CLOSE THE SCHOOL OF AMERICAS (SOA)!

Witness at Ft. Benning Georgia on Nov. 16-18, 2007

On the weekend of November 16-18, thousands will gather at the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia for the Vigil and the Nonviolent Direct Action to Close the School of the Americas. Take a Stand for Justice! The weekend will include a massive rally, nonviolent direct action training, workshops, benefit concerts, puppet shows, teach-ins and more

The School of the Americas at Fort Benning (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation SOA/WHINSEC) is not an aberration of U.S. foreign policy but a perfect illustration of it. The system of violence and domination being promoted by institutions like the SOA/WHINSEC employs military solutions for social problems throughout the world.

Fort Benning has become a focal point of the people's resistance to this system. In recent months, caravans from Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and the Journey for Humanity and Accountability by Cindy Sheehan and Anne Wright took a stand for justice at the gates of Fort Benning.

In November, social movement leaders from Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Colombia, the United States and other countries will converge on Fort Benning to speak out against empire and call for justice and peace. Join us!

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
Thursday, November 15: Benefit Concert in Atlanta, Georgia; trainings and workshops in Columbus, Georgia
Friday, November 16: Teach-Ins, workshops, films screenings and a benefit concert in Columbus, Georgia
Saturday, November 17: Massive rally with music, speakers and a puppet show at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia, teach-Ins, workshops, and films screenings at the Columbus Convention Center and in hotel meeting rooms in the evening; benefit concert at night.
Sunday, November 18: Veterans march to the gates, commemoration of the victims of SOA/WHINSEC violence at the gates of Fort Benning, nonviolent direct action.

Witness for Peace Events at the School of the Americas Vigil Weekend include:

Friday, November 16
+ 3:30 - 5:30 PM Colombia Teach-In
Explore the issues behind one of the hemisphere's longest conflicts, the U.S. role, and what our community can do to support peace efforts (Presidential Room, Howard Johnson, 1011 Veterans Parkway)

Saturday, November 17
+ 8:30 - 11:00 AM WFP Breakfast / Open House
Meet up with old friends and fellow delegates, and meet new people from the Witness for Peace community (Presidential Room, Howard Johnson, 1011 Veterans Parkway)

+ 5:00 - 6:30 PM Workshop: Violence Against Faith-Based Communities in Colombia
Find new ways of engaging your faith community in solidarity work with Colombia (Convention Center Room 201)

+ 6:30 - 8:00 PM Workshop: The Roots of Migration: Free Trade and US Foreign Policy
Learn more about the roots of migration and the economic "push factors" that force people to leave their countries (Convention Center Room 201)

+ 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM Rally
Enjoy a spirited program of music and speakers at the gates of Fort Benning, and visit Witness for Peace's table!

Sunday, November 18
+ 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM Vigil
Join Witness for Peace for the massive funeral procession in which we honor the thousands of people who have died at the hands of SOA graduates and demand an end to the killing.

HOTELS: If you are looking for housing, contact Alyson Hayes at the Columbus Visitors Bureau to see which hotels have vacancies [(800) 999-1613].

MEDIA OUTREACH: Contact your local media before you leave, to increase the number of people in your area who know about the SOA/WHINSEC issue and who may get involved to close it down. Contact the SOA Watch office at 202-234-3440 or email them at media@soaw.org for more information and resources about media outreach.

NOVEMBER ORGANIZING PACKET: The November Organizing Packet is a good source of information for you and your community as you spread the word about the SOA/ WHINSEC
and as you make plans to attend the November 16-18 Vigil. You can order the packet for $4 from SOA Watch, PO Box 4566, Washington, D.C. 20017.

Carpooling and lodging arrangements with others from our Mid-Atlantic Region: Contact Ray Torres ( rtorres304@aol.com or call him at 215-242-6619) or Serafina Youngdahl ( serafina3333@yahoo.com or call her at 610-942-2061).

Come, one and all, to Columbus November 16-18, 2007!

For a complete and updated Schedule of Events, visit www.SOAW.org or call (202) 234-3440.

End Coca Cola's Violence in Colombia
and the World

Go to Cokewatch's Web Site and join the movement to stop Coke's Violence against its workers www.cokewatch.org

Write to Coca Cola:

Mr. Douglas N. Daft, Chief Executive Officer
Coca-Cola Company
One Coca-Cola Plaza
Atlanta, GA 30313

Dear Mr. Daft:

I am deeply concerned to learn that union workers at Coca Cola facilities are once again under attack. Recent reports indicate that workers at Coca Cola bottling facilities in Colombia, South America have been kidnapped, tortured and murdered. According to the July 20, 2001 lawsuit against the Coca-Cola Company and its Colombian bottler, management relationships with paramilitary death squads have been utilized to intimidate and execute union workers. It is widely known that more trade unionists are killed in Colombia than in all other countries combined but we are alarmed to learn of Coca Cola's indifference to the safety of workers who produce or bottle its products.

