Inbox

[November 19th, 2008]

COKE APOCALYPSE IS REAL
I read with interest your blurb about Coke-Dasani choosing to bottle Willamette River water (“The Weekly Fix,” WW, Nov. 12, 2008). In Colombia, however, there is a real “apocalypse” on the part of Coke-Dasani-Odwalla: There is a Coke boycott to protect labor rights and human rights in Colombia to protest Coke’s use of paramilitaries to harass, intimidate and kill union leaders, workers and family members. At PSU, where activist students have met with the PSU administration to kick Coke off campus (so far, PSU says no), we have hosted three speakers from SINALTRAINAL, the food and beverage workers union in Colombia. One union speaker, William Mendoza, told PSU students that Coke’s paramilitaries told him they would “take my 9-year-old daughter and return her in a plastic bag” if William didn’t stop his union organizing activities. Mendoza continues to be a SINALTRAINAL organizer.

Colombia is the deadliest country in the world to be a union organizer. McCain gave one of his patented “eyebrow raising” facial tics when Obama, in the presidential debate, noted that free trade with Colombia is suspect because of the attacks on union organizers there. In addition, Coke also operates a $30,000,000 Coke plant in Sudan, in violation of the sanctions movement to protect Darfur. At PSU, we’ve asked the administration to replace Coke-Odwalla with local or alternative products like Columbia Gorge or Naked juices.

So far, NYU, Rutgers, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, DePaul and the University of Illinois have kicked Coke off campus, in support of the boycott.

Lew Church, coordinator
PSU Progressive Student Union

MILK IN A NEW ERA
I remember watching a Harvey Milk documentary back at Jefferson High in 1987, when I was a senior. The film was played for our Social Studies class. What’s interesting about seeing the movie at that time in a high school setting, was that it was presented as a movie about a historical figure who happened to be gay who stood up for what he believed in and was ultimately assassinated for it. There wasn’t any controversy about showing the film, however nowdays if a high school were to present this film, they would be accusing of “promoting” the “homosexual agenda” vs. perhaps learning a thing or two about history and challenges there are for people who are different.

I’m looking forward to seeing the new version.

“cmac”
via wweek.com

CLARIFICATION
In last week’s Callahan, the cartoon depicted Obama flushing Bush down the toilet—not the reverse.