Lies, conspiracy, death: these are just a few words commonly used when reading about the battle between the Coca-Cola Corporation and the Killer Coke activist group, an international organization dedicated to see justice served to those affected by Columbian killings. Sinaltrainal, a Columbian beverage union, filed allegations against the Coca-Cola Company in 2001, stating that Coke was responsible for ordering the killings of union leaders to scare their employees into leaving the union. Sinaltrainal came to a United States Florida court to make their complaints, all which were later tested, investigated and dismissed. To this day Killer Coke still blames the Coca-Cola Corporation for the fatal conspiracies. In this battle between a seemingly good union and an evil corporation, the side whose most prone to dishonest tactics will surprise you.

I know, I know, I had never heard of this before either and it does sound horrible, but which side are you going to believe: innocent Columbians who are trying to receive justice for their hardships or the company that produces everyone’s beloved sugar drinks? Well, hopefully I can help you decide.

In this battle between a seemingly good union and an evil corporation, the side whose most prone to dishonest tactics will surprise you.

When I first heard about this incident I thought that I needed to be a good humanitarian and side with the Killer Coke activist group, and to be honest, I even signed the petition to ban Coke from Ohio State’s campus at the involvement fair. Afterwards, I researched this disgusting controversy that Coke is supposedly trying to cover up and concluded that Killer Coke’s whole campaign is based solely on sympathetic persuasive tactics, not factual information. In this case it is a website, KillerCoke.org, dedicated to guilt-tripping unaware young adults into believing the accusations made against Coke. The site’s homepage features a cry for help written by the leader of Sinaltrainal himself. The letter opens with “Dear Brothers and Sisters” and continues with “Coca-Cola bottlers “contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that utilize extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders,” the lawsuit states.” Let’s analyze this for a second, shall we? First, the activists’ primary source of credibility is the person heading the lawsuits against Coke, which guarantees extreme bias. Second, the salutation is obviously chosen to hook the reader on a personal level. Third, the quoted material is not supported by any documented facts and is only directly taken from the lawsuit that has already been investigated by national officials and dismissed in court. Hopefully you are starting realize the ongoing theme of poorly verifiable sympathy displayed by Killer Coke. If your experience with this case was anything like mine, you’re probably starting to change your mind and feel some remorse for the Coca-Cola Corporation.

Unlike Sinaltrainal, Coke’s website bases its argument on facts, rather than in empty sympathetic appeals. Coke’s website, Cokefacts.com, verifies their innocence through documented facts and safety reports filed by an unbiased third party, Cal Safety Compliance Corporation. CSCC is a globally respected organization that investigates a company’s work environments and practices to make sure they are socially acceptable and employee friendly. This is unlike Killer Coke’s “evidence” which consists of sob stories quoted by unaccredited Columbians who are looking for compensation for their suffering. Some Columbians have been murdered, that is a fact. But these murders are likely the consequence of an unstable government and crooked militia, not of the Coca-Cola administration’s ordered hits. Yes this is horrible, but to pin these horrifying happenings on Coke primarily because they provide so many jobs for Columbians is unfair to say the least. Coke established work environments in Columbia for convenience of domestic inputs and the hiring of many workers, not to be used as a cop-out for the Columbian government.

You may say that I’m just a huge Coke fan. Well, if that’s your reasoning then who’s not to say that Killer Coke activists are nothing but Pepsi addicts? And no, I’m not a huge Coke drinker, just a girl who doesn’t want to support the pathetic side of the debate that has to use sympathy to gain support. And you may believe that Coke’s marketing is only effective on me because I’m a stubborn 18-year-old who doesn’t like to be told what to believe. If this is true, look at the competing websites for yourself. Cokefacts.com provides direct links to the facility investigation reports, court ruling documents and their employee safety guidelines. You’ll notice that Killer Coke primarily targets college students to do their campaign and rally for the termination of Coke product contracts, not large corporations. They do so because they know universities are large contributors to purchasing Coke products and students are a gateway to more activists because of our growing intellect and interest in learning. Killer Coke raves about all of their student activism and speaks of the numerous schools involved across the country, but how many large contributing corporations are spoken of on their site? If there were corporate sponsors for the activist group it would show that even educated professionals and multi-million dollar businesses believe that the allegations stated represent enough evidence to take stand. But they don’t; I studied that website, and I couldn’t find a single one.

Students our age need to recognize truth from fiction and research both standpoints before they exert time and energy into trying to change a cause through the wrong approach. If our generation fails to do so and believes everything we hear, our children will be born into a world that allows personal opinion to alter the lives of the innocent without a second glance. Lies, conspiracy and death might not be referring to the Columbian accusations, but to Killer Coke’s campaign goal of destroying the Coca-Cola Corporation.