Coca-Cola and PepsiCo sever ties with group behind stand-your-ground laws

American Legislative Exchange Council is known for helping to pass laws favoring gun owners and voter ID requirements

guardian.co.uk, Karen McVeigh, Thursday 5 April 2012

Color of Change had criticised both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola over their
 ties to the America Legislative Exchange Council. Photograph: David Levene
 for the Guardian

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have ended their partnerships with a conservative group that supports the spread of restrictive voting laws and stand-your-ground legislation.

The announcements came after campaigners urged consumers to boycott companies linked with the the the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec).

PepsiCo ended its membership in the group in January, but it was first reported by NPR on Thursday

Coca-Cola's announcement that it had also severed ties with the organisation came on Wednesday after Color of Change, the nation's largest African-American advocacy group, urged its members to boycott the company and other member corporations over their links with Alec.

Alec is a nonprofit member organisation whose stated purpose is the advancement of free-market principles, limited government, federalism and individual liberty. It drafts legislation on behalf of its individual and corporate members to develop what it calls "model laws" and sends them to lawmakers.

Its critics, including Color of Change, accuse it of working to disenfranchise minority and low-income voters by supporting the co-ordinated proliferation of voter ID laws which affect these groups.

It is also accused of encouraging up to 20 other states to enact similar measures to Florida's controversial stand-your-ground law.

Rashad Robinson, executive director of Color of Change, said it had been in dialogue with Coca-Cola since last year over the issue. He said: "We welcome Coca-Cola's decision to stop supporting the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization which has worked to disenfranchise African-Americans, Latinos, students, the elderly, the disabled and the poor. We confirmed with Coca-Cola that they are no longer a member of Alec and no longer fund the group in any capacity."

Robinson said that hundreds of their members began calling Coca-Cola on Wednesday morning, and "the company listened to their voices".

"We continue to call on all major corporations to stop supporting voter suppression through Alec. Our members are prepared to hold accountable companies that continue to participate in Alec's attack on voting rights."

More than 85,000 members signed a petition targeting Alec's corporate partners for their role in suppressing the black vote, and 170,000 have signed a petition calling on the department of justice to take over the case of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager fatally shot by a neighbourhood watch volunteer who claimed self defence, arrest his killer and review the police investigation of the case.

In a statement emailed to the Guardian, Coca-Cola confirmed it was ending its relationship with Alec.

Diana Garza Ciarlante, a Coca-Cola spokeswoman, said in the statement: "The Coca-Cola company has elected to discontinue its membership with the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec). Our involvement with Alec was focused on efforts to oppose discriminatory food and beverage taxes, not on issues that have no direct bearing on our business. We have a long-standing policy of only taking positions on issues that impact our company and industry."

On Wednesday, the Center for American Progress published a report on the proliferation of voter ID laws which it said were "hindering voting rights in a manner not seen since the era of Jim Crow".

Last month, leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called on the UN human rights council to investigate the proliferation of restrictive electoral laws.

PepsiCo was a member of Alec for 10 years. In January, according to NPR, a company vice-president told Color Of Change that it would not renew its membership for 2012.

Alec did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

On its website it acknowledges that Florida's stand-your-ground law was a basis for its model legislation but expressed scepticism that the law could apply in the Martin case.

"Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law was the basis for the American Legislative Exchange Council's model legislation, not the other way around. Moreover, it is unclear whether that law could apply to this case at all. 'Stand Your Ground' or the 'Castle Doctrine' is designed to protect people who defend themselves from imminent death and great bodily harm.

"It does not allow you to pursue another person. It does not allow you to seek confrontation. It does not allow you to attack someone who does not pose an imminent threat. What it does is allow you to defend yourself and your family from immediate and real danger."

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