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January 17, 2004
Coke
with Yet Another New Twist: Toxic Cola
Opinion By Amit Srivastava
The Indian parliament has banned the sale of Coke and Pepsi products in its
cafeteria. Indian parliamentarians should take the logical next step, and ban
the sale of Coke and Pepsi products in
the entire country.
The ban came as the result of tests, including those by the Indian government,
which found high concentrations of pesticides and insecticides, including lindane,
DDT, malathion and chlorpyrifos, in the colas, making them unfit for consumption.
Some samples tested showed the presence of these toxins to be more than 30 times
the standard allowed by the European Union. Tests of samples taken from the
US of the same drinks were found to be safe.
Double standards? You bet. An isolated incident? Not quite. Large multinationals
are notorious for serving up products that have been banned in the West to new
and emerging markets in developing countries. The tobacco industry, faced with
dwindling sales after successful anti-tobacco initiatives in the US, is investing
heavily in addicting developing countries. Dow Chemical (owner of the Union
Carbide company of the Bhopal gas disaster fame) aggressively markets the pesticide
Dursban in India, in spite of the US Environmental Protection Agency announcing
plans to phase out Dursban in the US because it is harmful to humans.
More on Coke in India:
Indian NGO Finds Pesticides in Colas
Coca-Cola India has hired a public relations firm, Perfect Relations, to rebuild
its tarnished image in India. But the story of Coca-Cola in India goes much
deeper than the toxic colas being served to the public, and no measure of public
relations alone can solve this problem.
Communities in and around Coca-Cola's bottling operations are facing severe
shortages of water as a result of the cola major sucking huge amounts of water
from the common groundwater source. To add insult to injury, the scarce water
that remains has been polluted by Coca-Cola as a result of its operations. In
a gesture of goodwill, Coca-Cola now proudly trucks in water tankers for the
community. And the main raw material for Coca-Cola's product -- water -- is
practically free for the cola major.
Water problems created by Coca-Cola are not an isolated incident. At least five
communities in India located next to Coca-Cola facilities are facing similar
problems, and the number of families affected, mostly the rural poor, runs into
the thousands. And as if there wasn't enough fizz in the water already, so to
speak, Coca-Cola, in another goodwill gesture, was giving away the toxic sludge
from its plant in Kerala to farmers for free -- as fertilizer! Tests on samples
of the toxic sludge commissioned by BBC, not surprisingly, found high levels
of lead and cadmium. Coca-Cola has chosen to "fix" the problem of
water shortage and groundwater pollution by assigning it to its public relations
department. Any letter or email to Coke on this issue will be responded to by
a form letter, accusing the issue to be the work of a "handful of extremists".
A visit to the communities, as well as numerous studies including those by government
agencies, will confirm that nothing could be further from the truth. Thousands
of people continue to protest Coke facilities all across India.
Unable to control the increasing number of communities speaking out against
Coca-Cola, we are now witnessing the increasing use of force in dealing with
local complaints against the cola multinational. On September 11 this year,
armed security forces violently attacked a peaceful demonstration of over a
thousand community members in Mehdiganj, Uttar Pradesh, resulting in grave injuries
to some. On August 30, this time in Kerala, 13 activists were arrested during
a peaceful demonstration and a leader of the movement was severely beaten by
the police.
Coca-Cola, along with the government, may believe that the use of force will
make the problem go away. It was this kind of tactics which has led to a lawsuit
in the US against the Colombian subsidiary of Coca-Cola for using para-military
forces to kill union leaders in Coca-Cola plants in Colombia.
Such blatant abuses by a large multinational like Coca-Cola highlight the problems
of economic globalization. Communities no longer have any control over their
natural resources or even development policies that directly affect their lives.
Governments such as India prefer to turn a blind eye to serious abuses in the
fears that it will hinder further foreign investment- a criteria often used
by the US to "measure" a country's commitment to the war on terrorism.
And they may have a point. The US government has intervened strongly on behalf
of Enron and Coca-Cola in India in the past. And institutions such as the World
Trade Organization, essentially a corporate bill of rights, will make it a crime
to stop Coca-Cola from perpetuating such abuses.
For the communities in India reeling from Coca-Cola's practices, Atlanta based
Coca-Cola is the oppressor. Very ironic, given that Atlanta is the center of
the civil rights movement in the US. Contrary to Coca-Cola's slogan about it
being the real thing, it's more like the unreal thing.
Amit
Srivastava coordinates the India Resource Center,
www.indiaresource.org, a project of Global Resistance, a San
Francisco-based organization that works closely with social
movements in India and globally.
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