ADNA EVENT: 020908
Message from: Advocacy Network for Africa
For contact information see also:
http://www.africaaction.org/adna [2]

Dear Friends,

Please endorse the Global Day of Protest Against Coca-Cola to
pay for AIDS treatment for its 100,000 African workers. Coke is the
largest foreign employer in Africa. Volkswagen, Heineken and
DaimlerChrysler already pay for AIDS treatments in Africa. Anglo
Gold and DeBeers (diamonds) recently promised to do so.

San Francisco Picket/Protest: NOON, OCT. 17, PACIFIC STOCK
EXCHANGE,
301 Pine (at Sansome--3 blocks from Montgomery BART)

PLEASE ENDORSE: please complete the form at the end of this e-
mail and send it [email protected] [3] or call Phillip (415)
863-4676 for Bay Area info

TO PARTICIPATE: e-mail [email protected] [4] for local actions
or to get help planning one for areas other than SF Bay Area
Protests so far slated for: South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria,
Thailand, Morocco, Paris, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Seattle
and San Francisco

See specific information below on the Coca-Cola Campaign

Endorsers so far:
Treatment Action Campaign (South Africa),
Global AIDS Alliance, USA
European AIDS Treatment Group,
Association Marocaine de Lutte Contre le Sida(Association
Fighting AIDS), (Morocco)
Health GAP, (USA)
ACT UP New York, (USA)
ACT UPPhiladelphia, (USA)
Act Up-Paris, (FRANCE)
ACT UP East Bay, (USA)
the Thai Network of People Living with HIV (TNP+), (THAILAND)
Student Global AIDS Campaign,(USA)
San Francisco Bay View, (USA)
Project TEACH, (USA)
Global Exchange, SF (USA)
WORLD-Women Organized to Respond to Life Threatening
Diseases, Oakland, CA (USA)
First Congregational Church of Oakland, Oakland, CA (USA)
East Bay Community Law Center, Berkeley (USA)
Berkeley Gray Panthers, (USA)
Middle East Childrens Alliance, (USA)
Berkeley Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek & City Councilor Kriss
Worthington (USA)
Hayward City Councilor Kevin Dowling (USA)
Darryl Moore, Peralta College Board, Oakland (USA)
Resources For Survival, (USA)
Northwest Coalition for AIDS Treatment in Africa(USA)
SOJA - students organizing for justice in the Americas, Oakland,
CA (USA)
AIDS Action Baltimore, Baltimore, MD (USA)
University of the Witwatersrand faculty of health sciences, (South
Africa)
Alliance for Justice: Medical Mission Sisters, Wash. DC (USA)
FIAR (Foundation for Integrative AIDS Research), Brooklyn, NY
Nadir HIV Treatment Group, Italian Community Advisory Board,
Bologna (ITALY)
Médecins Sans Frontières, Luxembourg
VSO Mozambique, Maputo (Mozambique)
KENYA ASSOCIATION OF FOREST USERS, Nairobi(KENYA)
Green Students for Environmental Awareness, Philadelphia, PA
NYC AIDS Housing Network, NY (USA)
Bread and Roses Community Fund (USA)
KAIPPG/International, Barrington, RI (USA)
ACT UP/Cleveland (USA)
Artists Against AIDS Worldwide
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (USA)
Drop-in Center for people living with AIDS, New Britain, CT (USA)
Michigan PWA Task Force (USA)
Essential Action Wash. DC (USA)

COCA-COLA, WORKPLACE HIV TREATMENT, AND A GLOBAL
DAY OF PROTEST

Dear Colleagues,

Please distribute the following announcement widely. It invites
organizations to endorse and take part in a Global Day of Protest
against Coca-Cola on October 17, 22, for refusing to provide AIDS
treatment for workers and their dependents in developing countries.

The struggle for expanding affordable access to AIDS treatment
gained a victory in August of 2002, when under pressure from labor
and AIDS groups, the mining giants Anglo American, Anglo Gold
and De Beers agreed to provide AIDS treatment-including
antiretroviral drugs-to their workers. In the case of De Beers, the
offer extends to a single sex partner of a De Beer's worker-but not
to dependents. Gold Fields stands out as one of the largest
mining corporations in sub-Saharan Africa left that still refuses to
provide AIDS drugs to its workforce, with an estimated HIV
seroprevalence of 25%.

While we believe the onus of public health is on the public sector,
businesses have a responsibility to fulfill the human right to
treatment among HIV positive workers and dependents. As
corporations implement workplace treatment programs, pressure is
brought upon on governments who are no longer credible in their
arguments that treatment is not feasible.

Coca-Cola, another corporation that has enjoyed a rapidly growing
market, decades of escalating profit and low labor costs in Africa,
also refuses to pay for HIV treatment for the bulk of its workers.
Instead, Coke issued a policy in June 2001 that only HIV positive
people among Coke administrative staff are eligible for access to
treatment. This leaves almost 100,000 bottlers and distributors
without access to medicines should they become sick with HIV.

