An activist group on campus is beginning to battle Coca-Cola’s presence at Stony Brook University, as a result of the corporation’s alleged human rights violations and breaches in international law.
The group, Social Justice Alliance, is reacting, largely, to claims by Sinaltrainal, a Columbian labor union. The union accused Coca-Cola, in 2001, of collaborating with the United Self-Defense Forces Columbia, a right-wing paramilitary group, in the deaths of a handful of union organizers at Columbian bottling plants.
The group is also reacting to claims that Coca-Cola has been polluting and dehydrating water supplies in India.
Anita Halasz, a Social Justice Alliance member and the organizer of the campaign against Coca-Cola at Stony Brook, says that the primary goal of the campaign is to convince university administration to cut all ties with the company as soon as possible.
‘ However, a possible alternative, according to Halasz, is to ensure that the university does not renew its contract with Coca-Cola, which expires in Jan. 2008. Currently, Coca-Cola has strong ties with Stony Brook University, and its products are ubiquitous on campus. Coca-Cola products include, aside from their standard Coke soft-drinks, Dasani water, Sprite, Minute Maid juices, and a handful of other energy drinks and beverages. Coca-Cola provides a number of athletic scholarships to Stony Brook students.
Various other universities across the United States have successfully boycotted Coca-Cola production, including NYU. However, Halasz says that Stony Brook’s situation is different, due to the university’s strong contract with the corporation.
The first step, according to Halasz, is to tell students why Social Justice Alliance wants Coca-Cola off SBU campus. On Thursday, Oct. 12th, the group will be holding a vigil for the dead union workers outside the SAC at 8 p.m.
The activist group is also planning on submitting a letter to university president Shirley Strum Kenny, in hopes of initiating dialog with the administration. ‘It’s hard to make any decisive choices until we know their stance on our campaign,’ said Halasz, of the administration.
Coca-Cola’s monopoly of SBU’s beverages is also a problem that the campaign hopes to tackle. Halasz said, ‘As a state university, we should be supporting New York companies. They’re being destroyed by these big monopolizing companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi.’ According to Halasz, if there were more beverage options on campus, students could at least choose not to support Coca-Cola. As of right now, it’s almost impossible, said Halasz.
Currently, Social Justice Alliance is researching alternative bottling and beverage companies. Halasz hopes that dialog with the university administration will begin this month.
