activism report: firing the first shot at coca-cola

Okay I must be crazy. I normally don't do this type of thing, but I'm motivated now. I wrote a letter to the student senate at Teachers College, Columbia University regarding a ban of all Coca-Cola products on campus. Someone wrote back saying that they can't do anything because the senate doesn't control who the school contracts with. I replied asking them if the senate can just raise the issue with the administration, and the person suggested I write to the president of the student senate. So I did. I also wrote to the Killer Coke group asking them for advice on how to start a campaign.

Anyway, this could fall flat on its face, or it could go somewhere. I think I'm going to enlist more students' help. My only concern is that I'll not have time to follow through with a lot of this so please keep pushing me.

Here is my letter to the president:

Dear XX:

I am writing with regards to the Coca-Cola vending machines and Coca-Cola products sold on the Teachers College campus. In the past few years, in response to allegations of human rights violations in Colombia, India, Turkey, and Guatemala, many institutions such as New York University, Rutgers University, The University of Michigan, Harvard University, Hofstra University, the Union Theological Seminary, CUNY, and the AAA (American Anthropological Association) have issued bans of Coca-Cola products on their campuses in protest. In NYU, for example, it was action initiated by their student senate that ultimately led to the ban. I would like to implore this student senate to follow similar action as a signal to Coca-Cola that Teachers College will not stand for its human rights abuses.

I understand that this process is arduous and time-consuming, and hope that the student senate will take the proper steps in putting this into action. Please email me if you have any questions or advice to help make this happen.

For further reading, please check out:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_04/b3968078.htm

http://www.sbindependent.org/node/1594

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=511674

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=510774

http://www.killercoke.org/

For a full list of institutions that have banned Coca-Cola:

http://www.killercoke.org/active-in-campaign.htm

Sincerely yours,

Aaron