attached mail follows:
In Barcelona, major AIDS groups from across the globe issued a call for
actions on October 17th demanding AIDS drugs for Coca Cola's 100,000
employees and bottling plant workers in Africa. The numbers of countries and
cities planning actions is growing rapidly, and the company is running
scared. Please help keep the pressure on Coke -- we are about to win a
historic victory!
PLEASE ENDORSE: please complete the form at the end of this e-mail and send
it to info@healthgap.org
TO PARTICIPATE: e-mail salynch@healthgap.org for local actions or to get
help planning one.
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: info@healthgap.org
Go to: http://www.treat-your-workers.org
- 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 salynch@healthgap.org.
MOBILIZE people in your area, your organization, on your campus. Download
activist and student toolkits at www.treat-your-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
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: info@healthgap.org
www.healthgap.org
www.treat-your-workers.org
********
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.
Full list of endorsers below.
***********************************************************************
ENDORSE THE GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST COKE, OCTOBER 17, 2002.
SEND TO INFO@HEALTHGAP.ORG
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:
***********************************************************************
SEND TO INFO@HEALTHGAP.ORG
For background information on the campaign to expand access to AIDS
treatment in developing countries: http://www.globaltreatmentaccess.org
Paul Davis
Health GAP
ACT UP Philadelphia
e: pdavis@healthgap.org
t: +1 215.833.4102 (mobile)
f: +1 215.474.4793
w: www.healthgap.org
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