Boycott Coke motion goes to Class Rep Council

Issued : Monday 28 February, 2005 by NUI Galway

On Monday 28th February 2005 after three weeks of debate at the Class Representatives Council meetings, a motion from the Boycott Coca-Cola Campaign will finally come up for decision. The motion calls on the Class Reps to hold a referendum putting the issue to all the students in the university. In GMIT a similar campaign is under-way and it is hoped that if successful Coca-Cola will be boycotted from both institutions.

John C. Friend-Pereira Campaign Co-ordinator said: "We hope the Class Reps will allow for a referendum so that this debate can be opened up to everyone in the college. The referendum should take place in the second week of March. This is great timing as we hope to have a debate with both pro and anti boycott speakers as part of the Global Rights Awareness Week (GRA). The reason for the campaign is to place pressure on Coca-Cola to develop ethics and human rights within its operations. The two main examples of Coca-Cola's poor performance are that of workers rights violations in Colombia and environmental damage in India."

David Geary Campaign Co-ordinator said: "It will be great to have a referendum that will create some real debate throughout the college. The only real argument that anyone as tried to make against the boycott as been that it infringes on their choice of soft-drinks products. This is a very weak argument when one considers the serious violations of human rights that Coca-Cola is alleged implicated in the developing World. We are surprised that we have not heard from Coca-cola directly let although some pro-Coca-Cola material was distributed at the last CRC meeting although this need not stand up to and critical analyse."

For more info www.killercoke.org and www.indiaresource.org