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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

No Sweat! protests IU's contract with Coke

In a march Wednesday from the Indiana Memorial Union to Ballantine Hall, a group of 14 students protested IU's contract to sell Coca-Cola products. The students were members of No Sweat!, a student organization opposed to labor abuses and corporate globalization, according to the group's Web site. \nNo Sweat! protested the University's contract with Coke in response to ongoing allegations that Coca-Cola is part of human and environmental rights violations in several countries and that it had a hand in assassinating union leaders at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Colombia. \n"It's not just a matter of treating workers badly," Ursula McTaggart, a graduate student part of No Sweat!, said. "Union leaders have been murdered, kidnapped (and) tortured in Colombia since 1989." \nSome marchers carried cardboard headstones with the names of the eight workers who No Sweat! claims have been killed in Coca-Cola bottling plants. \nOthers carried a life-sized cardboard coffin with "Coca-Killers" written on the front in Coke's trademark script. \nThe coffin was draped with a Colombian flag. "We're trying to raise aware\nness among the student body so that we can push the administration to not renew the contract with Coca-Cola unless (Coke is) willing to change their human rights policies," said senior Solomon Boyce, another member of the group.\nThe IDS reported in January that IU receives approximately $1.7 million annually from its contract with Coca-Cola. The contract is set to expire in 2009, according to the article. \ntion," said senior Cara Berg, who witnessed part of the march. "I think it's really excellent that No Sweat! continues to bring international issues to our atten\n"Often --our students are unaware of what's going on in the world."\nFreshman Kevin Sheehan said he thought the march was an effective way to bring attention to the charges against Coke since he was unaware of them before yesterday's protest. \n"It's not that often you see a coffin on the street corner," he said, pointing to the demonstration. "It's a cause I have not heard about. It's interesting, but before I\ngive any support I'd probably have to research it a little more to see what the facts are." \nOther students said they had already formed opinions about the soft-drink giant before the march. \n"I don't like Coca-Cola anyways because I heard it kills (workers)," freshman Jessica Harden said. \nSophomore Connor Shea said he was wary about IU canceling its contract with Coca-Cola because he has not seen hard evidence that Coke was directly related to the deaths in Colombia. He also said he is not sure that Coke is the only corporation capable of human rights abuses. \n"Pepsi might do the same stuff," he said. \nSenior Andrea Kopp voiced similar sentiments. \n"I would be concerned with what would happen if we changed our contract," she said. "Would we get a contract with someone else who has similar problems?" \nRegardless of whether the University takes notice of the march, McTaggart said No Sweat! would continue to try to educate students about IU's Coke contract. \n"You have to keep talking about (this issue) if people are going to be aware of it," she said.

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