The international campaign to boycott Coca-Cola scored a first victory in Ireland with the recent succesful passing of a referendum on University College Dublin's Belfield campus to ban the drink from Student Union outlets. The campaign aimed to pressure Coca-Cola into addressing the murder of union activists in its Colombian bottling plants. But now an attempt to repeal the result of the UCD referendum has led to a re-run of the referendum being planned for November 18th (evening) and 19th (all-day). Apparently as a result of the negative publicity around this issue the Coke Company will dispatch a heavy-hitter to Ireland from their head office to try and stop the campaign in its tracks.

When you drink Coca-Cola remember that you are contributing to a process which sows unemployment, hunger and pain. The young, happy image projected by Coca-Cola masks the suffering and the return of profits from Colombia to the U.S. We ask Coca-Cola to stop killing and you to stop drinking Coke.
Carlos Julia -- SINALTRAINAL

The Coca-Cola Company has been accused of bearing responsibility for the murder of activists from the SINALTRAINAL trade union in Colombia. These Trade Unionists are counted among the approximately 2000 Trade Unionists who have been murdered in the last decade by right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia (60% of the deaths of union activists in the World occur in Colombia). What has drawn particular attention to this case is the fact that that they both worked in bottling plants which are used by The Coca-Cola Company: Panamerican Beverages and Bebidas y Alimentos. The human-rights abuses perpetrated against such Union Activists also include the kidnapping of their children and the burning of union offices.

A significant amount of evidence to support the view that Coca-Cola is at least indirectly responsible has emerged and this has led to the growth of an international campaign which aims to pressure the multinational to do everything reasonable to protect union activities in its plants. One of the facets of this campaign is a lawsuit filed by the US United Steelworkers Union and the International Labour Rights Fund. The Coca-Cola Company has thus far been able to escape appearing as a defendant in court, arguing that it is not responsible for the actions of companies that it employs to bottle its products. A representative of the SINALTRAINAL Union will be speaking in Belfast, Derry and UCD in the very near future to thank Irish activists who have taken part in the campaign against Coca-Cola.

One group of Irish activists, as part of this international campaign, mounted a very succesful education initiative in University College Dublin (UCD) and scored a narrow win in a referendum which banned Coca-Cola from Student Union outlets. This success occurred despite the interference of SIPTU officials (the trade union which nominally represents the interests of employees of Coca-Cola in Ireland).

Several announcements followed from activists in several other colleges and businesses indicating that they intended to spread the Campaign and keep Coca-Cola on the run, but to this happy chorus has been added the discordant voice of reaction: some students in UCD Belfield who believe that The Coca-Cola Company should not be boycotted have forced another referendum in an attempt to repeal the Coke Boycott. Interestingly, although The Coca-Cola Company doesn't even bother listing Ireland on its "World" pages, it has decided to dispatch a spin-meister to Ireland (reportedly the director of communications in Latin America, Rafael Fernandez Quiros) to claim that the campaign is based upon "urban legends".

Direct Action In Dublin ''...Theologian John Robinson, who did a similar occupation of the same building previously, had decided that his conscience was calling him to do so once more. He was ultimately joined by six like-minded people, including Iraqi peace activist Nuria Mustafa (who will appear in Shannon District Court on November 20th along with several others on charges of obstructing traffic near the airport on June 21st). Nuria, who is currently fasting for Ramadan, prayed with John and others for the casualties of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, in what was a truly ecumenical act of civil disobedience. The seven constructed a shrine to the Iraqi dead, recited the Office of the Dead and chanted Muslim prayers, as they nonviolently confronted the Aviation Authority on its complicity in the ongoing war and occupation of Iraq.'' - Deirdre Clancy, of the Catholic Worker

Top Oil Picketed In Galway ''A group of peace protesters gathered on Monday to picket the Galway Oil Company offices. Galway Oil being the local distributers of Top Oil, the company which provides pit stop services to the U.S. military at Shannon, including re-fueling. They then went and leafleted Shop Street - main street in Galway, asking people to boycott Top Oil. Other local distributers of Top Oil include - Mid Western Oil Products and Ennistymon Oil in Clare, John Dunne oil in Castlebar, Kelly Fuels in the North, and Ger Conway Oil in Kildare. The Top Oil Boycott Working Group within the Irish Anti-War Movement is currently developing plans for a rolling campaign against the company, with weekly actions in different parts of the country.'' - Kieran Cunnane, from Galway

Also... - More Top Oil Protests. - Military Overflights over Ireland are Continuing - Non-violent direct action plans coming from Limerick - Grassroots Gathering in Galway, this weekend! What Donald Rumsfeld really thinks: The Iraq war will be 'a Long, Hard Slog'

