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Interview with UK students against Coke activist
Interview with UK students Against Coke activist Claire Hall who is coming to Ireland this weekend to speaking at the Connolly Festival. Lara Coleman from London based Colombia Solidarity who has just returned from Colombia where she worked for two months with Sinaltrainal will also be speaking. The meeting will take place at 11.30 in the Teachers Club, 36 Parnell Square this Saturday June 17th
 Boycott Killer Coke campaign 1. How did you get involved in the boycott coke campaign?
I got involved in the campaign back in October 2004. I had just been in a meeting of the expeditions society at the students union when leaving the room, i got handed a flyer for a meeting taking place in the same room. It was a meeting about Cokes crimes in India and Colombia with Edgar Paez from Sinaltrainal and Amit Srivastava from the India Resource Centre. I was curious, there and stayed.
It was that meeting and the consequent smaller meetings with Colombia Solidarity Campaign where my political life began. I spent a lot of time reading about the case, sometimes doubting my convictions, believing what opposition stuff was saying, discussing this with my housemates and trying to come to our own conclusions. This experience is a strength for me when campaigning as I can relate to people who are cynical and 'walk with them', trying to explain the broader contexts so events make more sense to people. .
2. About how many colleges are involved in the boycott campaign in the UK?
First I should clarify what UKSAC is. We are a network of students who started working together when we discovered that our union contracts were national, and hence needed collective national action. We shared information, experience and knowledge about the complicated NUSSL and NUS process and supported each other in getting involved in the bureaucratic side of student politics.
We are not constituted, have no formal decision making structure and as a network have no political line beyond Coke. Each university uses the campaign in their own way, but it hopefully has prompted debate amongst students. For example: In Portsmouth it has united People and Planet, Socialist Workers and the Green party student groups to form the Anti-Coke Coalition.
In the UK there are about 10 universities active but others are taking action without being part of the network. Most recently East Anglia held a referendum where students voted to end relations with Coke and Portsmouth have formed a coalition of different student groups to kick Coke out.
3. Have you heard anything/ have any thoughts about the campaign in Ireland?
In the UK we know little about what is currently happening in Ireland, other than Irish Labour Youth have been giving us a lot of support, which people in the network are really grateful for. The information that we got about the after effects of the boycott at Dublin was really useful and was used on leaflets at conference.
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Wednesday June 14, 2006 16:32
by Jim
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Comments (6 of 6)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6Does this person belong to Labour's comrade sister-party Blair's pro-war Labour Party?
Simple answer: No.
There is no involvement that I'm aware of from members of UK Labour in UK students against Coke. The bulk of the members of activists in the campaign are non aligned with a small number of socialists, environmentalists etc. involved but very little presence from the organised UK left. Anyone I've spoken to in the campaign were strongly anti war and anti Blair which hardly comes as a surprise really!! If they are against US imperialism in Colombia (through Coke attempting to wipe out Sinaltrainal) then they would hardly be for US imperialism in Iraq!
Claire is to the best of my knowledge not affiliated to any political organisation, but she is involved in a squatting movement where she lives, so I think we can safely assume that her politics are quite different to those of Tony Blair. OK so Tony doesn't own the house that he lives in and he doesn't pay any rent, but No 10 isn't exactly a squat.
IMO ,Clair would be entitled to make her case even if she was in the British Labour Party . But she gives an indication of how cut off the student orientated Boycott Coke campaign is from the wider labour movement in Britain when she says ,
“We are not constituted, have no formal decision making structure and as a network have no political line beyond Coke”.
There’s a letter in today’s Guardian from British Labour party representatives – MPs, MEPs and NEC members .It raises the plight of Colombian trade unionists and union leaders , thousands of whom have been murdered by the US backed regime , and calls for a freeze on British military aid to that country .
I hope that somebody at the Connolly conference points out the need for a serious political line on Colombia - one that does go beyond the fatuous and divisive call to boycott Coke . What needs to be addressed is the role of the Colombian state in the suppression of all workers and peasants in Colombia - not just coke workers . It is also neccessary to examine our own government's complicity in an imperialist world order that facilitates the Colombian state in its murderous activities. See:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1797652,00.html
Your arguments have been dealt with again and again on Indymedia, you're totally discredited. The Coke boycott will go on, whatever you have to say on the matter. You've never lifted a finger to help the Colombian people and you never will.
Anton has already hijacked several threads related to Colombia with his/her disruptive trolling. Anyone unfamiliar with his/her work should follow this link and see Anton's track record. Then ignore him/her:
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/69627
Yes there are many socialists and anti war activists who are members of the British Labour Party just like there are Christians in the church. Its a fair point.
Lara Coleman from London based Colombia Solidarity will be addressing some of the wider issues in Colombia beyond the boycott which ANON correctly says need to be addressed. Of course the reality is that awareness of the wider issues in Colombia has mushroomed since this boycott coke campaign has been in place.
I would disagree though with your analysis of UK students against Coke. Yes I would have a preference in the long term for groups that are more formally organised, but UK students against Coke in the last two years has had a very large impact - almost getting Coke boycotted by NUS which would have a massive impact with Coke been removed from hundreds of campuses.
Most of the students involved don't come from formal organisations and as I said the organised British Left is not active on this issue nor does it have much of activist presence on campus. The strenght of this campaign is that it has attracted, politicised and empowered students who were not previously engaged in political action. This is a strength rather than a weakness.