ccording to
The Independent,
Italian demonstrators have hijacked the Olympic torch on its way to the Winter Games in Turin in unprecedented protests targeting the event's sponsors, Coca-Cola.
Eleanora Berlanda, the Italian 1,500 metres champion runner, was pounding the streets of the northern city of Trent bearing the torch when eight protesters, their faces hidden by scarves, burst through barriers along her route and grabbed at it.
Ms Berlanda tried to fend them off, but was soon overwhelmed and gave up. Four of her attackers seized the torch and held it aloft. Police intervened and the flame was handed back to the runner, who continued on her way to Turin's ski slopes. The flame is due in Turin on 9 February for the Games, which run from 10-26 February.
The torch has been involved in 33 incidents staged by anarchists and anti-globalisation activists since it left Rome on 8 December on its way to Turin.
The radical Mayor of Bussoleno has upset Olympics organisers by banning advertisements within his village for Coca-Cola, an official Olympics sponsor, seen as a symbol of the consumer culture threatening the Alpine Susa Valley. Scores of protesters have lain down in front of lorries carrying Coca-Cola to the Olympics site, drawing a strong reaction from the government.
Four of the protestors escaped, and another four were arrested.
Coca-Cola has been linked to union busting in Colombia and water depletion in India as well as many other social and environmental problems.
In recent years, the Coca-Cola Company has faced enormous criticism stemming from their unhealthy trade practices, human rights violations and environmental record. Critics have even coined the phrase "coca-colanization" to refer to the neocolonial and indifferent approach of this multinational giant. In fact, Multinational Monitor, an acclaimed independent watchdog on corporate conduct, ranked Coke among "The Worst Multinationals of 2004."
To assume that coca-colanization is limited to the developing world would be turning a blind eye to its domestic record.
In November 2000, the Coca Cola Co. paid $192.5 million to settle a highly publicized lawsuit involving about 2,000 African-American employees who alleged race-based disparities in pay and promotions.
Coke is currently battling another class-action race discrimination lawsuit. Workers in its Cincinnati plant accuse the company of "creating a hostile, intimidating, offensive and abusive workplace environment."
But as bad as those problems are, there are also questions about the quality and safety of Coke's products:
Apart from allegations of racism, Coke has enmeshed itself in another troubling controversy: Outsourcing to companies with dangerously low safety standards, hence risking the health of U.S. consumers and workers alike.
In Florida, Coke outsourced Minute Maid production to Cutrale, a Brazilian-owned juice company, which afterward failed both United States Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration inspections. The Occupation Safety and Health Administration cited the Auburndale, Fla, plant for 15 violations, 13 of which were determined to be "serious." The plant has experienced explosions, two major chemical leaks prompting plant evacuations, shutdowns and worker hospitalizations as well as an electrical accident that killed a worker.
As of 2004, OSHA had cited the Coca-Cola Co. and its network of bottlers 2,264 times in just a decade for violations of federal safety and health rules.
But Coca-Cola's troubles in other countries have largely eclipsed those in the United States.
Last year, the United Kingdom's entire supply of Dasani water (owned by Coke) was pulled off the shelves because it had been contaminated with bromate, a cancer-causing chemical.
All I have to say about the protestors in Italy now is -
Way To GO!