The Coca-Cola Case

Yesterday I watched Cinema Politica’s premiere of The Coca-Cola Case, a documentary that follows the efforts to stop Coca-Cola’s complicity in labour relations abuses, including murder and torture of union members in Colombia. I was primed for the film by this blog post at Art Threat, where you’ll learn that Coca-Cola sent a legal letter to Cinema Politica in an attempt to stop the Canada-wide film tour.

A particular scene from the film really sticks with me (among numerous very strong scenes). It’s when there is a small pro-Coca-Cola rally at the University of Chicago. One student shows up with a placard that reads, “Fuck Human Rights.” He then explains that, basically, everyone should be free to drink Coke, and that if there are human rights abuses in Coke’s bottling plants, well, that’s just capitalism, that’s how it goes.

At the film’s conclusion, you wish that Coke were not such a corporate behemoth that it can so often dodge the activist lawyers and filmmakers who try to hold it to account. It is remarkable the number of times in the film where Coca-Cola’s representatives are public no-shows; they always insist on doing everything behind closed doors. When Ray Rogers, anti-Coke activist, presented his case at the University of Chicago, filmmakers captured the whole thing. Many of those in attendance were anti-Ray Rogers and pro-Coke. Nevertheless, when Coke personnel showed up for their part of the debate in the same lecture hall immediately afterward, they demanded that the cameras leave.

Even within Coke, there are shareholders who are aware of Coke’s widespread complicity in criminal behavior. We hear  them expressing their uneasiness directly to Coke’s CEO at a shareholders’  meeting.  You never actually see the shareholders; it is an in-house production of Coke’s and the camera stays immobile on the CEO’s stony face. He sips some Coke (of course!) every now and then, and refuses to give any straight answers.

I have very few quibbles with the film. A few more factual details would have helped bolster the cause. There is a very revealing interview with two very young men who drive Coca-Cola delivery trucks in Colombia. Their working conditions sound deplorable: 13-hour days, they are responsible for any losses and breakages and hold-ups and robberies  that occur on the job – the money is taken directly from their own pockets – and in exchange for all this, they earn $1/hour. I can imagine some crusty old capitalist codger saying, “But $1/hour must be a small fortune in Colombia!” It would have been nice for the film to furnish more details such as what exactly is the buying power in Colombia of $1. But the looks of mischief on the faces of the young men after a Coke security guard comes along to see what they’re up to, well, that is priceless!