LEWIS FRIEDMAN
2004-10-25 04:06:16 UTC
Below is a letter I sent to Jazz at Lincoln Center protesting the jazz venue
's collaboration with The Coca-Cola Co.:
Dear Friends and Jazz Lovers:
At 63 years of age, I have been a jazz fan for almost 45 years, a frequent
patron at Birdland (in the 50s and 60s), the Jazz Gallery (in the 60s), the
Village Vanguard, the Village Gate, the Five Spot and many other venues
where jazz is played. I have numerous friends who are jazz musicians, whom I
love and respect for their values. Much of my life has been centered around
my love for America's only true original art form.
Jazz has also been filled with musicians who have been supportive of freedom
and justice -- among them, Max Roach ("We Insist: The Freedom Now Suite"),
Charlie Haden (the African National Congress anthem), Billie Holiday
("Strange Fruit"), Charlie Mingus ("Fables of Faubus").
New York City's Jazz at Lincoln Center's partnership with The Coca-Cola Co.
is painful to me. Coca-Cola has been accused in a lawsuit of complicity with
murder, torture and kidnapping of unionists in Colombia. In fact, I have
spoken with Luis Adolfo Cardona, a Colombian unionist who saw his friend
Isidro Gil, his union leader and friend, murdered on Coca-Cola's plant
grounds by paramilitary thugs working with a Coca-Cola plant manager. (You
can read more about this situation at www.killercoke.org and
www.laborrights.org). Luis was kidnapped by the paramilitaries, managed to
escape and came to the U.S. He is currently speaking at schools and unions
about his cause. By murdering unionists, Coke managers are able to bust the
unions and decrease workers' pay - in the case of Gil's plant, salaries went
from $380 a month to $130 a month. This kind of behavior is not American,
nor is it jazz.
Coke has been accused of numerous other human rights and environmental
abuses around the world and had to pay out $192 million to settle racial
discrimination lawsuits in the U.S. and others suits are still pending and
taking water from poor communities in India to produce Coke and to clean
their plants (see www.indiaresource.org).
I have been working with the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke. We gave out the a
leaflet on Thursday night, Oct. 21st, in front of Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola and
Rose Hall. Jazz fans going to the clubs were very interested in our leaflet
and our message. Many took more than one leaflet (the leaflet can be seen at
http://www.killercoke.org/jazzcoke2pg.pdf).
Our Campaign intends to destroy Coke's public image. Already Coke lawyer and
secretary Deval Patrick has resigned his job due to what has been happening
in Colombia, according to an April 22, 2004 article in the Washington Post.
"Coincidentally," Coke has been having problems with sales in North Americaa
and Europe, the two focuses of our Campaign. Of course, Coke and the press
will not admit this, but numerous schools, unions and human rights groups
are supporting a boycott and/or the "Unthinkable! Undrinkable!" Campaign
against Coke. There have been articles in Forbes, Fortune, the Atlanta
Business Chronicle, O'Dwyers PR Daily and most recently, Marketing Medios,
all business publications about Coke's abuses and/or the Campaign.
Delegates of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) found
that their summer conference in New Mexico this year was being sponsored by
The Coca-Cola Co. A resolution was overwhelmingly passed by the delegates
sending the $10,000 sponsorship fee back to the company and calling on the
AFL-CIO to sponsor an independent fact-finding mission to Colombia. I know
$10,000 is not $10,000,000, but some things are more important than money.
I would not like to see jazz, my favorite art form, have its reputation
smeared by a partnership with Coke, even though the company has donated
$10,000,000+ to JALC, or some would say they were bought off by an unjust
multinational corporation that considers their bottom line more important
than human life.
As Juan Galvis Carlos said to me weeks after escaping an assassination
attempt in Colombia, ""If we lose the fight against Coca-Cola, we will first
lose our union, next our jobs and then our lives."
Please reconsider this partnership with Coca-Cola. I intend to bring our
leaflets up the JALC and inform jazz fans of what Coke has been doing in the
world and JALC's relationship with the company.
