CONVERGE on ATLANTA at the WORLD OF COCA-COLA on Friday, November 18

Greetings,

Join the international movement for justice and human rights against the Coca-Cola Company for murder, torture, pollution, and union-busting throughout the world!

CONVERGE on ATLANTA at the WORLD OF COCA-COLA on Friday, November 18 on the way to SOA demonstration!

At the Entrance of the World of Coca-Cola - Friday, November 18, 2005, noon
55 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive (at Central Ave) Atlanta, GA
http://www.woccatlanta.com/directions.shtml

Noon - Rally & Press Conf with William Mendoza, Coca-Cola Worker & Vice President of SINALTRAINAL (Colombian Food & Beverage Workers' Union)

We are preparing for what we believe will be a turning point in the campaign to hold Coke accountable for violence in Colombia & India as well as Turkey, Indonesia and Guatemala. Coke has been doing everything it can to not only discredit the union SINALTRAINAL in Colombia and grassroots movements in India and elswhere, but also to deflate the global student movement. Coke's arrogance and blatant negligence has only expanded the campaign and fueled student militancy on campus - victory is near and we need your support! Come to the World of Coca-Cola to protest with hundreds of folks coming down to demonstrate against the School of the Americas!

The Press Conference & Rally is the culmination of the North American Speaking Tour with SINALTRAINAL Vice President William Mendoza and United Students Against Sweatshops that has hit schools and communities from Tallahassee to Seattle, Toronto to Los Angeles, Chicago to Knoxville! At the the World of Coca-Cola on November 18, we will see people of conscience and action, including workers from Colombia & the United States, gather to say "Stop Killer Coke"!

Since 1986, roughly 4,000 Colombian trade unionists have been murdered. The vast majority of these murders have been carried out by right-wing paramilitary groups, known as death squads, on an ideological 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 plants producing for multinational corporations. In the case of Coca-Cola, according to numerous credible reports, the company and its business partners have turned a blind eye to, financially supported, and actively colluded with paramilitary groups in efforts to destroy workers' attempts to organize unions and bargain collectively.

Since 1989, eight union leaders from Coca-Cola plants have been murdered by paramilitary forces. Dozens of other workers have been intimidated, kidnapped, or tortured. In Carepa, members of the paramilitary murdered union leader Isidro Gil in broad daylight inside his factory's gates. They returned the next day and forced all of the plant's workers to resign from their union by signing documents on Coca-Cola letterhead.



The most recent murder attempt occurred on August 22, 2003, when two men riding motorcycles fired shots at Juan Carlos Galvis, a worker leader at Coca-Cola's Barrancabermeja plant.
There is substantial evidence that managers of several bottling plants have ordered assaults to occur and made regular payments to leaders of the paramilitary groups carrying out the attacks.
These ongoing abuses have taken their toll on Coca-Cola workers' efforts to organize. The Colombian Food & Beverage Workers Union, SINALTRAINAL, has suffered a dramatic loss in membership, as worker leaders are intimidated or forced into hiding. SINALTRAINAL has appealed for solidarity and allies in the U.S. and labor and social justice movements have answered their call.

In India communities living next to Coca-Cola bottling plants are experiencing severe water shortages and polluted groundwater resources 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. The community opposition to Coca-Cola in India continues to grow and no amount of misinformation by Coca-Cola is going to stop it.

Demand: Coca-Cola Take Responsibility & Immediate Action for Truth, Justice, & Reparations!

Contact information: Camilo A. Romero || 510.7174227 ||
organize@usasnet.org || www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org

Join us in taking an important and historic step for local peace and global justice! Spread the word about the Stop Killer Coke campaign and the November 18 action in Atlanta!