Bacardi in the Breeze
BACARDI'S CELEBRATIONS OF its £625,000 deal with the NUS in April that made it the sole supplier of rum to the NUS for three years, have been short-lived. Student unions around the country are becoming increasingly aware of this rushed anti-humanitarian deal.
Bacardi - a Cuban rum, although not made in Cuba - in support of the American trade embargo, moved out to the Bahamas for production before the 1959 Revolution. It is reported to fund many of the counter-revolutionary Cuban exile groups, including CANF, which as well as sharing a lawyer with Bacardi, support acts of terrorism and sabotage against Cuba. Bacardi are rumoured to have been behind the campaign to prevent six-year old Elian Gonzalez from returning to his Cuban father.
However, the company is yet again on the firing line, as many student unions - Oxford included - are boycotting its sale. OUSU, despite having no student bar stocked by the NUS, holds events in Bacardi-selling venues. The Battle of the Bands event, which is to be staged in The Point later this term, sells Bacardi to the revellers. The reaction of OUSU President, Anneliese Dodds, is to point out the free choice of the student body as to whether or not they wish to drink Bacardi. Following OUSU's boycott of the deal, she will be asking the venues contracted for OUSU-organised parties not to stock Bacardi and not to display posters telling of its pro-trade embargo viewpoint.
The absence of NUS stocked bars in Oxford - colleges supply their own bars with alcohol - leads to a limited impact of this boycotting of the sale of the drink. But many colleges are now putting through JCR motions to stop ordering rum through Bacardi in disapproval of the company's dealings with Cuba. St Hilda's is the latest to see a ban under JCR President Ruth Hunt's proposal against its sale. However, the Oxford Union is not in keeping with student boycott of this deal; only a fortnight ago, it staged its Monte Carlo Ball, which was partly sponsored by Bacardi. Union Secretary Amy Harland was unable to comment, but it was noted that there was no Bacardi bar at the ball. The campaign against Bacardi continues.
18th May 2000