CSR issues catch up with Coca-Cola as students find their voice

There was a time when student protest held governments to account, although by the time I made it to university, at the end of the Thatcher years, it was all pretty muted. But it looks like today’s students are echoing the language of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and holding the world’s largest brand to account. Michigan University has banned Coca-Cola, following New York’s lead, after allegations of human rights and environmental abuses. Now the protest has reached Britain where NUS Services acts as buyer for all the UK’s student unions and so has the power to remove Coke from every campus: Coke’s had a close call.

One allegation surrounds the company’s operations in Columbia where union leaders have been murdered. The Campaign to Stop Killer Coke has cited Coke’s ability to operate with ease, despite ongoing violence, as evidence of collusion. That evidence is not only circumstantial, but also very revealing. It shows that corporations are increasingly expected to rise above local politics and to take social responsibility by aiding the export of positive values and the development of peaceful and democratic civil societies.
Contact Stephen Newton

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