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Wal-Mart Protestors Just Wanna Have Fun! |
Military Counter-Recruiting.
Participants are Protesting the use of Marine Corps Recruiting Videos at Wal-Mart. © Eric Wagner
by Ruth Robertson
CALIFORNIA - Grassroots activists are finding clever ways to get their message to mega retailer Wal-Mart. House parties, street theater, and amateur video production are just a few examples of the innovative methods everyday folks are using to have a stab at the largest corporation on earth, and have a blast while doing it!
Demonstrators in front of a Super Center in Davenport, Iowa wore yellow frowny-face nasks with thermometers sticking out of their mouths. As part of the same nationwide action, “Make Wal-Mart Care About Health Care”, protestors at a Mountain View, California Wal-Mart got their point across with a witty skit in front of that store. A “Fat Cat” with a big cigar, top coat and hat, large bills pouring from pockets, portrayed the “Wal-Mart CEO” while grandmotherly women, most members of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, poked fun at the impersonator by animatedly posing hard questions about Wal-Mart’s poor record on health care. "The street theater aspect dramatized some of the issues associated with Wal-Mart and made them more accessible to our audience, and I enjoyed the spontaneity of participating in it," explains Nancy Truher, who played the Fat Cat role.
This national action and many others sponsored by the Wake Up Wal-Mart Campaign, a project of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), have helped create a grassroots movement that is a powerful force for change. Concerned citizens in all 50 states have gathered in homes to plan strategies leading to both state and nationally proposed legislation.
Activists also submitted amateur photos and videos documenting Wal-Mart neighborhood impact as well as protests to the production team of Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price, a documentary by Robert Greenwald who produced the films Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism and Uncovered: The War on Iraq. The Wal-Mart movie premieres in homes, churches and public spaces November 13 across the US and is an example of how concerned community members CAN be part of a larger movement and have fun doing it!
Contact: Wake-Up Wal-Mart Campaign
Tel: 866-253-1350
Web: www.wakeupwalmart.com
To find out more about the Wal-Mart movie: www.walmartmovie.com
WALMART FACTS
In Ithaca, NY the Tompkins County Living Wage Coalition has collected 3,500 signatures on a petition to get the local Wal-Mart to pay a living wage
Over 280 communities have defeated Wal-Mart in their community at least once, or pressured a developer to withdraw.
The largest class-action sex discrimination lawsuit ever has been filed against Wal-Mart, affecting 1.6 million present and former female employees.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union-Canada was recently certified as the bargaining agent for approximately 200 employees at a Wal-Mart store in Saint-Hyacinthe, the second Quebec outlet to be organized within recent months.
CALIFORNIA - Grassroots activists are finding clever ways to get their message to mega retailer Wal-Mart. House parties, street theater, and amateur video production are just a few examples of the innovative methods everyday folks are using to have a stab at the largest corporation on earth, and have a blast while doing it!
Demonstrators in front of a Super Center in Davenport, Iowa wore yellow frowny-face nasks with thermometers sticking out of their mouths. As part of the same nationwide action, “Make Wal-Mart Care About Health Care”, protestors at a Mountain View, California Wal-Mart got their point across with a witty skit in front of that store. A “Fat Cat” with a big cigar, top coat and hat, large bills pouring from pockets, portrayed the “Wal-Mart CEO” while grandmotherly women, most members of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, poked fun at the impersonator by animatedly posing hard questions about Wal-Mart’s poor record on health care. "The street theater aspect dramatized some of the issues associated with Wal-Mart and made them more accessible to our audience, and I enjoyed the spontaneity of participating in it," explains Nancy Truher, who played the Fat Cat role.
This national action and many others sponsored by the Wake Up Wal-Mart Campaign, a project of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), have helped create a grassroots movement that is a powerful force for change. Concerned citizens in all 50 states have gathered in homes to plan strategies leading to both state and nationally proposed legislation.
Activists also submitted amateur photos and videos documenting Wal-Mart neighborhood impact as well as protests to the production team of Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price, a documentary by Robert Greenwald who produced the films Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism and Uncovered: The War on Iraq. The Wal-Mart movie premieres in homes, churches and public spaces November 13 across the US and is an example of how concerned community members CAN be part of a larger movement and have fun doing it!
Contact: Wake-Up Wal-Mart Campaign
Tel: 866-253-1350
Web: www.wakeupwalmart.com
To find out more about the Wal-Mart movie: www.walmartmovie.com
WALMART FACTS
In Ithaca, NY the Tompkins County Living Wage Coalition has collected 3,500 signatures on a petition to get the local Wal-Mart to pay a living wage
Over 280 communities have defeated Wal-Mart in their community at least once, or pressured a developer to withdraw.
The largest class-action sex discrimination lawsuit ever has been filed against Wal-Mart, affecting 1.6 million present and former female employees.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union-Canada was recently certified as the bargaining agent for approximately 200 employees at a Wal-Mart store in Saint-Hyacinthe, the second Quebec outlet to be organized within recent months.
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