Kevin Keating

20 February 2006

A meeting, called by Colombia Solidarity Network to re-launch the boycott coke campaign was held in the teachers club in Dublin on Saturday 11th February.  In attendance were student representatives from campaigns in: Trinity, UCD, Maynooth and Limerick. Some secondary school representatives also attended, as did a member of the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI). Members of Socialist Democracy and the Irish Socialist Network were also in attendance.

The meeting give an overview of the history of the campaign in Ireland, the current situation of Coke workers in Colombia and the international boycott coke campaign

The campaign discussed plans for advancing action over the coming months. It was agreed that the movement would hold a national day of action, with simultaneous demonstrations in all affiliated campuses, that an education pack would be developed and that the campaign would focus in on the coke practice of sponsoring a number of sporting events with a view to forcing the withdrawal of athletes and athletics groups from association with Killer Coke

The coke campaign against workers in Columbia remains an important act of solidarity.  It’s unfortunate that so many political organisations that see themselves as socialist abstain and that the local trade union bureaucracy have such a strong record of collaboration with coke. 

Nevertheless, the history of this campaign is that even limited left unity around this issue  can be successful