WalMart Action Sites - Use Them

WalMart Watch and Wake Up WalMart are two excellent action sites that seem to understand exactly how to use the internets to take on WalMart. I've mentioned both sites here recently, but they are so well done, that I'm going to be stealing a lot of their stuff from now on.

Today WalMart Watch links to an article from Christianity Today from which I learned something new: (emph mine)

As it has grown into a powerhouse with sales of $256.3 billion—more than the sales of Microsoft and retail competitors Home Depot, Kroger, Target, and Costco combined—Wal-Mart has become a lightning rod nationwide in local tempests of moral outrage. Church leaders (primarily mainline, liberal, and Roman Catholic) have joined grassroots activists fearful that mindless global market factors will steamroll human dignity.

"Wal-Mart's practices are immoral and unfair," says Reginald Williams Jr., associate pastor for justice ministries at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Pastors at the 8,500-member Trinity United and eight other African American congregations in Chicago called for a boycott of Wal-Mart.

Well, that's news. I remember reading a lot about values voters. And I know I read a lot about minority churches being largely responsible for BushCo upping his percentage of minority votes by 2%.
That was big news. All abortion voters all the time. But this boycott, not so much.

The story goes on to show what "values" means something different to both sides:

Such anger perplexes other Christians who think of Wal-Mart as a family-friendly place and a company founded on the biblical values of respect, service, and sacrifice. Founder Sam Walton's autobiography indicates he taught Sunday school in his church, prayed with his children, and had a strong sense of calling to better people's lives. With the Protestant values of respect for the individual, thrift, and hard work, Walton was eager to improve customers' living standards through low prices.

"Is Wal-Mart a Christian company? No," said former Wal-Mart executive Don Soderquist at a recent prayer breakfast. "But the basis of our decisions was the values of Scripture."

Indeed, based in the Bible Belt town of Bentonville, Arkansas, Wal-Mart has a tradition of tailoring its service to churchgoing customers. It sells only the sanitized versions of hip-hop cds bearing warnings of objectionable content. Responding to a campaign by the largest evangelical mutual fund group, The Timothy Plan, to keep Cosmopolitan magazine covers out of view of Wal-Mart customers, the company slapped plastic sheathes over suggestive women's periodicals and banned "lad mags" such as Maxim.

The largest evangelical mutual fund group launched an Ashcroftian action against WalMart to cover up Cosmo's boobs, but couldn't see their way clear to challenge the hour-shaving or child labor violations. There's the chasm in a nutshell. Think about that for just a second and it'll become clear why we can't rely on Wall St. to fix what ails America.

Wake Up WalMart is continuing their brilliant Mother's Day campaign:

Thousands of Americans are joining our “Love Mom, Not Wal-Mart” campaign and pledging to purchase their Mother’s Day gifts from companies that treat our nation’s mothers and all women with fairness and respect. Wal-Mart - the largest private sector employer of women in the United States, with over 700,000 female employees - has systemically discriminated against women, and it must stop.

Help us tell Wal-Mart to do the right thing -- sign the "Love Mom, Not Wal-Mart" pledge and tell your friends to join you.

As a special Mother's Day treat, we will be mailing (if we can find an envelope big enough) the "Mother of All Mother's Day Cards" to Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart, Inc. The card will ask Lee Scott to do the right thing for all of our Mothers and end Wal-Mart's pattern of discrimination against women.

This is genius. I especially like "treat our nation’s mothers and all women with fairness and respect." Someone's been reading their Lakoff. There's a holiday in every month - in June it will be Father's Day. And all they're asking is that we don't shop at WalMart for items related to that one day. It's a boycott that practically anyone can manage and it will make a difference if enough of us get on board. Please sign up - please tell your friends.

Related note: When I met the candidates for DNC chair at the NYC caucus, three of them told me that a boycott of WalMart was a bad idea. We need to be positive, they said. Or, that's a Labor issue. Well, Labor is finally taking some initiative and a boycott framed as a question of fairness, respect and self-preservation is what they decided will work. I'm with'em.

Comments

[firedoglake]

Thanks for sticking up for labor -- I'm amazed that Democrats in general have divorced themselves from the interests of the working people who are suffering and angry over BushCo.'s treatment of them, and who probably represent the largest constituency that could be ethically converted to the Democrats in the upcoming elections. Screw the attempts to become "GOP lite."

[Thomas Nephew]

I'm curious: which 3?

[eRobin]

The guy from Ohio and Rosenberg were two. The other one wanted off the record.