Crystal> Date: Fri, 09 Dec 2005 01:43:02 -0500
Subject: [Studnts4GoodStuf] VICTORY! Coke Banned @
NYU!!!
After two years of amazingly inspirational activist
work at NYU, a ban
on Cola-Cola products became official at yesterday's
All-University
Senate meeting!
With the victory of the Coke campaign, we are
following in the
footsteps of a history of successful campaigns that
have
pressured the most omnipotent of multinationals to
act more
responsibily, such as the anti-sweatshop movement
against Nike, the
recent victory against Taco Bell by United Students
Against Sweatshops
(USAS), and the tremendous environmental victory
against JP Morgan
last spring, made possibile in part by participating
NYU students.
NYU is the largest private university in the country
and as students
at such an institution we have demonstrated our
remarkable ability to
victoriously effect social change. With its
implementation of the ban,
NYU has joined a broader student movement fighting
for corporate
responsibility, respect for worker's rights, and
widespread global
economic justice!
Students at over 70 colleges and universities across
the country have
called for an investigation into allegations made by
members of
SINALTRAINAL, the national food and beverage
workers’ union in
Colombia. Over the last 16 years, seven Coca-Cola
workers affiliated
with SINALTRAINAL have been murdered, and countless
others have been
harassed, intimidated, threatened, kidnapped and/or
fired for their
union activities.
The student campaign to ban Coke at NYU has garnered
support among the
student body through a series of creative
educational events and
demonstrations on campus since its inception in
December of 2004. A
petition has been endorsed by many student clubs as
well as the
University Committee on Student Life (UCSL),
representing all student
councils from all of NYU’s 14 schools.
On November 3rd, the All University Senate (AUS),
the highest decision-
making body of the university, representing
students, faculty and
administrators, voted to support the student
resolution to stop the
sale and distribution of Coca-Cola products on
campus until the
company agrees to an independent investigation.
After over six months
of deliberation by the AUS, the resolution passed
despite the
testimony of Coca-Cola representatives who spoke at
a specially
arranged AUS forum.
This ban at NYU comes at a time when pressure is
mounting from various
groups – both in the U.S. and abroad – for Coke to
address concerns of
human rights abuses not only in Colombia, but in
India, Turkey,
Pakistan, and Guatemala as well.
