tugomer:

cappuccinocommie:

anarcho-bulbasaurism:

Every time I see a Coca-Cola advert I just remember when they used paramilitary groups in Colombia to intimidate, torture and murder trade union workers.

They also have a bad habit of overusing and polluting groundwater/aquifers in India. 

Coca-Cola used to have a concentrate plant in apartheid South Africa until it was finally forced to move its operations out of the country due to public pressure in 1987 (note that this was nearly a decade after being called out by the US Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee for “its role in perpetuating the system of apartheid” – this whole thesis on the Coca-Cola/Pepsi war during the anti-apartheid movement is well worth reading)

the country it relocated to was neighbouring Swaziland, Africa’s last absolutist kingdom of a little over a million people

the country is very poor (63% fall under the poverty line, which is $1.25/day) and has the highest HIV infection rate in the world (29%) as well as the world’s highest incidence of tuberculosis, which is why Swazi life expectancy is below 50 years of age

meanwhile the king is worth $200,000,000, which has a lot to do with Coca-Cola since its Swazi plant (called Conco) makes up 40% of the country’s GDP (it’s probably more now since the US cancelled its trade agreement with Swaziland over human rights abuses in 2015)

even though the sheer size of the company relative to the country’s economy  means that Coca-Cola could easily use its leverage to promote pro-democratic reforms (Swaziland has sham elections as all political parties are banned, the police use torture and beatings etc) Coca-Cola likes the situation just fine because of a sweetheart tax deal it struck with Mswati III under which it only pays a 6% corporate tax rate, and the fact that unions and workers are violently suppressed and all public land (which three quarters of the population rely on for subsistence) is controlled by the king, who can eject people from the land at will, while the sugar cane companies are even worse (”Sometimes we do not eat for days. We used to have our own vegetable gardens but these were confiscated by the sugar company. We sometimes fish in the nearby dam in the evening, when it is dark. If we are caught we will be arrested as the dam is owned by the sugar cane company“)

the combination of climate change, excessive water use by Coca-Cola and the general promotion of irrigated sugar cane plantations over food-growing has led to extreme food insecurity for Swazis – it has been experiencing a drought since 2014, which was declared a national emergency in February 2016 and 500,000 people (ie half of the population) need food aid to survive (which the country can’t afford because the king went and bought a jet for himself and now schools have had to close early because of food shortages)

Coca-Cola uses subcontracting to avoid collective bargaining and then willingly turns a blind eye to human rights violations because its guiding principles (aka bare-minimum standards of human decency such as not using child labour) only apply to direct suppliers and also, Coca-Cola has refused to do anything about land-grabbing in Swaziland because of reasons

Coca-Cola claims to be unpolitical but reportedly hosts King Mswati III at its Atlanta premises every year, takes out full-page newspaper ads to wish the king a happy birthday and generally enjoys a cosy relationship with him despite repeated calls to act

actually Coca-Cola did threaten to leave Swaziland once. WHEN THE KING DEMANDED A 10% STAKE IN THE COMPANY.

in conclusion, fuck Coca-Cola