News Release

January 19, 2005

Students Against Sweatshops Stunned at the UI’s Repression;

Vows to Continue Campaign for Ethical Purchasing Code of Conduct

Iowa City, IA—Despite the University of Iowa’s attempt to stifle the debate over its relationship with the Coca-Cola Company, a known human rights abuser, the campus group Students Against Sweatshops (SAS) refuses to be silent.  For the second straight morning, SAS launched a pre-dawn operation, this time dropping thousands of leaflets in lecture halls across campus and in the Iowa Memorial Union demanding an immediate drafting of an Ethical Purchasing Code of Conduct.  At 12.20pm today, despite the gag order, group members will take to the Pentacrest to hand out fliers detailing the shameful actions of Coke and describing the UI’s contract which makes it complicit with the beverage corporation in human rights violations worldwide. 

Julia Slocum, an undergraduate student and member of SAS, commented: “The hypocrisy of the UI is astounding during their ‘Human Rights Week.’  Out of one side of the mouth they celebrate the legacy of MLK Jr., and out of the other they shut down a protest of public citizens.  Is this really an institution of higher education where free speech is enshrined and celebrated?”

Yesterday, University of Iowa students marching to the first day of classes were treated to a bit of color on their wintery campus courtesy SAS, who placed hundreds of red and white balloons across the Pentacrest.  Attached to each balloon was a note questioning the UI’s commitment to human rights, and calling for the immediate adoption of an Ethical Purchasing Code of Conduct.  This drew the quick fury of the UI administration, as the Office of Student Life (OSL)—run by Dean of Students Philip Jones—attempted to shut down the discussion.  Despite livid phone calls from the OSL, SAS refused to take down the balloons until the late afternoon, when they had already planned to remove them.  The penalty for this free speech action is yet to be seen; OSL officials threatened SAS with a disciplinary chat later this week concerning “appropriate” and “inappropriate” campus actions.

SAS member and undergraduate student Christine Benavente commented, “It seems to me that what is inappropriate is the UI profiting from Coke’s violence toward union members in Colombia and its use of child labor on El Salvadoran sugar plantations.  Really, in comparison, balloons are rather harmless.”   

At issue are the UI’s multi-million dollar exclusive beverage contract with Coca-Cola and the documented fact that Coke grievously violates the human and labor rights of its workers and those of the communities in which it produces its products.  Most damning is the charge that Coke is complicit in the brutal murder of eight union workers from its bottling plants in Colombia.  In a lawsuit filed in Florida, Coca-Cola has been accused of looking the other way when plant managers in Colombia support paramilitaries in order to destroy unions with extreme violence, including torture and murder, against trade union leaders. 

“What the UI needs to check these abuses is the leverage an Ethical Purchasing Code of Conduct would provide,’” said SAS member and undergraduate student Emily Schrepf.  “Coming together as students and a great university, we can stand up to Coke and demand that they respect human rights.”

Despite Coke’s dismal record, last year the UI renewed its contract with Coca-Cola to run through 2008.  In addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorship money, the University also is guaranteed a minimum amount--usually $400,000 a year--from a percentage of all Coke sales.  With only a couple of exceptions, at all vending locations on campus only Coke products are available, giving students no option but complicity in Coke’s human rights abuses.  The contract began in 1998, and has netted the University millions of dollars thus far.  In return, Coke corners an exclusive market of young students, attaches its name to Hawkeye sports, builds brand loyalty through free campus advertising, and sells itself as the official drink of the University.  The UI-Coke synergy even extends to athletic season tickets and a free day of golf at Finkbine for Coke executives, plus of course the shameful erection of a Coke Herky statue. 

Echoing a growing nationwide chorus against Coke on college campuses, UI Students Against Sweatshops has pressed the administration to act for over two years.  Late in 2004, their demands were finally recognized by the Presidential Charter Committee on Human Rights, which recommended that before a contract renewal in 2008 Coke must “demonstrate that it has taken affirmative steps to remedy the situation in Colombia.”  More immediate, the Committee also urged the University to appoint a task force to study a possible ethical purchasing code of conduct.  The Committee’s recommendations, however, are non-binding. 

“An Ethical Purchasing Code of Conduct is our goal,” notes SAS member and undergraduate student Alexis Bushnell, “and we don’t intend to stop until we reach it.  Yesterday it was hundreds of balloons.  Today it is thousands of fliers.  There’ll be much more in the future.  This is just the beginning.”

Other campuses across Iowa and the nation have also witnessed student revolts against exclusive contracts between Coca-Cola and their universities.  Recently, Iowa State University dumped Coke to ink a contract with Pepsi-Cola.  At Grinnell College, within two days of a campaign kick-off, one third of the student body had signed an official petition calling for a Coke boycott.  Due to the long-term contract, Coke still is the sole beverage supplier at Grinnell, but next to each product dispenser the College placed a sign which reads, “The Grinnell College student body has voted to boycott Coca-Cola products. This is a Coca-Cola product.”  The University of Northern Iowa, meanwhile, chose earlier to sign a contract with Pepsi over Coke.    

In addition to the allegations from Colombia, SAS has consistently pointed out other areas in which Coke’s human rights record is deeply suspect.  Late last year, a slew of newspaper reports came out revealing that Coke buys sugar from El Salvadoran plantations that employ child labor.  Communities in India which have protested that Coke steals their clean groundwater and then pollutes it with toxic chemicals from bottling run-off have been silenced with violence and repressive arrests.  African activists have noted that while Coke is the largest private employer on the continent, and recorded record profits in recent years, it provides AIDS medication to a grossly inadequate percentage of its employees suffering from the disease.      

In the coming weeks, Students Against Sweatshops will continue to build a large public campaign around these issues.  Currently, they meet every Thursday evening at 7pm in the Hoover Room, 255 Iowa Memorial Union. 

UI Students Against Sweatshops (UI SAS)

46 Iowa Memorial Union, University of Iowa

Iowa City, IA  52242

Email: iowasas@yahoo.com   

Website: http://www.uiowa.edu/~uisas       

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