Wal-Mart Under Attack

Meanwhile, the corporation’s sales last year were a record $258 billion and it made more than $10 billion in profits from the work of its 1.2 million employees. Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott is reported to earn $27 million a year. The film claims that the average Wal-Mart hourly employee makes slightly over $13,000 a year. So many rely for survival on public assistance programs, such as Medicaid and food stamps. Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton was the richest man in the world when he died in 1992; his family remains the world’s richest. Wal-Mart emerges in the film as a master at making money for the Walton family, but not as a corporation that cares for its workers and customers. Walton’s widow and four children are worth an estimated $102 billion. Despite corporate and family claims of social responsibility, they apparently give less than 1% of their wealth to charity. Instead, they use the money to build palatial homes and even a fortified underground bunker to protect the family. Hilo, Hawai’i, where this reporter lives, was one of the places during the week of Nov. 14 where the movie opened at over 7,000 churches, schools, union halls, homes and elsewhere around the US, Canada, and Europe. Hundreds of thousands of people saw the film during its first week. The timing of its opening could not have been worse for Wal-Mart or more ideal for its opponents. It came as holiday shopping started and a week before the day after Thanksgiving, usually the busiest shopping day of the year. The 97-minute movie was made on a $1.8 million shoestring budget. Brave New Films distributed the film to grassroots groups around the country, rather than to theaters. “Our goal isn’t to close Wal-Mart down,” Greenwald explained to the San Francisco Chronicle. “It is to make it a better, more humane company toward its employees and the communities it is in.” Personal interviews with former and current Wal-Mart managers and employees comprise the bulk of the film. Their stories are contrasted with speeches by CEO Scott and Wal-Mart commercials, which present the Wal-Mart side of the story. The movie presents images of small-town people whose lives the big box store hurts. “You can’t buy small-town quality of life from Wal-Mart,” noted one Hearne, Texas, resident. “But once they steal it from you, you cannot get it back.” The film begins by Scott giving a pep talk about Wal-Mart’s record sales and profits. Scott “tells the Wal-Mart story” and advocates “the Wal-Mart model.” With characteristic bravado, Scott declares, “This company is going to grow.” He notes, “We generate fear if not envy.” WAL-MART WORKERS SPEAK UP The film focuses on various former Wal-Mart workers, small business owners and others impacted directly by the corporation. Sadness rises in their voices and even tears into the eyes of some as they discuss the corporation’s policies and practices. Four whistle-blowing managers, each with nearly two decades of service to Wal-Mart, provide the bulk of inside information about Wal-Mart’s corporate practices. The film takes the viewer through small towns across America. “I will never go into a Wal-Mart,” comments Don Hunter in Middlefield, Ohio. “I’ve seen lots of Mom and Pop stores crucified by them. Wal-Mart crushes the competition.” The movie shows empty downtown shopping districts that were once vibrant community gathering places. Edith Arana tells of approaching a manager, “He told me, there’s no place for people like you in management. I said, what do you mean people like me -- that I’m a woman or black? He said, two out of two ain’t bad.” African American Congresswoman Maxine Waters describes Wal-Mart as “a monster.” It is currently involved in the US’s largest-ever gender discrimination lawsuit on behalf of 1.6 million current and former female employees. “Practically everything in the store is from China, though Sam Walton used to say ‘Buy American,’” explains one man. “It has been a personal thing of mine for years not to buy at Wal-Mart.” The film asserts that Wal-Mart imported $18 billion from China in 2004. “They busted up Standard Oil and Ma Bell, but Wal-Mart is going on a rampage,” observed another person. “If Wal-Mart is not a monopoly, I do not know what a monopoly is,” added another. A black Southern minister in the film describes Wal-Mart as an example of “plantation capitalism” at its worst. According to one union organizer, “Wal-Mart is the largest, richest, and probably meanest corporation in the world.” For More Information: www.walmartmovie.com, www.walmartwatch.com www.wakeupwalmart.com, www.walmartfacts.com More story at: http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Dec05/Bliss1202.htm

Note: www.dissidentvoice.org www.walmartmovie.com www.walmartwatch.com www.wakeupwalmart.com www.walmartfacts.com http://www.dissidentvoi...