Glasgow Pride urged to boycott Coca-Cola
Scottish Green MSPs have called on Glasgow’s Pride to drop Coca-Cola as a sponsor and adopt transparent, ethical rules for all future partnerships.
Ahead of Saturday’s Pride event, Holly Bruce MSP, Iris Duane MSP and Patrick Harvie MSP have written to organisers in support of No Pride in Genocide Glasgow.
The campaign has spent three years urging organisers to end partnerships with companies that are complicit in Israel’s occupation and genocide against Palestinians.
Their letter recognises changes made following pressure from campaigners last year, including improved wheelchair accessibility and the cancellation of a corporate fundraising event.
Scottish Green MSP for Glasgow Southside Holly Bruce said:
“Pride began as a protest against oppression, not as a corporate branding opportunity. It must remain rooted in liberation and solidarity, and those values cannot stop at the edge of our own community.
“With Palestinians enduring genocide, occupation and unimaginable suffering, promoting a company that is subject to a Palestine-led boycott like Coca-Cola is indefensible.
“Glasgow’s Pride should drop Coca-Cola, adopt transparent BDS-aligned sponsorship rules and sign the Fossil Free Pride pledge. I recognise how hard it is to fund and organise a major event, but who pays for Pride matters.
“The Scottish Greens are clear, Glasgow deserves a joyful and inclusive Pride that lives its values, and there can be no pride in genocide.”
No Pride in Genocide said:
“We as No Pride in Genocide Glasgow thank the Glasgow Green MSPs for their support of our campaign against pinkwashing. We will remain steadfast in our commitment to challenging corporate pride in Glasgow that allows warmongering companies to hide their crimes behind a profitable rainbow display while marching through our city.
"We hope to see many Greens supporters joining us in Glasgow Green by McLennan Arch at 11am on 18th July to celebrate our shared history of queer resistance and international solidarity.”
TEXT OF THE LETTER TO PRIDE ORGANISERS
Dear Glasgow’s Pride Ltd,
We are writing to you as Scottish Green MSPs covering Glasgow: Holly Bruce MSP for Glasgow Southside, Patrick Harvie and Iris Duane MSPs for the Glasgow Region are writing to you in full support of No Pride in Genocide Glasgow, and to request that Glasgow’s Pride Ltd adhere to the Palestinian led Boycott, Divestment Sanctions (BDS) guidelines, including by dropping the Coca-Cola Company as a sponsor.
We are aware that No Pride in Genocide has been campaigning for Glasgow’s Pride Ltd to drop all sponsors and partner companies complicit in the ongoing genocide and occupation of Palestinians and their land. We are also aware that Glasgow’s Pride Ltd’s engagement with campaigners on this issue has been limited over the past three years.
Meanwhile, we have seen an escalating genocide against Palestinians, with over 75,000 people killed in Gaza by the Israeli occupation. We note that over this time, Glasgow’s Pride Ltd have partnered with and accepted sponsorship from several companies which raise particular human rights concerns, such as JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, and most recently the Coca-Cola Company, through your promotion of Sprite.
We acknowledge that following pressure from campaigners, Glasgow’s Pride Ltd have taken steps to meet demands around last year’s event as follows: by making the march more accessible for wheelchair users and by cancelling a corporate fundraising event.
As you will be aware, Coca-Cola Israel is an exclusive franchise of the Coca-Cola Company, operating in Israeli settlements in Palestine which are illegal under international human rights law. As a result, Coca-Cola has been a key boycott focus for human rights campaigners for over a decade.
For this reason, we are in full support of No Pride in Genocide’s call for Glasgow’s Pride Ltd to drop the Coca-Cola Company as a sponsor, and to fully and transparently comply with BDS guidelines moving forward. While we acknowledge the challenging sponsorship environment facing event organisers, we believe that working with any company complicit in human rights violations facing Palestinians is unjustifiable. We request that Glasgow’s Pride Ltd instead seeks to establish ethical partnerships and sponsors which adhere to the Palestinian-led BDS guidelines as well as the Fossil Free Pride pledge.
Pride events are vitally important in the current context, and your work in organising Glasgow’s Pride is greatly appreciated. We make these comments because we believe strongly in the vision of a successful, inclusive Pride event for Glasgow which the serves as a space of celebration for true diversity, equality and love. For that to be achieved, it must not contribute to human rights violations facing Palestinians.
Yours sincerely,
Holly Bruce MSP
Iris Duane MSP
Patrick Harvie MSP