The Black Friday Walmart strikes mattered a great deal, because Walmart is the corporate goliath in the room. Walmart represents everything about modern life that is sustainable only to the cause of siphoning resources out of our neighborhoods and into the pockets of the Directors of the company. These strikes are yet another sign that people have grown weary of the inequality that plagues us.
If the wealth of the Walton family were invested in the workers (or nationalized), every worker at Walmart could have a full health plan, education, sick days, and a living wage.
Remember WalMart during your MayDay planning, and remember Walmart when you need a glaring example of everything that is wrong with our modern economy.
On November 25th, 112 workers burned to death in a factory fire in Bangladesh producing garments for Walmart. The Port of Newark is a major entryway for Walmart garments coming from Bangladesh. Walmart is going to profit off of the garments these workers died to make.
Unless we block the boat.
Walmart - the world's largest employer and 1% corporation - refuses to take responsibility, compensate the families, or take any action to prevent needless deaths like this from happening again. The 1% must not profit from the workers' deaths in Bangladesh!
On Tuesday December 18th, buses will be leaving at 6am from Canal and Broadway in Manhattan to head to the port.
If you’re not taking the bus, the staging ground location will be the IKEA parking lot in Elizabeth, NJ at 7am. Timing is critical.
We're calling on Occupiers near all East Coast ports to be on alert if the cargo ship is re-routed to dock at another port.
The “Unstoppable” and “Fightback!” price cards are ready to print and copy onto 8 ½ X 11 card stock. Cut ‘em youself!
The “Lower Wages Guarantee” sign can also be printed on 8.5 X 11 with little cutting (Those are the same size and look as signs right by the cash register… Just sayin’).
The red banner-type signs (“Poverty Pay”, “Inhumane”, ”Solidarity” are formatted so you can print them on legal size paper and they’ll be just the right size for the displays in the store. After you print them on legal paper, cut them. Then copy them two at a time onto 11 X 17 card stock.
Put ‘em up!
There are plenty of places for the price cards. Anywhere you see one of theirs, you can put one of these!
The banner-type signs fit a few different kinds of displays. They should fit over the text of longer signs that are the same height. Just look like you’re supposed to be doing what you’re doing. Smoooooth!
No need for tape, or clips!
Jam Your Own Jam!
Have another message for Walmart shoppers? Make your own signs!
Go scope out you local Walmart to come up with ideas.
Act on Good Ideas! There are a lot of peaceful, creative, fun way to clear the eyes of those blinded by corporate-driven consumerism and send a strong message to the corporate crooks themselves. Choose yours!
Make people laugh. Make people think. Cause consternation. Challenge the consumer to re-examine his/her environment and choices, but be creative not destructive!
Share With Others!
Send photos and videos (at your own risk and discretion) of signs you’ve posted to our Rebrand Walmart tumblr!
When: Tuesday, December 11 @ 4:30pm Where: Harold Pratt House, 58 East 68th Street, New York, New York 10065 RSVP on Facebook
Just weeks after the massive demonstration of the #WalmartStrikers Black Friday day of action, Walmart CEO Mike Duke is visiting NYC on Tuesday, Dec. 11 to give a speech for the Council on Foreign Relations entitled "The Responsibility to Lead" - talking about women's economic empowerment, food security & the global middle class.
That's ironic, since Walmart represents the epitome of corporate greed: from use of sweatshop labor, to the poverty wages it pays associates, to discrimination, to illegal retaliation against workers who organize. Mike Duke has no right to speak about the "global middle class", and IT'S TIME WE TAUGHT HIM THE MEANING OF RESPONSIBILITY.
Join ALIGN, 99 Pickets, Walmart Free NYC, Occupy Bergen County, Retail Action Project, MoneyOut/VotersIn, and allies for an afternoon of action -- picket lines, street theater, and more.
Text "@pickets" to 23559 for day-of text message alerts.
We will publicly hold Mike Duke accountable for:
The deaths of 120 workers from a fire at Bangladeshi sweatshop producing clothing for Walmart in incredibly unsafe conditions.
Paying Walmart workers poverty wages, forcing many to file for public assistance, and for retaliating against workers when they began to organize and speak out about working conditions.
Mistreatment of workers across Walmart's supply chain, especially warehouse workers and immigrant workers at Walmart suppliers
According to the Organization United for Respect at Walmart, 1,000 protests occurred at Walmart stores across 46 states, with hundreds of workers walking off the job in an unprecedented decentralized, open-source strike at the retail giant. Nine people, including three Walmart workers, were arrested in Los Angeles for blocking traffic. Local Occupy groups supported actions in dozens of cities. OWS joined with 99 Pickets, ALIGN, the Retail Action Project, and others to show solidarity to Walmart workers in Secaucus, New Jersey. Despite attempts by Walmart's propaganda department to downplay the events, the latest massive wave of strikes and solidarity actions at Walmart forced even the corporate media to pay attention, and put the 1% on notice: When we work together, another world is possible. We do not have to accept poverty, low wages, or unfair working conditions with no benefits while six members of the Walton family are worth more than the bottom 42% of American families combined.
However, the struggle is far from over! Today's inspiring actions point the way forward. Please continue to support OUR Walmart and all low-wage workers in the struggle for economic justice and show support for the courageous workers and unemployed people on the frontlines against income inequality.
