Wow. Talk about an eye-opening reading experience.
Check out this fascinating article, "The Case Against Coke," by writer Michael Blanding, which runs in the May issue of The Nation.
Here’s the description of his story, which you can find on Blanding’s website: "A global, grassroots campaign against Coca-Cola is using product bans and lawsuits to shed light on the corporate giant’s exploitation and brutality in Colombia, India and elsewhere. (The Nation, May 1, 2006)
You’ll find, for instance, this intriguing paragraph:
"In the past two years the Coke campaign has grown into the largest anticorporate movement since the campaign against Nike for sweatshop abuses. Around the world, dozens of unions and more than twenty universities have banned Coke from their facilities, while activists have dogged the company from World Cup events in London to the Winter Olympics in Torino. More than just the re-emergence of the corporate boycott, however, the fight against Coke is a leap forward in international cooperation. Coke, with its red-and-white swoosh recognizable everywhere from Beijing to Baghdad, is perhaps the quintessential symbol of the US-dominated global economy. The fight to hold it accountable has, in turn, broadly connected issues across continents to become a truly globalized grassroots movement."
It is quite interesting to me to get a political perspective on Coke given that my focus is totally on the resounding health ramifications — potentially life threatening — of consuming large quantities of such high-fructose corn syrup-laden beverages such as Coke.
Read Blanding’s mind-boggling article now.