[Seattle-editorial] Feature proposal: Coke

[Jeremy Kahn]

approve. Good local/global story.  Thanks Jonathan!

link for CCCS needs to begin with http://  or else it will look on the 
Seattle site, inappropriately.

--jeremy

jonathan lawson wrote:

> subtitle: ADVERTISING IN SCHOOLS
> title: School Board Can't Say No to Coke
>
> Ignoring a deluge of emails and phone calls, the Seattle School Board 
> <a 
> href="http://seattle.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=30255">voted 
> to renew</a> a controversial five-year contract placing Coca-Cola 
> products in public schools. Opposition to the contract has been 
> organized by the <a href="www.scn.org/cccs">Citizens' Campaign for 
> Commercial-Free Schools</a>, who presented testimony from doctors and 
> nutritionists arguing that the sugary, caffeinated drinks peddled from 
> vending machines pose health risks to growing kids.
>
> <p>In 2000 alone, the Coca-Cola Corporation sold $20,458,000,000 in 
> its extensive line of beverages, which includes Odwalla, Fresh 
> Samantha and Minute Maid juices, Dasani water, PowerAde, Hi-C, Five 
> Alive, Fruitopia and Thumbs-Up, among many others. While many school 
> systems like Seattle's still grant Coke monopoly access to their <a 
> href="http://archive.salon.com/comics/tomo/1998/04/20tomo.html/">captive 
> audiences</a> of students, a growing number of districts have 
> restricted or banned sodas from schools.
>
> <p><b>July 22</b> has been declared an <a 
> href="http://thunderbay.indymedia.org/news/2003/07/7411.php">International 
> Boycott Coke Day</a> in protest of human rights abuses by Coke 
> bottling companies in Colombia, where the president of bottlers' union 
> Sinaltrainal called Coca-Cola "one of the most <a 
> href="http://www.marxist.com/Latinam/colombia_interview.html">reactionary 
> and repressive companies</a> in Colombia." Over the past two decades, 
> many trade unionists have been intimidated or assassinated by 
> right-wing paramilitaries. <a 
> href="http://www.kpft.org/news/041603story5.html">A lawsuit</a> 
> against the bottlers is currently in the US courts.
>
> [image: 
> http://seattle.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/coketoss.gif 
> ]
>
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