Volume 4, No. 9, September 2003

 

Not only Coke & Pepsi,

Kick All TNCs out of the Country

 — Kamlesh

 

What has come to light in the Coke and Pepsi sale of poisonous material is only the tip of the iceberg of the ways of TNC’s operations in the country. Not only should the top officials of the companies be publicly tried and punished for the harm done to millions of people in the country, their accomplices in the corridors of power should be publicly flogged. These imperialist mafia, with their colonial mentality, consider Indians as lesser beings, that is why they consciously avoid expenditures on the purification of the water in this country while maintaining high standards in their own. No wonder their profits here are ten-fold compared to what they earn in America (which is siphoned abroad through illegal means of over/under-invoicing).

Imagine the extent of the damage already caused to the Indian populace. According to the findings of the CSE (Centre for Science and Environment) 12 soft drink brands of these two companies (that monopolise 90% of the soft drink market), contain pesticide residues varying from 37 times than permitted by the EEC (European Commission) to as much as 76 times. These chemicals can cause brain damage, liver problems, congenital birth defects, and hepatic and reproductive organ damage. Doctors say, with prolonged use some damage is inevitable.

The arrogance of these two foreign companies knows no bounds. Instead of apologizing to the people of our country and promising to increase expenditure on safety standards, they have resorted to threats and bribes to suppress the findings. First they threw accusations that the CSE is not competent to do these tests and only their own imperialist laboratories (one Dutch one) is equipped to do it. This, even though the BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) had validated the testing methods of the CSE. Not only that, panic-stricken by the truth, they have filed a writ in the High Court to restrict the CSE from publishing its report. If their view is true, why then are they so afraid of the full report from being published? Finally the bosses of Coke & Pepsi have even gone so far as to have met with the US embassy to bring political pressure of the American government on the political clan. Immediately, the embassy issued a threat, that there must be a "level playing-field for foreign companies".

What level-playing field are they talking about when the servile Indian establishment have given these foreign companies all the benefits and have not even put any health norms for these companies to follow? Even now, instead of acting on the CSE report, which has been accepted by their own BIS, in order to stall for time and diffuse people’s anger, they have said they will do an independent analysis. Most State governments have also said they will do the same. Finally, unless the people in the country rise up, the findings will get buried as happened with the mineral bottled water issue. Coke and Pepsi will continue robbing our country and poisoning its people — the bureaucrats and politicians will collect their commissions. Even the great demagogue CPM General Secretary, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, has gone on record saying he has nothing against these soft drink companies operating in this country. Even on this occassion the CPM parliamentary boss, Somnath Chatterjee, came to the defence of the Cola giants, chiding his own MPs for putting "irresponsible demands" based on the "questionable findings of some organi-sations."

After all it was during CPM rule in Kerala that permission was given for the setting up of the notorious Coca Cola plant in the tribal area at Plachimada, which has seen huge agitations of the local people. (See Box) Both CPM and now Congress governments have backed the Company to the hilt, sacrificing the lives of the affected 50,000 people in the neighbourhood. The Company’s role here is worse than even the most despicable of bandits.

The Kerala Example

Though the Plachimada Panchayat gave the plant permission to dig only one tube well the Coca Cola went ahead and dug six. Consequently, within just six months of the plant coming up, the 250 odd borewells in Plachimada went dry. Worse, the water in many of them has turned brackish and putrid — unfit for drinking. Tribals even complained of itching and stomach-ache after using the water. Even after consistent agitations and the Panchayat canceling the license of the plant the government refuses to act. In fact the Kerala Pollution Control Board and the Kerala State Ground Water Department has given the company a green chit!!

Coca Cola is one of the sponsors of the World Summit on Sustainable Development - Global Peoples Forum. We can understand the nature UN Summit which is organised with an intention to save the Earth from environmental disaster and pave the way for sustainable development, when the culprits who destroy the livelihood resources of the marginalized people axing their sustainable development, themselves like Coke and other MNCs are the sponsors

 

But this is not all about the criminal ways of this Coke plant. They have been selling/dumping their waste sludge to farmers in the neighbourhood as ‘fertiliser’. Now, here too, it was the BBC, in a programme that exposed that this sludge, besides having zero fertilizer value, has a high level of cadmium — which causes cancer and damage to the human nervous system. Thousands of tones of this waste material were off-loaded in the fields of this region over the last three years. The findings of the BBC have now been confirmed by the Kerala State Pollution Control Board, which, till then, had been in a state of blissful slumber. It has been found that one kg. of sludge contained 201.8 mg of cadmium; a solid is classified as "hazardous" when it contains over 50 mg of cadmium!! So, the waste contained 4-times the hazardous limit!!!

Due to this Coke plant, not only has the ground water level been depleted, the fertile land been destroyed by its sludge, but peoples’ health been severely affected by the cadmium. Now what could be more criminal than this? On top of this the management of Coca Cola keeps denying the accusations, taking decisions to the courts, while the Kerala government is silent. A prosperous fertile land and people are being ruined due to one TNC plant!

