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ACTIVISTS CHALLENGE COCA-COLA OVER WATER ABUSES AT ANNUAL SHAREHOLDERS' MEETING Students, Community Leaders and Corporate Accountability Activists Urge Soft Drink Giant to Stop Draining Water from Communities in India For Immediate Release: Contacts:
From L to R: Dhruti Contractor, founder of the Georgia Indian American Political Action Committee; Jim Fassett-Carman, Corporate Accountability International member and activist; Illai Kenney, founder of Georgia Kids Against Pollution; and Gigi Kellett, Corporate Accountability International Associate Campaigns Director. "Ensuring that people have access to water is an emerging global crisis. In draining water from communities for soft drinks and bottled water, Coke is an industry leader that threatens this very basic human right. The soft drink giant gets away with these irresponsible and dangerous actions because of its political and economic clout. Our members are joining with people around the world to reject Coke's abuses," said Corporate Accountability International Associate Campaigns Director Gigi Kellett, today at the shareholders' meeting. The movement challenging Coke's abuses is growing. In just a few months, thousands of Corporate Accountability International members and activists have joined with allies in India to demand that Coke stop stealing water, and start by permanently closing the Plachimada plant, shutting down its plant in Mehdiganj, and paying for the damage it has done to affected communities. "Mr. Isdell, Coke's practices in India are devastating people's lives. Your lies and abusive actions have fueled outrage and distrust," said Sandeep Pandey, a National Convenor of India's National Alliance of People's Movements, in a written statement delivered at the shareholders' meeting. "When will you take a first step in the right direction, and permanently shut down your bottling plants in communities that have rejected your abusive practices, like Mehdiganj and Plachimada?" Pandey's statement was delivered by Jim Fassett-Carman, a Corporate Accountability International activist who marched 150 miles with Pandey and other supporters in November 2004. The march culminated in a peaceful 1500-person protest at Coke's plant in Mehdiganj, where water levels have dropped over forty feet and farmers do not have enough water to irrigate crops. Coke also faces dissent from community leaders in Atlanta, Georgia -- its hometown. According to Dhruti Contractor, founder and director of the Georgia Indian American Political Action Committee, "This issue is personal. While Coke's abuses may not affect our families in India directly, they really hit home. I believe that for Indian Americans in metro-Atlanta and Georgia, we have an obligation to act on this issue." Illai Kenney, a spokesperson for Kids Against Pollution and a national coordinator for Black Youth Vote, another group working with Corporate Accountability International, also came from Atlanta to speak at today's meeting. "You may think I am young, gullible, and idealistic and that I don't understand business. You are wrong. At 16, I have already visited villages where there are almost no adults due to AIDS and I have seen children who are sick because they do not have access to water. These experiences not only compel me to take action to end these abuses but also drive me to educate others -- especially my peers -- to challenge Coke," sixteen-year-old Kenney says. Corporate Accountability International has joined the growing number of labor and environmental groups who are challenging Coke's abuses, and is highlighting its failure to meet the Standards of Political Conduct for Corporations. At the demonstration outside of the annual meeting, which included a number of organizations, Corporate Accountability International volunteers carried banners telling Coke to "stop stealing water" and hung pictures arranged like prayer flags in front of Hotel Du Pont. The enlarged pictures were taken at Corporate Accountability International demonstrations in Atlanta, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and on the march to Coke's plant in Mehdiganj, India. # # # Corporate Accountability International, formerly Infact, is a membership organization that protects people by waging and winning campaigns challenging irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world. For over 25 years, we've forced corporations -- like Nestlé, General Electric and Philip Morris/Altria -- to stop abusive actions. For more information visit www.stopcorporateabuse.org.
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Related Links: Statement of Illai Kenney, Georgia Kids Against Pollution at the Annual Shareholders' Meeting of Coca-Cola |
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