[matilda] Gig Report for Wed..

[worldwarfree at riseup.net]

Hello.. Is there any one reading these gig reports?  It was the turn of
Noise doll Basement and it was always going to be dark and of the wall.
Well it happened..

You had an improv set from That fucking Tank that simply was strange but
in a good way. Than it turned to very strange abstract jazz which simply
turned Matilda into a seedy jazz club and for me this was a pleasure. Then
it was my turn on the door so i missed the next lot. Then Chora playing
gig no five at Matilda took of the fucking roof and when there in the mood
there in the mood. There are more gigs coming up next we have

No Sweat benefit night:

5:00pm Saturday 13 May, to 1:00am Sunday 14 May 2006:

The No Sweat campaign group host a benefit night to support the Stop
‘Killer Coke’ campaign.

The event will have a mexican theme with fabulous veggie and vegan food!
Read more about the Stop Killer Coke campaign at http://www.killercoke.org/

COKE CAN'T HIDE ITS CRIMES IN COLOMBIA

Isidro Segundo Gil, an employee at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Colombia,
was killed at his workplace by paramilitary thugs. His children, now
living in hiding with relatives, understand all too well why their
homeland is known as “a country where union work is like carrying a
tombstone on your back.”

A chilling description of Gil's assassination, based on eyewitness
accounts, is the centerpiece of a lawsuit filed in Miami in July 2001
against Coca-Cola, Panamerican Beverages (the largest soft drink bottler
in Latin America) and Bebidas y Alimentos (a bottler owned by Richard
Kirby of Key Biscayne, Fla., which operates the plant in which Gil was
killed.
In the lawsuit, Gil's union, Sinaltrainal, the International Labor Rights
Fund (ILRF) and the United Steelworkers of America assert that the Coke
bottlers “contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security
forces that utilized extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully
detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders.”

Minutes after the thugs showed up at the Carepa plant gate, they fired 10
shots at Gil, a member of the union executive board, mortally wounding
him. An hour later, another union leader was kidnapped at his home. That
evening, a building that housed the union's offices, equipment and records
was set ablaze.

The next day, a heavily armed group returned to the plant, called the
workers together and told them if they didn't quit the union by 4 p.m.,
they, too, would be killed. Resignation forms were prepared in advance by
Coca-Cola's plant manager, who had a history of socializing with the
paramilitaries and had earlier “given (them) an order to carry out the
task of destroying the union,” the lawsuit says.

Fearing for their lives, union members at Carepa resigned en masse and
fled the area. The company broke off contract negotiations, the
paramilitaries camped outside the plant gate for the next two months, and
the union was crushed. Experienced workers who made about $380 a month
were replaced by new hires earning minimum wage ($130 a month).

No charges were ever filed against Gil's killers or those who killed at
least seven other Coca-Cola unionists (see box below). Like many
multinational corporations, Coke tries to have it both ways: tightly
controlling the manufacture and distribution of its products overseas and
collecting the profits, but denying any responsibility to workers. But the
Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1789, may
hold the key to securing justice for foreign victims of corporate abuses.
Several companies now being sued under the ATCA claim to adhere to one or
more “voluntary” initiatives (like Coca-Cola's so-called Code of Conduct)
that commit them to respect human rights abroad. Unfortunately,
enforcement has proven impossible.

In essence, the ATCA permits foreigners to sue in U.S. courts for
violations of fundamental human rights that are clearly defined under
international law. It applies to “the law of nations,” which federal
courts have interpreted to cover genocide, war crimes, extrajudicial
killings, torture, unlawful detention and crimes against humanity.

Recently, the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce, representing
thousands of companies worldwide, urged the U.S. government to stop the
growing use of the ATCA to sue multinationals. It's “unacceptable,” they
said.

“It shocks the conscience that these companies seek to immunize themselves
from charges of human rights violations,” says ILRF attorney Terry
Collingsworth.

Javier Correa, president of Sinaltrainal, adds: “We want justice. We want
people to know the truth about what is going on in Colombia against Coke
workers. Now that you know, will you please help us?”

Yes i drink shit loads of this but hay we all have an addiction well this
simply will be a nice night out check out here for more
http://www.matilda.aktivix.org/collectives/gig-space/upcoming-events/no-sweat-benefit-night-13th-may/

Did you read?

Well hope you are about on Saturday and you can allways e mail the gig
people offering to help out hope to see you there

0742