But this is not all about the operations of the Coca Cola in the country. They have a notorious reputation for its mafia and goonda ways, again backed by the governments at both the State and center.

Guntur Poison

In Oct 2001 the Guntur Municipal Corporation (GMC) commissioner issued a notice to Sal Sales Depot — Coca-Cola’s Guntur distributor — charging them with distribution of contaminated beverages in 200 ml Thums Up bottles. He seized all stocks at its godown and barred Coca-Cola from selling Thums Up in 200 ml bottles within the Guntur municipal area to prevent an outbreak of an epidemic. The notice also banned all 200 ml Thums Up bottles filled at Coca-Cola’s Atmakur plant on the outskirts of Vijayawada from selling within Guntur, pending plant inspection by an independent government agency.

The drastic step was in response to a 16 August 2001 test report from the State Food Laboratory, Hyderabad, which had found Thums Up’s 200 ml bottles contaminated with Escherichia Coil (E-Coli). "Samples (did) not conform to the standards of total plate count and coliform count. It is, therefore, adulterated," the report said. E-Coli is a major cause of diarrhoea. Its presence indicates contamination of water with human or cattle excreta, says the municipal commissioner’s affidavit before the Hyderabad High Court. The commissioner had taken samples following complaints by Guntur residents.

Here again Coca Cola resorted to strong-arm methods. It moved the Hyderabad HC on 12 November 2001 asking it to declare the commissioner’s order "as illegal, void, without authority, malafide and unconstitutional".

Mafia Ways of Coke

After coming into the country and promising its bottlers security of contract, within a few years it used strong-arm methods to take them over. Within just the first three years it took-over 25 of the 54 bottlers that came under its fold after buying the brands from Parle.

According to a report in Business World: One of its bottlers, Mor, wasn’t the only one whose purchase agreement was abruptly cancelled around 1999 by Coke. Kolkata-based N.B. and S.R. Goenka, too, had entered into an agreement to sell their two bottling plants at Kolkata and Hooghly under Black Diamond Beverages for an amount exceeding Rs 90 crore. That agreement, too, was suddenly revoked. Delhi’s Moon Beverages, run by Pradeep Agarwal, had a similar experience. In 1999, Agarwal claims, Coke insisted that he sell out his Delhi facility as well as his plants in Bilaspur (Narmada Drinks) and Nagpur (Superior Drinks. They had to give up the companies at a fraction of its worth.

To take other examples reported : The story of Kanti Parasrampuria of Indore Bottling. On 4 April 1999, he agreed to hand over his assets for only Rs 20 crore after months of threats and arm-twisting. Says Parasrampuria: "I had to agree to sell both my facilities for only Rs 20 crore. This is despite the fact that my business was valued (at Rs 41.5 crore) by their own valuer M/s John Ford from Singapore. I had no option but to sell at this price because they had already flooded the market with products from an outside territory."

Visit any of those who sold out and you will hear variants of the same tale. These are just a few examples, others even faced direct physical threats over the phone and were forced to sell-off their plant for less than half the agreed price. In all this the governments acted as silent observers — which amounted to backing the foreign company against the Indian bottlers.

Build a self-reliant Economy

India does not need foreign companies to teach us how to make sweet coloured water, with a bit of essence in it. But why is it the even an item like soft-drinks is fully given to the imperialists? It is because the ruling-classes and the government are busy selling one sector after the other to the imperialist powers, all in the name of globalisation and ‘economic reforms’. This time they have been forced to take notice as the people have come into the streets smashing Pepsi and Coke bottles, schools and institutions have banned the drink, and there has been a massive uproar against the two companies.

The operation of Pepsi and Coke are only one example of TNC operations i the country. Their misdeeds and malafidefunctioning are covered up by political collaboration.

India is being robbed and ruined by these TNCs. All political parties, being in full agreement on ‘economic reforms’, act as their collaborators and agents. Now their entire effort will be on how to bail out these companies and diffuse the peoples’ anger against it. For their efforts they will get fat commissions from these foreign mafia.

For there to be any real action against these TNCs the entire people of the country must rise up, boycott their goods, and create a mass upsurge against imperialist operations here and their collaborators.

As a first step let the agitation against Coke and Pepsi and a boycott of their drinks spread to every corner of the country. Long back some Muslim organisations had called for this boycott. So had many a naxalite organisation. Now vast sections of the people have followed. Let this grow into a mighty movement as a first symbolic step to kick all TNCs out of the country.

Struggle at the Kerala Coca Cola Plant

The struggle against the Plachimada Plant of Coca Cola was launched on 22 April 2002 with a symbolic blockade and an ongoing continuous picketing/dharna by mainly the Adivasis, particularly by women and children, belonging to the Eravalar and Malasar communities classified by the government as Primitive Tribes.

The Coca Cola plant is located a few metres away from the main irrigation canal from the Moolathara barrage. The site is located about three kms away from the Meenkara dam reservoir, a few hundred meters west of Kambalathara and the Vengalakkayam storage reservoirs and two kms away from the main Chitturpuzha (river).

