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	McLibel Support Campaign P R E S S . R E L E A S E . 29/03/04     Talks start with Coca Cola - Colombian workers hunger strike ends     Colombia: After 276 hours on hunger strike, national talks have been initiated with the Coca Cola corporation in an attempt to reach agreement that will allow the relocation of the workers displaced by its closure of 11 bottling plants.     In a meeting carried out with the company’s President in Colombia, Señor JUAN CARLOS JARAMILLO, the following agreements were reached: On 2nd April there will be a further meeting between the company and the trade union at which SINALTRAINAL will present a proposal for reordering the production process. Delegates from all the plants in conflict will attend the meeting, and the corporation will provide the necessary resources and permits. The company will not take reprisals against the participants in the hunger strike protest and it will revoke the sanctions already imposed. The company will grant two weeks paid leave to the hunger strikers so that they can recover physically, and it will pay for the medical treatment that they require to achieve their full recuperation. The company will pay for the publication of a notice in a national daily newspaper in which it will demand that the protesters’ claims and the lives of its workers be respected.* We give immense thanks for the help and solidarity shown to us from all the corners of the world, without which it would not have been possible to gain this agreement. There had to be twelve days of hunger strike - to the point that its participants were feeling the effects physically and mentally - before the company finally accepted the need for talks, to listen to its workers, to give them the chance to speak. Twelve days of sacrifice and threats from the paramilitaries so that the workers could be heard. It is only the unity, the solidarity and the strength of our just cause that got the company to commit itself to discussing with the union alternatives to the labour execution of the workers. This has been a very important triumph for struggle and solidarity in defence of human rights at the national and international level. But the causes that generated the protest have still not been resolved, it is just that a process of dialogue has been initiated that could lead to resolving them. Today more than ever we must be united and strong and all those who with dignity, fortitude and love for our cause have accompanied us, must continue doing so in order to guarantee a just and prompt solution for the workers. SINALTRAINAL maintains its wish for dialogue in the search for solutions that will safeguard jobs and labour stability for our comrades. As a sign of the political maturity that we have been characterised with, we have decided unilaterally to end the hunger strike from 6.00 a.m. 27th March 2004 in an endeavour to reach a rapid solution to the conflict. We will keep our members and the organisations participating in the world-wide campaign against Coca Cola informed of the outcome of the talks. SOLIDARITY IS AFFECTION BETWEEN PEOPLES. THANK YOU FOR SHOWING US THIS TENDERNESS. WE WILL CONTINUE BUILDING RESISTANCE AND ADVANCING TOWARDS NEW DAWNS. A HUGE EMBRACE TO ALL. NATIONAL LEADERSHIP SINALTRAINAL 27th March 2004 [* Note from Colombia Solidarity Campaign: this is to signal that the paramilitaries should not take reprisal action]. The Colombia Solidarity Campaign held a vigil outside the headquarters of Coca Cola Great Britain and Ireland from 4.30pm on Friday 26th March and together with students from Sussex University a street meeting in Hammersmith on Saturday 27th March. We too would like to thank all those who have taken any action over the last two weeks in support of the hunger strikers, and will advise of further developments. RED DE HERMANDAD Y SOLIDARIDAD CON COLOMBIA redher@sky.net.co -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An example of the growing publicity that the hunger strike, and the campaign against Coca Cola worldwide,  has been getting.... COCA COLA WORKERS ON HUNGER STRIKE Article in New Statesman - by Mark Thomas Coca Cola is rapidly becoming synonymous with the kind of inept rip offs that Rodney and Del Trotter could only dream of. Flogging tap water, Dasani, in a bottle is an act of cynical and surreal genius matched only by the CEO Douglas Daft’s vision that one day people will be able to turn on the tap marked C at the sink and fresh Coke will pour out of it. So in Coke’s world of the future tap water comes in bottles and Coke