Boycott Coca Cola, say workers in Spain

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queers, national minorities, etc. We support the right of self-determination for oppressed nationalities, including Blacks, Chicanos, and Puerto Ricans. We are internationalists, and Socialist Action is a national organization of activists committed to the emancipation of hold that workers of one country have more in common with workers of another than with workers and the oppressed. We strive to revitalize the antiwar, environmental, labor, anti- their own nation’s capitalist class. We seek to link struggles across national boundaries, and racist, feminist, student, and other social movements with a mass-action perspective. In the to build an international revolutionary movement that will facilitate the sharing of experiences process we hope to bring activists together from different backgrounds into a revolutionary and political lessons. That is why we maintain fraternal relations with the Fourth International workers’ party that can successfully challenge the wealthy elite—whose profit-driven system Recognizing the divisions that exist on the left and within the workers’ movement, we seek to form united front type organizations around specific issues where various groups have Our ultimate goal is a truly democratic, environmentally sustainable, and egalitarian agreement. In this way we seek to maximize our impact and demonstrate the power and society organized to satisfy human needs rather than corporate greed. We invite you to join Socialist Action believes that the capitalist state and its institutions are instruments of the We are active partisans of the working class and believe in the need for independent ruling class, and that therefore they cannot be used as tools of the working class but have to working-class politics—not alliances with the bosses’ parties. That is why we call for workers be smashed. That is why we fight for revolution, instead of seeking to merely reform or work in the U.S. to break from the Democratic and Republican parties to build a Labor Party based within the system. When we fight for specific reforms, we do so with the understanding that in the final analysis real social change can only come about with the overthrow of capitalism, We support the struggles of those who are specially oppressed under capitalism—women, Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly by Socialist Action Publishing Association, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610.

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Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of Socialist Action. These are expressed in editorials. Socialist Action is edited, Clip and mail to: Socialist Action newspaper, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610. H T-shirts shouted, sang, and marched into Ma­ undreds of Coca Cola workers sporting red drid’s historic central square on July 18 to demand the return of their jobs. I was among dozens of Ca­ nadian, American, and Australian tourists who en­ countered this instance of class struggle following our tour farewell dinner in the square.

I spoke to Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) union or­ ganizer Daniel Andres Sobrino about the issues in dispute with the soft drink giant. He told me that Spain’s national labour court had overturned Coca Cola’s dismissal of 1190 workers in that country. The decision was a big boost for the union-led campaign against four factory closures in that de­ Socialist Action: Where we stand is driving down living standards and threatens all life on this planet.

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Name Address City State Zip Phone E-mail pressed economy. The Audiencia Nacional also called for the workers’ reinstatement and payment of lost wages.

The court found that Coca-Cola Iberian Partners, a new Spanish subsidiary of the U.S. multinational formed from the merger of eight bottling plants, had shown “a complete and manifest breach of the obligations” to provide information, and to consult and negotiate procedures. The court also agreed with the applicant unions that the company had un­ lawfully tried to break the strike at the Fuenlabrada plant in a bid to undermine the workers’ “constitu­ tional rights.” The company is appealing the deci­ sion to the Supreme Court.

In February, the CCOO, UGT, and CSIF unions launched a legal challenge after the company de­ effectiveness of mass action. the establishment of a workers’ government, and the fight for socialism. • Ashland, Ore.: damonjure@earthlink. net • Chicago: P.O. Box 578428 Chicago, IL 60657, [email protected] • Connecticut: (860) 478-5300 • Duluth, Minn.: [email protected]. www.thenorthernworker.blogspot. com • Kansas City: [email protected] (816) 221-3638 • LOUISVILLE, KY: redlotus51@yahoo. com, (502) 451-2193 • Madison, Wis.:

[email protected] • Minneapolis/St. Paul: (612) 8021482, [email protected] • New York City: (212) 781-5157 • Philadelphia: [email protected] cided to push ahead with its plans to shut down plants in order to cut costs. The workers urge a boycott of Coca Cola products until their issues are resolved. CCOO blames the dispute on the Spanish government’s 2012 labour law reform, which made it easier to fire workers.

A deep downturn, aggravated by austerity policies over the past five years, has pushed Spain’s official unemployment rate up to 26 percent.

The workers’ campaign has resulted in many consumers’ boycotting the popular beverage. According to El Economista, in central Spain, in­ cluding Madrid, sales diminished by 48.6 per­ cent between Feb. 28, 2013 and Feb. 28, 2014. The company has tried to minimise the effect of the boycott campaign, arguing that in Febru­ ary 2014 alone sales fell only by 2.3 percent. According to the unions, the biggest drop oc­ curred in the second half of January, when the redundancy plan was announced.

The bottler claimed that its re-organisation was necessary because some plants were only operating at half their capacity, due to over-ex­ pansion and weak demand in Spain’s struggling economy. However, its plans floundered when the court ruled that Coca-Cola Iberian Partners had failed to present the union negotiating committee with a detailed account of its re-organisation.

The court declared void the plan to make 1190 workers redundant, of whom 821 had actually been laid off, and to close the plant at Fuenlabrada (Ma­ drid), as well as in Majorca, Alicante, and Asturias. It ordered the company to reinstate hundreds of workers and to issue back pay. At its headquarters in Atlanta, Coca-Cola said it was disappointed with the ruling, adding that its bottling partner intended to appeal. Coca-Cola’s 2013 fourth-quarter profits totalled $1.7 billion euros.

Please send messages of solidarity to Spain’s cola workers at: [email protected]. n For info about Socialist Action and how to join: Socialist Action National Office, P.O.

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