Sincerely,
Lew Friedman
's collaboration with The Coca-Cola Co.:
Dear Friends and Jazz Lovers:
At 63 years of age, I have been a jazz fan for almost 45 years, a frequent
patron at Birdland (in the 50s and 60s), the Jazz Gallery (in the 60s), the
Village Vanguard, the Village Gate, the Five Spot and many other venues
where jazz is played. I have numerous friends who are jazz musicians, whom I
love and respect for their values. Much of my life has been centered around
my love for America's only true original art form.
Jazz has also been filled with musicians who have been supportive of freedom
and justice -- among them, Max Roach ("We Insist: The Freedom Now Suite"),
Charlie Haden (the African National Congress anthem), Billie Holiday
("Strange Fruit"), Charlie Mingus ("Fables of Faubus").
New York City's Jazz at Lincoln Center's partnership with The Coca-Cola Co.
is painful to me. Coca-Cola has been accused in a lawsuit of complicity with
murder, torture and kidnapping of unionists in Colombia. In fact, I have
spoken with Luis Adolfo Cardona, a Colombian unionist who saw his friend
Isidro Gil, his union leader and friend, murdered on Coca-Cola's plant
grounds by paramilitary thugs working with a Coca-Cola plant manager. (You
can read more about this situation at www.killercoke.org and
www.laborrights.org). Luis was kidnapped by the paramilitaries, managed to
escape and came to the U.S. He is currently speaking at schools and unions
about his cause. By murdering unionists, Coke managers are able to bust the
unions and decrease workers' pay - in the case of Gil's plant, salaries went
from $380 a month to $130 a month. This kind of behavior is not American,
nor is it jazz.
Coke has been accused of numerous other human rights and environmental
abuses around the world and had to pay out $192 million to settle racial
discrimination lawsuits in the U.S. and others suits are still pending and
taking water from poor communities in India to produce Coke and to clean
their plants (see www.indiaresource.org).
I have been working with the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke. We gave out the a
leaflet on Thursday night, Oct. 21st, in front of Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola and
Rose Hall. Jazz fans going to the clubs were very interested in our leaflet
and our message. Many took more than one leaflet (the leaflet can be seen at
http://www.killercoke.org/jazzcoke2pg.pdf).
Our Campaign intends to destroy Coke's public image. Already Coke lawyer and
secretary Deval Patrick has resigned his job due to what has been happening
in Colombia, according to an April 22, 2004 article in the Washington Post.
"Coincidentally," Coke has been having problems with sales in North Americaa
and Europe, the two focuses of our Campaign. Of course, Coke and the press
will not admit this, but numerous schools, unions and human rights groups
are supporting a boycott and/or the "Unthinkable! Undrinkable!" Campaign
against Coke. There have been articles in Forbes, Fortune, the Atlanta
Business Chronicle, O'Dwyers PR Daily and most recently, Marketing Medios,
all business publications about Coke's abuses and/or the Campaign.
Delegates of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) found
that their summer conference in New Mexico this year was being sponsored by
The Coca-Cola Co. A resolution was overwhelmingly passed by the delegates
sending the $10,000 sponsorship fee back to the company and calling on the
AFL-CIO to sponsor an independent fact-finding mission to Colombia. I know
$10,000 is not $10,000,000, but some things are more important than money.
I would not like to see jazz, my favorite art form, have its reputation
smeared by a partnership with Coke, even though the company has donated
$10,000,000+ to JALC, or some would say they were bought off by an unjust
multinational corporation that considers their bottom line more important
than human life.
As Juan Galvis Carlos said to me weeks after escaping an assassination
attempt in Colombia, ""If we lose the fight against Coca-Cola, we will first
lose our union, next our jobs and then our lives."
Please reconsider this partnership with Coca-Cola. I intend to bring our
leaflets up the JALC and inform jazz fans of what Coke has been doing in the
world and JALC's relationship with the company.
Sincerely,
Lew Friedman