Resources > Coke Sucks > Model Common Room Boycott Coke motion

Model Common Room Boycott Coke motion

This motion should be amended to suit the particular mood of your JCR, on the basis of what you think you can achieve in that context, and how far you want to focus the debate on things that are winnable. As well as the objective facts about the ways in which Coke is available in your College. Remember that things can always be amended out, so be ambitious! If you want some advice about this – e.g. more details about what Coke's done so you can write a different motion or feel confident in a debate – then get in : e-mail tom@srioxford.org.uk .

Notes:

1. [Any existing policy your JCR might already have about Coca-Cola; what you believe about what Coke does in the world, and the action you've taken in response to this.]

2. [The Coca-Cola vending machine[s], and the fact that we sometimes buy Coca-Cola for JCR events. We hire the vending machine and take into the JCR accounts all the profit that it makes. Coca-Cola is also served in our bar, in bottles and from the tap. There are typically no means in college to get any alternative product.] Basically, make this bit true: who owns the coke machines, what revenue does the JCR get from them? In what forms can Coke can be bought in the bar, and are there any alternatives? What is the relationship of the JCR to the bar – e.g. ownership, college runs it, it's contracted out to someone, how responsive are the bar operators typically?

3. The statement on the part of of the Colombian SINALTRAINAL union, 'We ask Coca Cola to stop killing, and you to stop drinking Coke'. SINALTRAINAL are appealing for global solidarity, and a boycott of Coca-Cola.

4. The reasons for this are that Coca-Cola is accused of serious human rights violations in Columbia. Hundreds of workers in Coca-Cola’s Colombian bottling plants have been tortured, beaten, kidnapped and/or illegally detained by right-wing paramilitaries. The Coca-Cola Company have not denied using these paramilitaries (indeed, connections have been proven) and merely claim that they cannot be held liable in a US Federal Court for occurrences in Columbia.:

5. Coke is also involved in stealing and polluting farmers' water in India (making destitute thousands among the poorest people in the world), and in a variety of activities against workers' rights in other places in the world.

6. Several other JCRs have standing boycotts of Coke, to at least some extent. These include: Wadham, St. John's, Somerville, St. Hilda's, St. Edmund Hall and Balliol. OUSU has also supported the boycott.The School of Geography and Linacre College have instituted three Water Sustainability Scholarships for graduate students, funded by the Coca Cola Foundation, which has prompted debate over the negative impact of the Coca-Cola Company on water resources in India.

7. [As well as OUSU, several other Student Unions around the country (Including Leeds, Bristol, Sussex, Middlesex and SOAS), has also supported the boycott of Coke. That the UK Students Against Coke network intends to have achieved a boycott of Coca-Cola in almost every Student Union run venue in the country by the end of the academic year 2005/6. This would be achieved by NUS Services Limited (which supplies most SU bars, but not Oxford Colleges) passing a motion to this effect at its AGM. SU officers will be mandated to vote for the motion.] You may not want to put this in: it's about whether or not you think that showing that there is a national movement will add support.

Believes:

1. Together with other students in the UK, we now have the potential to strike a massive blow for international solidarity and workers' rights by joining the boycott of Coca-Cola.

2. Coca-Cola is not a socially, ethically or environmentally sound corporation. They should be made to respect the rights of workers and those who live near their facilities, world-wide.

3. Workers' rights are a necessary condition of a better world.

4. That by accepting money from Coca-Cola, the School of Geography and Linacre College legitimise its activities. That both institutions are part of a strategy to improve the company's public relations without addressing the damaging facts behind its negative publicity. It is unlikely that the two institutions will be as likely to be open about the truth about Coca-Cola than they otherwise might have been. Academic institutions should not be silenced in this way.

5. [Institutions of education in the UK are increasingly driven into the arms of private companies such as Coke because of the attacks of successive governments upon the public funding of education – instead, the corporations should be taxed and the money given directly to education. Thus, the negative consequences of the university's association with certain companies would be avoided, while funding could be maintained, even strengthened.] For some people, this is a really important point, but whether you put it in or not depends on the mood of your JCR.

6. [Pepsi is by no means an ethical company (it is involved in similar activities in India), but it is not as bad as Coke. To whatever extent to which we replace Coke, we should make some effort to also avoid Pepsi, where practicable.] If you feel it'll be helpful to stipulate this.

Resolves:

1. To boycott Coca-Cola for all JCR events, such as [welfare tea, entz cocktails], etc.

2. To ask the President, Treasurer and Domestic Officer to conduct a report into the possibility of removing and replacing the Coke machine[s], with a view to implementing it. This report should be ready for all to view by the next JCR meeting, and be posted on the JCR website.

3. [Until such point as we remove the Coca-Cola machine (if that is what we decide to do), mandate the [Ethics and Environment rep] to ensure that at all times there is a 'we're sorry, this company is ethically out of order' sticker on the front of the machine.] This may not be a good or particularly important suggestion. Depends what you're up for advocating. E-mail us to see if we've managed to get hold of any of the stickers yet.

4. To ask the [President & Domestic Officer] to approach the operators of the bar, and ask them to switch from Coca-Cola[, to another tooth-rotting, obesity inducing, carbonated black liquid,] as far as possible, presenting them with appropriate evidence about Coca-Cola. The [Ethics and Environment rep] should conduct research into alternative products. To very strongly push for this to happen, and report back to the JCR on the results so far achieved at the next JCR meeting.

5. To write to Coca-Cola, telling them what we think of their activity in Colombia and elsewhere, and letting them know we're boycotting them.

6. To write to SINALTRAINAL and the India Resource Centre, expressing our solidarity, and letting them know that we're taking action against Coke.

Posted on 21/10/05 by tom