BY HARRIS KORNSTEIN

In print | February 23, 2006

Last week, Swarthmore’s very own Kick Coke Campaign won an impressive victory — after much discussion and debate, the President’s staff decided it was time to stop selling bottled Coke products at Essie Mae’s and at the Kohlberg and Science Center coffee bars. I commend the administration for taking this step that pressures Coca-Cola to improve its business practices and to end its human rights abuses. Equally important, I thank the Kick Coke Campaign for not only achieving a tangible and significant victory, but also for demonstrating that student organizing can indeed shift institutional power. It’s an example I think a lot of students at Swarthmore can (and should) learn from.

Still, it’s only a small step. Swarthmore is but a small school, and the bottled soft drinks remain but a fraction of our contract; simply put, Coca-Cola isn’t likely to give in yet. My point, however, is not to criticize the Kick Coke activists’ work or goals but rather to say, “Great! Now Swarthmore needs to take it one step further!” Victories are important, and sometimes it’s necessary to take what you can get; but it’s also important not to stop organizing until one’s demands are fully met, or at the very least, until an appropriate compromise can be made. A small victory can be a cause for celebration, but it doesn’t mean the pressure has to stop.

I think this is another lesson Swatties could stand to learn, both for their own organizing and in response to the skeptical (if not hostile) attitudes they often throw at others’ efforts. I’ve too-often heard the “Can’t you just stop already? Didn’t you get what you wanted?” In many cases - such as with Coke - the most appropriate answer is “Yes, but not all of it.” I’ve come to think of this as a “Double-Fisting” approach to activism — that is, you hold your victories firmly in one hand, but you continue struggling or fighting (non-violently) with the other.

(Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of a figure skating metaphor this week, but in digging down to my elementary school physical education memories, a new metaphor dawned on me — the rope ladder. Climbing, hand over hand, fist over fist, to get to the top: you can’t reach higher unless you’ve got a firm grip. Most importantly, it wouldn’t be possible without all of those little knots along the way.)

The key aspect of this extended metaphor is the ability to strategize — to not only organize various actions, but to employ tactics in timely and effective ways to meet specific goals AND to understand how those tactics and demands fit into a larger picture.

My experiences have shown me that there are many activists, advocates, and especially students that have good intentions or progressive politics, but don’t make the effort to organize specific campaigns, to strategize, or to evaluate their work periodically to assure their targets are being met. It’s important to have goals such as ending racism or heterosexism, eradicating poverty, or improving the environment, but it is equally important to develop dynamic and possible means of addressing those problems. Critiquing, resisting, and volunteering are all important tools towards meeting one’s goals; however, organizing must also be part of the equation in order to create meaningful and tangible solutions.

The Kick Coke Campaign, like few others at Swat, provides a unique example of students’ abilities to steadily increase pressure, which, as it is built upon, yields victories closer and closer to the main goal. As the official College press release indicates, this discontinuation of bottled products “follows the College’s decision in 2005 to vote in favor of a shareholder resolution calling for an independent investigation of Coke’s practices in Colombia, and an October 2005 letter to Coca-Cola by the Swarthmore administration expressing concern about its alleged human rights abuses.” I would be surprised if the College engaged in these tactics of their own volition; rather, I would suspect that these steps too were achieved through consistent pressure from students.

In addition, a campaign like this does indeed begin to address wider issues, such as global poverty and racism (as precipitated by global trade), workers’ rights to organize and to work in safe and healthy environments, and questions about use of natural resources (particularly water distribution). In the context of these actions and issues, then, a few (hundred? thousand? more?) bottles of Coke begin to add up.

So, after spring break, when we students find ourselves with a new menu of soda options, I hope that we’ll remember that the switch was not for nothing, but also that the campaign will not be over until Coca-Cola cleans up its practices. It may sound too poetic, but perhaps we’ll all hold our bottles in one hand, while we raise our other fists in the air.

Harris is a senior. You can reach him at hkornst1@swarthmore.edu.

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