It is our understanding that Coca-Cola's managers have been accused of allowing, if not encouraging, paramilitary security forces to murder, torture and kidnap trade union leaders and workers in an effort to prevent union organizing in their bottling plants in Colombia. This obvious injustice denies workers their basic right, as stipulated by the International Labor Organization, to form unions to advocate for their interests, and threatens the lives of workers and their families.

It is clear that Coca-Cola controls aspects of its production, including production that occurs in facilities overseas. Your company has a responsibility to take all steps necessary to end violence against workers. Regardless of Coca-Cola's legal liability, the company's moral responsibility is clear. We urge you to take the following steps to stop the violence against workers and ensure that the rights and safety of all Coca Cola workers are respected:

1. Publicly denounce all violence against Coca-Cola workers in Colombia;
2. Ensure that there is no collaboration between Coca-Cola bottling management and supervisors with armed groups, including the paramilitaries;
3. Cooperate fully with all official investigations into the charges that have been made against Coca-Cola bottling companies in Colombia and conduct an internal investigation, as proposed by the IUF;
4. Appropriately discipline managers or supervisors found to have collaborated with armed groups;
5. Ensure that all core labor standards, including ILO Conventions 87, 98, 135 (with recommendation 143) and 138 are respected at all facilities that produce, package/bottle or distribute Coca-Cola products in Colombia as well as elsewhere in the world; and
6. Negotiate with Coca-Cola unions and their representatives an enforceable international worker rights agreement that recognizes the company's responsibility for the conditions under which its products are produced, packaged, and distributed.

We urge you to take immediate action to stop the violence against workers and ensure that basic human rights are respected in the processing, bottling and distribution of Coca Cola products. Time is of the essence as people's lives are at risk.

Sincerely,

Background

Colombia has become the model of the extreme use of violence to impose neoliberal globalization. Any kind of popular organization that resists is being put down violently--indigenous people, peasants, and workers. Every year more unionists are assassinated in Colombia than in the rest of the world put together.

Coca Cola, through its Colombian subsidiaries Panamco SA and Bebidas y Alimentos de Urabá SA has been participating in this war against civil society in Colombia. During the past ten years eight leaders of The National Union of Workers in the Food Industry, SINALTRAINAL (Sindicato Nacional de Trabjadores de la Industria de Alimentos) have been assassinated. Two have been forced into exile, and another 48 have suffered forced displacement.

The ongoing activities of paramilitary groups, who work hand in hand with the armed forces and the state security forces, serve Coca-Cola and its subsidiaries in their illegal activities: pressuring union leaders often through death threats, breaking collective bargaining agreements, forcing workers to leave the union and to give up their work contracts, and imposing low salaries on new subcontracted workers. This labor policy based on terror allows Coca Cola to greatly increase its profits.

In other countries too-Guatemala, the Philippines, Pakistan, India, Israel, Venezuela, etc.-popular organizations have accused Coca Cola, directly or through its subsidiaries, of using murder, violence, corruption, and violation of labor laws, to achieve their economic goals. In the United States, Coca-Cola has been sued for racial discrimination, for endangering public health, for environmental damage, for genetic contamination, and for polluting water. It has been sued many times, and found guilty several times, but its power has almost always allowed it to escape punishment.

Because of the above, take action to:

Denounce the violence used directly or indirectly to benefit Coca Cola, and the impunity that it has enjoyed.

Demand that Coca Cola cease these activities, and be punished for the crimes it has committed, using legitimate judicial processes

Call upon the United Nations to adopt norms to force Coca Cola and other multinationals to respect human rights.

Support the judicial action taken by SINALTRAINAL against Coca Cola in the United States on July 20, 2001, under the Alien Tort Claims Act.
·
Condemn the judicial actions undertaken by Coca Cola and its subsidiary against Colombian union leaders in response to the U.S. suit.

Join the many groups that are taking action against Coca Cola's illegal activities, and thus proclaim that a better Colombia, and a better world, are possible, without the criminal activities of national and transnational companies.

Demand that Coca Cola and the Colombian government recognize the existence of SINALTRAINAL as a legitimate social actor.

Demand that Coca Cola take responsibility for the harm that it has caused to SINALTRAINAL, to the local communities, and to the victims, and that it provide reparations.

Demand that the Colombian government cease criminalizing social protest and cease jailing union and popular leaders.

Express your support for the "Héctor Daniel Useche Berón" People's Tribunal Against Impunity SINALTRAINAL Calls for Justice, with respect to criminal acts by Coca Cola, its subsidiaries, and its bottlers in Colombia. This tribunal may strengthen the campaign to make Coca Cola end the violence that it has been carrying out directly and indirectly against its workers in Colombia and in many other countries.

For up-to-date information on the SOA call (202) 234-3440 or

Click here to access the SOA Watch page