In India, for example, allegations persist that demand for Coca Cola is being stimulated through the deliberate creation of severe water shortages.

That's unbelievable – isn't it?Not according to the growing number of protestors who accuse the soft drinks multinational of extensive, serial environmental and human rights abuse. Angry anti-Coke campaigners also say that Coca-Cola has also been:

• polluting the soil and groundwater
• distributing toxic waste from its plants as fertilizer to farmers
• selling toxic drinks in the Indian market - some of which contain high levels of pesticides, sometimes higher than 30 times those allowed by EU standards                  

As a result, thousands have been protesting against Coca-Cola throughout India under the banner 'Unthinkable, Undrinkable'.

It is also widely claimed [1], [2], that communities across India living around Coca-Cola's bottling plants are experiencing severe water shortages, directly as a result of Coca-Cola's massive extraction of water from the common groundwater resource.

The wells have run dry and the hand water pumps do not work any more. Public health authorities have posted signs around wells and hand pumps advising the community that the water is unfit for human consumption.

In two communities, Plachimada and Mehdiganj, Coca-Cola was distributing its solid waste to farmers in the area as fertilizer [1].

Tests by the BBC found cadmium and lead in the waste – both elements are extremely toxic. According to the BBC story Coca-Cola only stopped the practice of distributing its toxic waste when ordered to do so by the state government [2].

Further tests conducted by a variety of agencies, including the government of India, confirmed that Coca-Cola products contained high levels of pesticides. As a result, the Parliament of India banned the sale of Coca-Cola in its cafeteria [3].

Opponents say it is not just India where Coca-Cola is committing atrocities. In Colombia, the company has allegedly taken things further and is charged with complicity in the murder, torture and intimidation of labour union organizers at Coca-Cola bottling plants.

Since 1989, eight leaders from Coca-Cola plants have been killed by paramilitary forces, some of them attacked within the factory gates. It is claimed that other Coca-Cola workers have been unlawfully detained, kidnapped and tortured allegedly often in collaboration with company management.

Union leader Isidro Gil, who protested about conditions in the bottling factories was murdered inside one of these plants, allegedly after the plant manager publicly boasted about using paramilitaries against the union. In response to local union Sinaltrainal’s call for help, the United Steelworkers and the International Labor Rights Fund in the US filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola.

Meanwhile, the 'Killer Coke' Campaign has been growing rapidly on student campuses in the US and Europe. This international campaign has already gathered enormous pace and was hugely popular at the last World Social Forum. Coca-Cola appears to be the largest single corporate target since McDonalds took on the McLibel case.

In the UK last year, the National Union for Students (NUS) overwhelmingly voted to take what could be the first steps to boycott Coca-Cola products from Student Union bars and shops. The NUS is going to vote on whether or not to ban Coca-Cola products from hundreds of campuses in March 2006. SOAS, Middlesex, Leeds and Bristol Student Unions have established the policy to boycott the company from their campuses, and Oxford University is also supporting the boycott.[4]. UNISON, which represents 1.4 million public service workers, supports the boycott.

All of this looks bad for the world's favourite drink. Naturally we asked Coke what they thought about the fact that millions of people are calling them killers and boycotting their products and you can read the answers we got here.

What can you do?  

• Find out: use the links on the right for more information
• Organise a boycott at your student union or school
  Be prepared for an argument since it may be an unpopular choice. Coca-Cola promotes its feel-good-taste-good image with massive energy and resources and isn't known as the  world's most popular drink for nothing.
• Organise a speaker tour or protest by getting in touch with existing protest organisations and movements. 
• Write a blog or article in school or University magazine, make a movie or write a script about the campaign
• Stir up some debate in the Exchange  

1  Christian Aid, Behind the mask. The real face of corporate social responsibility, 21/01/04; C Surendranath
2  Coke vs People: The Heat is On in Plachimada, India Resource Center, 14 April 2004
3  BBC News Coca-Cola's 'toxic' India fertiliser, 25 July 2003
4   Federation of Progressive Student Unions, UK Students Move Towards Coca-Cola Boycott, 11 April 2005
Christian Aid, the publisher of Pressureworks, does not have an official opinion on this matter. All allegations reported in this article and elsewhere on the Pressureworks site are those of third parties and are not necessarily endorsed by Christian Aid. All efforts have been made to confirm the factual accuracy of statements made by third parties and where this has been possible references are provided. Where this has not been possible, all effort has been made to make it clear that opinions expressed are those of people and organisation being quoted and are not statements of fact.