Chanting “Burn Pepsi, burn!,” 70 students marched yesterday around a burning facsimile Pepsi machine outside Pepsico’s annual shareholders meeting at Pepsico world headquarters here, then sat in for three hours, blocking the entrance.
The youths, organized by the Westchester Students for Soviet Jewry, the local chapter of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, charged that “while Pepsico sells in Russia, Pepsico sells out human rights. Pepsico, and especially its board chairman Donald Kendall, have not used their close Kremlin connection to alleviate the persecution of Russian Jews,” Pepsico markets its soda in the USSR and Russian vodka in the U.S.
Security was heavy as the students handed out leaflets to entering stockholders and held up signs, Speaking on a bullhorn, WSSJ coordinator Marcus Rosenberg and demonstration organizer Deborah Frohman pointed out that not only did Kendall refuse to intervene for Soviet Jews but used his position as a head of the USSR-U.S. Trade and Economic Council to lead the businessmen’s fight against the Jackson Amendment.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
