Just recently it was brought to our attention that Fresno City has an exclusive contract to sell Coke on its campus. This may not seem so problematic at first, since until recently many public schools have been in the business of pushing Coke to their students. Now many might think that this is the run of the mill story about a white powdery substance that goes hand in hand with hyperactivity, and has various bad effects on a person’s body. But this is not a story about sugar or about coca, it is a story about another horrible product that the Coca Cola company is exporting around the world. This is a story of one of the world’s most powerful corporations, earning $4.85 billion in profits in 2004, leaving a path of human and environmental devastation in its quest to become the worlds top beverage choice.

The root of the problem with Coke in recent times goes back to Colombia, which has seen over 4,000 union members killed since 1986. The vast majority of these deaths are carried out by right wing paramilitary groups on a mission to destroy the labor movement. These groups often work in collaboration with the official U.S. supported Colombian military and in some instances with managers at companies producing for multinational corporations. Since 1989, eight union leaders from Coca Cola factories have been murdered by these paramilitary forces. This is just one of many examples of why Fresno City’s exclusive contract with the Coca Cola Company is a problem.

Thus far the campaign at Fresno City College has been largely spearheaded by a few committed students, but recently the campaign has grown to involve the official support of the student government and some of the most active student groups on campus. Last week, on Valentine’s Day, there was a resolution brought to the Academic Senate (which represents all professors) calling for an end to Coke’s monopoly on the campus based on the company’s human rights abuses. Unfortunately though, the professors decided that they didn’t have any love for those murdered or otherwise affected by Coke’s human and environmental abuses around the world. Yet many professors in the Senate were still in favor of ending Coke’s exclusive contract at Fresno City, and allowing students the choice to choose their source of diabetes. Whether it be from a company such as Coke that is known the world around for its ongoing human and environmental abuses; or Pepsi, a company which was forced out of doing business with the dictatorship in Burma due to international pressure. Students at Fresno City are currently organizing to attend the next Board of Trustees meeting (meeting info below) to pressure the Board to vote against exclusive pouring contracts like the current contract with Coke.
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March 6 @ 4:30pm in the Board Room of the State Center Community College District Administrative Office Building - The building is located at 1525 E. Weldon Avenue, Fresno, California.

to get involved in the Killer Coke Campaign at FCC email - rosanna.spicer@hotmail.com