We challenge Coca-Cola to fulfill its fundamental obligation- to
implement comprehensive HIV/AIDS workplace programs and
policies, which include treatment and care for infected workers and
their dependents.With the HIV/AIDS pandemic decimating whole
societies, Coca-Cola must take responsibility for its workplace
policies and programs and ensure all HIV infected workers, and
their dependents, have access to AIDS treatment and care.

We ask you to join us in this campaign. Without international
pressure and attention on Coca-Cola, their policy of inaction and
neglect resulting in otherwise preventable infections and needless
illness and death in its massive workforces in Africa, and in Asia,
particularly India and Thailand will not change.

In Solidarity,
Sharonann Lynch
Health GAP
ACT UP New York
USA

Zackie Achmat
Treatment Action Campaign
South Africa

*please distribute widely and excuse multiple postings*
*************************************************************
STOP MEDICAL APARTHEID -- FIGHT FOR AIDS TREATMENT
FOR WORKERS
Call on Coca-Cola, others corporations to treat workers with HIV
OCTOBER 17, 2002: GLOBAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST
CORPORATIONS DENYING AIDS DRUGS

*************************************************************
Join ACT UP, Health GAP, Treatment Action Campaign, and
others to demand Coca-Cola and other multinational corporations
pay for AIDS treatment for workers living with HIV/AIDS in
developing countries.
*************************************************************

DEMANDS
We demand Coca-Cola and other multinational corporations
operating in developing countries:
* Provide all workers and their dependents with comprehensive
healthcare - including life-sustaining antiretroviral treatments.
* Offer confidential HIV testing and counseling to all workers, in the
context of a clear anti-discrimination policy.
* Distribute free condoms in the workplace, and provide safer-sex
and sexual health education classes.
* Develop further HIV/AIDS prevention and education policies in
collaboration with affected employees, their labor representatives,
and community-based health initiatives.
*************************************************************

MORE INFORMATION
Tel: 1-212-674-9598, Email: [email protected] [5]
Go to:
- fact sheet on Coke and workers living HIV/AIDS
- updated list of endorsers and campaign materials
- activist toolkits for students, non-students
- growing list of events, protests

*********************************

HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE GLOBAL DAY OF PROTEST:
ENDORSE the Global Day of Protest against Coca-Cola by filling
out the form below and sending via email to
[email protected] [4].

MOBILIZE people in your area, your organization, on your campus.
Download activist and student toolkits at www.treat-your- [6]
workers.org

ORGANIZE: Activists in the U.S., South Africa, Thailand, Morocco,
and France will take part in a global day of action to protest Coca-
Cola. Similar to other coordinated solidarity campaigns, the groups
will protest Coca-Cola at location in various countries and cities on
the same day. Contact Health GAP for information on how to take
part in your area.

*********************************
Take Action: Tell Coke executives to provide AIDS treatment for all
of their HIV + workers in Africa

1) Write, Fax, and Call Coca-Cola today:
- Phone: 404-676-4971 or Fax: 404-515-2226
- Download and fax in the community letter to Coke's CEO Doug
Daft: www.treat-your-workers.org [7] workers.org/>

2) Join the campaign for access to HIV/AIDS treatment for workers
& families, and the GLOBAL DAY OF PROTEST- Oct 17, 2002.
Contact:
Sharonann Lynch
Health GAP
Phone: 1-212-674-9598
Email: [email protected] [5]
www.healthgap.org [8]
www.treat-your-workers.org [7]

********
SPONSORS
The organizations sponsoring the Global Day of Protest against
Coca-Cola include Treatment Action Campaign (South Africa),
Global AIDS Alliance, European AIDS Treatment Group,
Association Marocaine de Lutte Contre le Sida (Association
Fighting AIDS), Morocco, Health GAP, ACT UP New York, ACT
UP Philadelphia, Act Up-Paris, ACT UP East Bay, the Thai
Network of People Living with HIV (TNP+), and Student Global
AIDS Alliance.

***********************************************************************
ENDORSE THE GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST COKE,
OCTOBER 17, 2002.
SEND TO [email protected] [9]

I / We endorse the Global Day of Protest against Coke.
Name:
Organization:
Email:
Address:
Phone:
Fax
Endorsement is
( ) Individual
( ) Organizational
( ) Both

I / my organization can assist with the following needs:
( ) Will attend / bring others
( ) Will assist with the Global Day of Protest by:

---------------------------
This message is distributed through the Advocacy Network for
Africa (ADNA) via IDEX

Nunu Kidane
Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA)
Communications Facilitator for IDEX
International Development Exchange - IDEX
827 Valencia Street, Suite 101
San Francisco, CA 94110
Tel: (415) 824 8384
www.idex.org [10]