in India - where over 70% of the population still
makes a living related to agriculture.
Unfortunately, Coca-Cola has responded to the
growing crisis through a campaign of misinformation and
omission of key facts.
At the most recent shareholders meeting, the CEO of
Coca-Cola, Neville Isdell, announced that they could open
their plant in Kerala whenever they wanted. Not only is
this blatantly incorrect, it is indicative of the manner
in which the Coca-Cola company has repeatedly
treated Indian institutions - with impunity. In
fact, the local village council in Kerala has once again
refused to issue Coca-Cola a license to operate because
the company was unable to produce the necessary permit
from the Pollution Control Board. As a result, one of
Coca-Cola's largest bottling facilities remains shut down
in India for over a year now.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee, one of the most
authoritative bodies possible to be set up in India,
studied claims of pesticides in Coca-Cola products and
concluded that indeed, Coca-Cola products contained high
levels of pesticides, including DDT, malathion and
lindane. In addition, the committee held that the
Coca-Cola company was guilty of misleading the public by
issuing false advertisements. It also charged the company
with not doing enough to recharge the groundwater.
Coca-Cola's response has been that "we (Coca-Cola) do not
agree with the Joint Parliamentary Committee report."
The Supreme Court Monitoring Committee, a body set up by
the Supreme Court of India, has also repeatedly cited
Coca-Cola for causing pollution around its plant. Nowhere
in Coca-Cola's response is there made a mention of this
committee's orders.
Coca-Cola also has embarked upon a campaign to suggest
that they closed their factory voluntarily, and that they
stopped distributing toxic waste in India voluntarily.
These again are part of a campaign of misinformation. In
both cases, Coca-Cola was ordered by Indian government
agencies to cease the practice.
The community opposition to Coca-Cola in India continues
to grow and no amount of misinformation by Coca-Cola is
going to stop it.
Institutions of higher learning play a key role in
advancing a global society based on the principles of
fairness, justice and equality. Doing business with a
company such as Coca-Cola, which is guilty of human rights
and environmental abuses in India, is contrary to these
principles.
We would advise colleges and universities to exercise
caution in serving as an 'agent' for the Coca-Cola
company. The demands from communities in India are clear,
and Coca-Cola must meet them. It is not up to institutions
in the US and elsewhere to negotiate the demands. If the
Coca-Cola company has something to say about the demands,
they can convey them directly to the community groups in
India, who speak for themselves.
The meeting convened by the Coca-Cola company in
Washington DC on May 6 is yet another forum for the
Coca-Cola company to misrepresent the issues in India. We
invite the academic community to join us to put an end to
the problem and become part of the solution. Ceasing to do
business with the Coca-Cola company is a positive first
step.
For more information, contact the India Resource Center E:
info(AT)IndiaResource.org W:
www.IndiaResource.org
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http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2005/1049.html
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