Out of the fizz

In the mid 1970s, a British kid went to live with his grandmother in London. Each day began with a trip to a coffee shop where granny would sip coffee and the kid would have Coca-Cola and sticky bun. The visits to the coffee shop are amongst journalist Mark Thomas’ favourite memories. He drank Coke in his twenties. When his girth got a little too much in his thirties, Thomas switched to diet coke. He associated Coke with an intricate part of his life: the memories of his granny, now dead. Weaving the drink into our lives has been Coke’s greatest advertising feat. Readers in India may not be aware of the Coke campaign early this century: “Coca- Cola touches the lives of millions of people. Do you have a favourite Coca-Cola story? Share your story with us.” Thomas shares his story. He calls himself a recovering Coca-Cola drinker. But Belching Out the Devil is not just catharsis; it is investigative journalism of the highest order. Thomas’ hope is that you’ll link Coke not just to obesity but to gruesome practices. The trail starts at a Coke bottling plant, Sinaltrainal, in Colombia where leaders of a trade union wind up murdered. Deliverymen who work 18-hour days for US $150 a month are dissuaded from unionizing, a situation repeated in Turkey, where workers staged a sit-in at a Coke plant. The management did agree to meet them, but as talks neared conclusion, riot police charged in and attacked the protestors. Thomas gets the standard refrain from Coke reps: “Why are you picking on us?” Thomas tries to build the widest possible consensus against Coke’s practices and that means working with people who see Coke as a slur on global capitalism. One such person is New York lawyer Hiram Monserrate who has taken up Sinaltrainal’s cause in the US. His brief is: “Coke represents American capitalism and so should never be about allowing your workers to be subject to violence or death because they are organizing to defend their rights. What does it say about America?” When Coke gets pressure from all sides, it is forced to act sometimes. It has had to shut down some of its plants in India after communities stood up to it. But the setbacks are ephemeral. Coke is back with a bang in India, even gloating about its rainwater harvesting devices. One thing that I felt was lacking in the investigation was the deal with some of the governments that allowed a multi-national more concessions than it deserved, in many cases leading to abuses. Ôûá

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