January 12, 2010 Fringe Arts

Corruption Classic

The murder of union leaders at Coca-Cola plants should leave a bad taste in your mouth, say filmmakers

by Madeline Coleman

There just might be blood in that bottle of Coke.

In their documentary The Coca-Cola Case, filmmakers Carmen Garcia and Germán Gutiérrez show that a corrupt government coupled with dependence on cheap labour and marauding paramilitaries make Colombia a perilous place to be a union leader. Coca-Cola plants are no exception. The film accuses the Coca-Cola Co. of complicity in the brutal and near-routine assassinations of eight union leaders by right-wing paramilitaries at Colombian Coca-Cola bottling plants over the last 16 years.

Garcia and Gutiérrez want people to take a closer look at what they’re drinking. Their documentary follows two American lawyers, Daniel Kovalik and Terry Collingsworth, and the union workers whose rights they fight for in an attempted lawsuit against the beverage giant.

The film, which also features activist group Stop Killer Coke, kicks off an international campaign at Cinema Politica next week in conjunction with the National Film Board. The documentary will screen at all Cinema Politica locals over the course of two months, both in Canada and abroad.

Garcia said that one lawyer, Kovalik, broke a confidentiality agreement with Coke in order to continue speaking with her and Gutiérrez during filming.

“He knew if he didn’t talk about the negotiations,” she said, “there was no film.”

The Link: How did Coke react to that?

Carmen Garcia: The first time the film was shown was in Colombia in September, and we don’t know how, but Coke got a DVD copy of the film. They went to the judge who was involved in the negotiations and they said, “Okay, there is a problem there, those people have broken the confidentiality agreement.”

The first decision of the judge was that we had to cut some pieces in the film, but they never talked to us directly. They talked to Dan Kovalik and said, “Okay, you have to ask those producers to have those pieces cut.” But Dan and Terry [Collingsworth] and the head of the Colombian unionists made an objection to the decision of the judge.

So the final decision is that we have to tell Dan when the film is being shown somewhere. Dan needs to try to get as much information as he can from us so he can tell Coke when we are showing the film.

In this case, Cinema Politica will be showing the film all across the country. Has Coke responded to that?

CG: They had the information before me almost. At one point they wrote to Dan saying, “Why didn’t you inform us the film was going to be shown in the Cinema Politica circuits?” Because Cinema Politica and the NFB did put the information online and at the minute they did that, Coke knew. I was not aware, I was aware the next day or two days later. But Coke knew! Maybe they’re very good at getting Google alerts [laughs].

But really, there is not much they can do. We have insurance. Our lawyers talked to the insurance company. There is nothing in the film that hasn’t been said, that hasn’t been public one way or the other. There shouldn’t be any problems.

What has happened with the lawsuits since you finished filming?

CG: Most of the cases have been dismissed, so that’s bad news, but Terry Collingsworth wants to present new cases to the American court. They want to appeal on a few cases. It’s very complicated.

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and his government claim that he’s done all these things for the country: gotten rid of paramilitaries, improved work conditions. We haven’t heard much about unions. What do you think about that?

Germán Gutiérrez: It’s sure that he’s reduced the number of assassin paramilitaries, but not in a proportional number. They’ve killed already 5,000 guys, so now they’ve killed 3,000 guys. It looks like less, but it’s because there’s less people to kill. Less people want to be in unions and less people want to be a leader but they’re still killing a union guy every four, five days.

Have any more union leaders from the Coca-Cola plants been killed recently? In the film you say the last time was in 2002.

GG: No, thank god, no. In the last year there were two union leaders killed from the same union, but it was not related to Coca-Cola. But we know one of the [union leaders] in the film received threats of assassination [on] his personal telephone, at his personal address.

How can Colombian union workers protect themselves?

GG: Unions protect themselves with laws, with words, with demonstrations, by talking to the news. But these paramilitary people, paid by the multinationals, they talk with guns. It’s not equal fighting and that’s why it’s terrible. That’s why we have to do these kinds of films to show the violence against them and how far the multinationals want to go to keep their privilege [of cheap labour].

What do you think Coke will do when we screen this film at Concordia?

GG: For sure they are going to be around. For sure they are going to try to advertise in the student newspapers. I’ve been a few times in campaigns around the country, and the same days we are making these demonstrations against Coke, the student newspapers have published a one-page ad explaining why Coke is innocent.

The fact is, Coke wants to make universities resign [their exclusivity contracts]. [Concordia has an exclusive contract with PepsiCo.]

I showed the film in Bogotá two months ago. It did very well. We had tremendous coverage in Spanish newspapers.

Coca-Cola, the day after, went to one of the major universities and gave Coca-Cola away for free! At the Universidád Nacionál. They never, ever do that.

What kind of effect do you hope the Cinema Politica campaign will have?

GG: To show that the company's not so friendly and not so good with the workers. Boycott it or talk to universities to [make sure they] have free [drinking] water in universities.
I know a lot of people who this year at Christmas time said, “Okay Germán, I’m sorry, but there’s a lot of people coming and I don’t know what to offer them! I bought Coca-Cola, but believe me, after Christmas I will not buy it!” [laughs]
People should be aware of what Coca-Cola is doing.

For the full transcript of this interview, including going up against a corporate giant and why cocaine is the least of Colombia’s worries, visit thelinknewspaper.ca/blog.
The Coca-Cola Case screens at Concordia Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in room H-110 in the Hall building (1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W.). Stop Killer Coke activist leader Ray Rogers and the filmmakers will be in attendance. Admission is free. For more info on the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke, see killercoke.org.