comes out of the tap. Just how stoned do you have to be to think up this stuff! Most people would have to consume a good bag of quality skunk before they start rambling “ Right we’ll have Coke coming out of the tap, drinking yoghurt out the bidet and the sofa…will be made of nan bread.” Not content with that Coke then manage the miraculous task of turning decent tap water in Dasani into a cancer scare. Marketing can’t be said to be Coke’s strong point. There now are smokers in pubs claiming the moral high ground, “I won’t touch that Dasani it’s bloody dangerous, “ they rasp, “ should carry a health warning. If I had my way I’d make Dasani drinkers stand on the office front steps if they wanted to drink it at work.” In many ways the Dasani fiasco is the least of Coke’s crimes that activists and trade unionists should be turning their attention to. On the 15th of March in Colombia 30 Coca Cola workers went on hunger strike outside 8 Coke bottling plants. At this point I want you to accept one basic fact; hunger strike is not a negotiating tool often used in the trade union movement, it is the tool of last resort and a symbol of their desperation. If you can’t accept this stop reading now and head straight for the Tesco food voucher competition. Colombia has a bloody history of paramilitaries murdering trade unionists, often in collusion with the armed forces. Coca Cola’s Colombian bottlers* now face legal action in the US under the Alien Tort Claims Act, accused collaborating or hiring paramilitaries to murder, torture kidnap and disappear Coca Cola workers and trade unionists. Eight Coke trade unionists have been killed, Isidro Segundo Gil was killed inside a Coke plant and his wife who campaigned for justice was murdered by the paramilitaries. Now the bottlers have suddenly sacked 91 workers from the plants, 70% are union organisers, Sinaltrainal (The Colombian Food and Drinks Workers Union) say that this is to “essentially eliminate the union”. One trade unionist said “If we lose against Coca Cola, we will first lose our union, next our jobs and then our lives.” In a country that has seen over 3,000 trade unionists murdered since 1987 it is not hard to see how people come to this conclusion. Just over a week into the protest and strikers are already being threatened by the paramilitary AUC, Autodefensas Undidas de Colombia, who issued a statement to “ declare war on the individuals that we have already identified as the leaders of the organisation.They must leave…or they will become a military target and we will finish them off. ANTI SUBVERSIVE JUSTICE WILL CARRY OUT JUSTICE.” The President of Sinaltrainal , Luis Javier Correa Suarez, takes this threat seriously. He should do, there have been two assassination attempts on his life and an attempt to kidnap members of his family. Luis Javier is 40 something, dressed smartly in the way working class men with a modest wage do and looks more like a branch official than a president. Not a man to sit on the side lines he is one of the hunger strikers. It is hard to imagine a British trade union president or general secretary going on hunger strike. The only thing that would put some of them off their food is the prospect of the membership coming out on strike. Which would leave many choking on their chocolate bourbons/canapés (delete where applicable). Of course there are notable exceptions of internationalism from the Scottish Fire Brigade Union to London Unison. Generally though the trade union movement, the people that should be automatically supporting Luis Javier and the other hunger strikers, are conspicuous by their silence. And the silence could be deadly. Will Luis Javier be just another name on a leaflet? Just another on the growing list of 3,000 dead trade unionists? Without international support it is highly likely he will. The upper echelons of the TUCmight not like Luis Javier’s call for an international boycott of Coca Cola, as it upsets the New Labour/business pact. But this is life or death. It is time once again to ask the trade union leadership, “whose side are you on?”         contact details    McLibel Support Campaign 5 Caledonian Road, London, N1 9DX, UK. Tel/Fax: +44 (207) 713 1269 E-mail: mclibel@globalnet.co.uk Web: http://www.mcspotlight.org        related links     - Coca Cola Workers Hunger Strike - Solidarity and Boycott Update - press releases & statements - press cuttings: McDonald's - press cuttings: McLibel - press cuttings: Campaigns - press cuttings: McLibel film - press cuttings: related stuff - The McLibel Trial - witnesses statements, transcripts, evidence