Mass Civil Disobedience Planned For Shannon Airport "It is worth remembering that on February 15th more than 100,000 people marched in Dublin against U.S. plans to invade Iraq and against Irish complicity with the American military. They were treated with contempt by the Irish government, which ignored the huge turnout and instead continued to assist the build up to war. Tens of thousands also marched in other urban centres and on Shannon airport itself, and they were similiarly treated with contempt by Fianna Fail and the PDs. This attitude persists and Shannon airport continues to be shamed by the presence of U.S. warplanes. In fact, the airport is openly assisting the occupations of both Iraq and Afghanistan. That is simply not acceptable." - Fintan Lane, on the upcoming December 6th Protest at Shannon Airport led by the Irish Anti-War Movement

"Stand in front of a bin truck and they may well jail you. Pocket millions, some of which would have otherwise gone to health or education, and they will ask you over for dinner."

They hang the man and flog the woman
That steal the goose from off the common,
But let the greater villain loose
That steals the common from the goose.

The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine.

The poor and wretched don't escape
If they conspire the law to break;
This must be so but they endure
Those who conspire to make the law.

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
And geese will still a common lack
Till they go and steal it back.

As the US/UK occupation of Iraq descends further into chaos, the recently reorganised Irish Anti-War Movement has announced a blockade of Shannon Airport to take place on Saturday 6th December. The Blockade is in protest at the ongoing use of the airport by the US Military. Almost 100,000 US Troops have passed through the airport on their way to the Middle-East since the beginning of the year.

Other Developments:

A group of peace activists have called a meeting in Limerick on Saturday 1st November aimed at establishing a non-party political group focusing on the use of non-violent direct action tactics to halt the use of the Airport by the US Military.

The IAWM have also issued an invitation to Legal Professionals to attend a meeting on 8th November in Dublin with a view to establishing an expert legal committee.

The Catholic Worker Five are due to appear in court in the very near future and activists in Galway and elsewhere are preparing solidarity actions for the occasion.

Useful Offsite Links:
Global Indymedia Feature on Iraq
Iraq Occupation Watch
Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq
Human Rights Watch on situation for civilians in Iraq

Mainstream News Commentary:
Robert Fisk in Counterpunch notes the high suicide rate among the troops, lack of official investigations and body counts of murdered Iraqi civilians, the sustained level of attacks and the schizophrenic perception of the situation by US officers. George Monbiot in the Guardian dismisses the three ostensible reasons for which Bliar and Co. went to war and points out the especial hypocrisy of US support for Uzbekistan's current regime. Meanwhile Bush is quoted on CNN as inadvertently linking "our progress" with civilian deaths:

"`There are terrorists in Iraq who are willing to kill anybody in order to stop our progress,' Bush said. `The more success we have on the ground, the more these killers will react -- and our job is to find them and bring them to justice.'"

The Socialist Workers Party is running a candidate for the post of Vice-President of SIPTU. The Election is to take place in January 04. Des Derwin, an unaligned socialist (and a previous election candidate for the position of General Secretary of SIPTU) who announced in October that he was running for the position published his reaction on Indymedia. Follow the link below the excerpt for the full text of his reaction.

"In over thirty years of political activity I cannot recall a more astonishing act of pure sectarianism on the socialist far left. They are running a candidate with no surface difference of policies to mine. As it is a trade union election they cannot run as an organisation. There can be no defensible reason for them standing a candidate against me. Not only have I worked with them in SIPTU and actively supported their member Carolann Duggan in four successive SIPTU elections, but also, as I detail below, they were instrumental in persuading me to run for General Secretary just last year. I might add that not only have I worked with the SWP in various campaigns and bodies, trade union and other, including the recent Socialist Alliance, down the years, but that I have been in recent times an increasingly isolated voice on the rest of the far left for working with and not writing off the SWP.

Now, when I am actually in a better position to run, having stood last year, I am not good enough and they put up a virtual unknown. The effect will be (particularly in the absence of a soft left candidate - though there's a whisper of one emerging) to split the left vote. To run against a radical socialist candidate in a general election (which the SWP did once against the Socialist Party) is bad enough. Seemingly identical organisations vying for votes is a scandal to ordinary workers. But to run a candidate against a long established, independent oppositional activist, with a thirty-year history of exactly similar ‘Rank and File-ist’ policies (i.e. myself) in a trade union election, where candidates are standing on trade union issues and trade union records, is sectarianism and sectism without any cover."