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BELCHING OUT THE DEVIL

Mark Thomas is a man on a mission: to upset as many people as possible. He is what journalism should be, but in an era of cut budgets and press release recycling, is no longer possible.

Thomas has been on the circuit for over twenty years, combining comedy, politics and protest to shine lights where vested interests would much prefer we were kept in the dark.

His track record included “The Mark Thomas Comedy Product” for Channel 4, radio documentaries and talk shows for the BBC, a column in the New Statesman, regular tours (he’s on the road now) and two books. “Belching Out the Devil” is his second.

His target is the Coca Cola company, which at first glance is pretty soft (if not soft drinks). Easy meat: take a pop at the advertising, the effect of its products on teeth, its obsession with brand. However, Thomas takes the term ‘activist’ literally, and will go anywhere and do anything to get his story: Bogotoa, Kaladera, Nejapa, Atlanta – anywhere ending with A.

Sorry, but that’s the type of joke that he’ll drop into a paragraph to lighten a very grim picture. His mission here is to expose working practices at Coca Cola plants across the developing world, the effect it has on water supplies, and the way it infiltrates even religious practices to maintain its market share.

There are three main themes that run through the book:

- the exploitation of workers, through employment conditions, intimidation and the surpression of all attempts at collective representation (including 8 trade unionists killed in Colombia);

- the CSR corporate-speak that senior officers use to describe their activities and cover their tracks;

- the fluid relationship between the Coca Cola Corp (it makes the syrup and manages the brand) and the bottlers in each country (that make and distribute the product).

It’s scrupulously researched and extremely well documented (including a 14-page memo, leaked from Coca Cola’s legal department).Thomas appears to be fearless and willing to face anyone to get to reality.

But there’s more to this book than first meets the eye. At one point, sitting in the Houses of Parliament, waiting to attend a Select Committee hearing, Thomas finds himself with an HR Manager from the company. After some uncomfortable small-talk, she asks him (with the directness he uses on others): “Why are you picking on the Coca Cola Company?”

It’s the key question, not because CCC doesn’t deserve investigation, but because the book could have been about almost any global corporation. It isn’t really about a sticky, fizzy drink; it’s about the day-to-day consequences of globalized operations, the impact of outsourcing (not only activity, but also responsibility), and the governments in developing countries willing to do anything to get crumbs off the corporate high table.

BOTD a very uncomfortable book; it pulls back the curtain on things that we’d like to pretend don’t happen, or at least prefer to ignore.  That’s what Mark Thomas does. He is irritating, he does challenge the consensus, he won’t take the pat answer at face value.

In short, he makes you think.

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