A campaign to boycott Coca-Cola products in an effort to protest alleged human rights violations by the company has reached Ames.

The Ames Campaign to Boycott Coke is asking individuals, businesses and Iowa State to stop using Coke products in protest of alleged violations at the company’s bottling plants in Colombia, including eight or nine murders of union organizers by paramilitary forces connected to Coca-Cola.

Philip Cryan, coordinator of the campaign, said the boycott was originally called for by the Colombian food and beverage workers union, SINALTRAINAL.

“They’ve called for this as a way to bring pressure on Coca-Cola in order to get them to stop either hiring the paramilitaries or, at the very least, allowing the paramilitaries to carry out these kinds of attacks against Coke workers,” he said.

Gerardo Cajamarca, a SINALTRAINAL leader, spoke on campus Sunday night about his experiences with Coca-Cola. Cajamarca received political asylum in the United States in 2003 after receiving repeated death threats from a paramilitary group for his union activities, he said.

He said the killings began in 1994 with Colombian union leader Luis Giraldo. There have been nine murders of union leaders by paramilitaries, he said.

One union leader, Isidro Gil, was killed in 1996 in a bottling plant in Carepa, Colombia, as he was working, Cajamarca said.

“This was done in the plant where there are video cameras,” he said. “There are security guards placed all around the plant.”

Cajamarca said the killings began after workers resisted Coca-Cola plant managers’ attempts to dissuade them from joining unions.

“They began to actually threaten workers who would join the union,” he said. “It’s the politics of Coca-Cola to threaten workers so that they are too scared and don’t want to be part of the union.”

Coca-Cola plant managers told workers that paramilitaries would kill them if they joined a union, he said. Non-union workers are hired at half the pay of union workers and receive no benefits.

Cajamarca said he is spreading his message in the United States to put pressure on Coca-Cola to end its involvement with paramilitaries.

Coca-Cola representatives could not be reached for comment. According to a statement on Coca-Cola’s Web site, the allegations that it has links to paramilitaries are false. In a pending case in U.S. District Court in Miami, Coca-Cola was dismissed as a defendant, although the case is continuing against the company’s bottling partners. Coca-Cola said in the statement it has normal relations and collective bargaining agreements with 14 unions in Colombia, and two different judicial inquiries by Colombian authorities have cleared the company of any wrongdoing.

Cryan said the campaign in Ames, which started recently, is informing store and restaurant owners of what has been happening to Coke workers in Colombia, and offering them information.

“We’re not at the point of having asked the businesses for a yes or a no on this request,” Cryan said.

George Battle, owner of Battle’s-Bar-B-Q, 218 Welch Ave., said he would need to see proof of the allegations before he made any decisions.

“I would need information before I just take somebody’s word,” he said. “I would need to read the indictment.”

Dan Sherman, member of the Ames campaign, said although Iowa State recently switched to Pepsi, Coke machines remain on campus, and the campaign will ask Iowa State to remove them.

“The main obstacle will be presenting the campaign and project in a manner Iowa State will actually take seriously,” he said.

Sherman said the support network will be solidified through pledges by individuals and businesses to not use Coca-Cola products. He said the campaign will also hold several informational protests called “die ins” around campus Wednesday.

“If you were there when it happened, you would see nine or so people that were standing and would all of a sudden just drop,” he said.

Peter McCuskey, member of the Ames High Progressive Club, said his group has been trying to remove Coca-Cola from the school through letter writing and discussions with administrators. The club began supporting the boycott this year, he said.

Linda Wells, member of the Anti-Coke Coalition at Grinnell College, said a boycott went into effect in November at her school.

She said her group has worked with administrators and is confident Grinnell will not renew its contract with Coca-Cola in 2007.