The ground water and hence water from the open wells have rapidly depleted in this perennially rich paddy growing belt (paddy is abandoned now with the mostly landless Adivasis loosing their jobs also). The water turns turbid or milky on boiling and is unfit for drinking, bathing and washing clothes etc. Already over 1000 families have been affected in the surrounding villages within a radius of five kms, of which a quarter are Adivasis and the rest Dalits and other non-Adivasis. The villages severely affected are the ‘colonies’ of Adivasis and Dalits such as Plachimada, Vijayanagaram, Veloor and Madhavan Nair colonies in the Perumatty Panchayat and the Rajeev Nagar and Thodichipathy colonies in the Pattanamchery Panchayat facing acute water shortage and contaminated water.

On the 9 June 2002, the agitation against the Coca Cola Plant at Plachimada in Palakkad District, Kerala, India entered the 49th day. Dharna and picketing were going on without respite in front the Coke Plant by the Eravalars and Malasars who are Adivasis officially classified as Primitive Tribes. In the evening, a protest rally took place. This time the police had refused permission to use the mike. The peaceful protesters symbolically dumped the extremely foul smelling dry sedimented slurry waste that Coca Cola had been dumping in the surrounding villages surreptitiously in the fields, in front of the Coca Cola Plant.

Police Crack Down Begins

The police officials were continuously attempting to provoke the protesters using abusive language. A few metres away, a meeting began which was to be addressed by a number of activists from across Kerala and adjacent parts of Tamilnadu.

As the meeting progressed, one of the protesters was beaten in front of the plant without any provocation whatsoever. When the police was questioned, they announced that they were arresting the protesters. About 130 protesters were arrested of whom 30 were women and 9 were children, mostly babies, at around 5 pm and taken to the Chittoor Police Station. Blouses of 5 Adivasi women were torn and some senior officials were particularly keen to abuse and threaten the protesters with further physical attack.

All Party Meet Opposes the Anti Coca Cola Struggle

Earlier, and very significantly, on the previous day (8 June 2002) they hurriedly cobbled up a meeting, from amongst the Coca Cola workers, who are contract and daily wage labourers, under the banner of "Thozhil Samrakshana Samithy" (Job Protection Committee) They had organized an all party protest meeting in Plachimada attended prominently by the local leaders of Janata Dal, CPI (M) and BJP. This meeting was highly provocative and threatened the anti Coca Cola protesters with violence. This is also to be connected to the provocative and brutal behaviour as well as the mass arrests by the police against the peaceful protest and resulted in an intensification of the struggle for the rights of Adivasis for survival and resources for life water.

Earlier on 28 May 2002, 11 activists were arrested at nearby Vandithavalam when they were campaigning there. Another 9 were also arrested from amongst the protesters in front of the plant.

• Coca Cola had approached the high court seeking protection to their property. Any way ever since the launch of the struggle there has been a huge police contingent have been stationed with the Coca Cola plant extending various facilities to protect the plant.

• As the message of the struggle spread in the surrounding areas, there was spontaneous blackening or damage of Coca Cola hoardings in various parts of Chittoor taluk.

Coca Cola Virudha Samara Samithy (Anti Coca Cola Struggle Committee) organized a mass rally and public meeting at Plachimada on 4 August 2002, which marked the 105th day of the continuous ongoing struggle against the Coca Cola monster that began on 22 April 2002. About 300 people have been arrested until date in this peaceful democratic struggle on false cases despite vicious attempts of the Coca Cola Company to thwart the struggle by various means. More than a 1000 people, mostly Adivasis participated. Adivasis from Wayanad, Kannur and Nelliampathy also participated. Led by the children and women, the rally commenced  at Pallimukku in Vandithavalam about 6 kms away from Plachimada

Amongst others, the rally was addressed Sai Baba (AIPRF), A. Bhoomaiah (Telangana Jana Sabha of Andhra Pradesh), Kumar  (AIPRF, Karnataka), C.R Neelakantan Namboothiri (writer and activist with Pooyankutty Samrakshana Samithy and National Alliance of Peoples Movements, Eranakulam, Kerala), Senkottaiyan (Dalit Liberation Party, Tamilnadu), Thomas Mathew (NAPM, Kerala), M.S Selvaraj  (Vyavasayikal Thozhilalar Munnetra Sangam, Nilgiris, Tamilnadu), Advocate Shina (Janakeeya Cheruthunilpu Vedi, Kerala) Nagapandi and Leelavathi (Palanimalai Adivasikal Viduthalai Iyakkam, Kodaikanal, Tamilnadu), Gopala-krishnan, (People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu) and Jaayachandran (Tamilnadu Green  Movement) amongst others besides Shivan Kutty and C. Bhanu from the Samara Samithy. The meeting ended with a glorious tribute to the people in struggle, especially the women and with renewed determination to expand the struggle moving to the phase of the closure of the Coca Cola factory at Plachimada.

 

 

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