SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 17 (OneWorld) - A coalition of grassroots organizations will lead worldwide demonstrations against Wal-Mart and other so-called "big box" retail stores today. ? Global Exchange
Protests are planned in places as diverse as Saint Louis, Missouri; Los Angeles, California; and Avellaneda, Argentina.
The organizations, which include the San Francisco-based human rights group Global Exchange and the Washington, DC-based International Labor Rights Forum, are linking their protests to the start of the holiday shopping season, which traditionally begins the day after Thanksgiving.
"We want to remind people that shopping in these stores has implications in your community," the International Labor Rights Forum's Trina Tocco told OneWorld.
Tocco said that while big box stores like Wal-Mart offer low prices, families who purchase goods there cannot be sure if the goods they buy will be safe. Many of the products are made by workers paid low wages in developing-country sweatshops, she added.
"At the same time, you have small businesses closing and a lot of other negative impacts on the communities where the stores are situated," she said. "These are our communities and we want to have a voice in the process."
In Salt Lake City, Utah activists have organized a "Shop Outside the Box" parade, which will wind through several neighborhoods of the city.
Organizer Ashley Sanders told OneWorld more than 200 local businesses and artists are participating in the parade.
"We'll have every different kind of business walking down the street together," she said, including office supply stores, clothing shops, and independent coffeehouses.
After the parade, participants will gather in a local coffeehouse where, she said, every employee is paid a living wage and most of the food is grown in a garden in the rear.
"It's all about having joy in the local community," she added.
Sanders, who recently graduated with a degree in religion and philosophy from Brigham Young University, said she sees the day of action as a continuation of her religious studies.
"It is easier to have an ethical business than people think it is," she said. "If we shop locally we can support the ethics we believe in when we shop. We can keep our values and not harm one another."
A cashier works at the checkout counter of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Troy, Ohio. ? In These Times
In recent years, Wal-Mart has attracted increasing criticism even as it has continued to grow. The world's largest retailer is now the United States' largest employer, but its 1.3 million domestic operations are entirely non-union.
The company reports the average wage of its workers is $10.76 per hour. According to Business Week, sales associates, who hold the most common job in Wal-Mart, earn an average of $8.23 an hour, amounting to annual wages of $13,861.
In 2000, when a small meat-cutting department successfully organized a union at a Wal-Mart store in Texas, Wal-Mart responded a week later by announcing the phase-out of its in-store meat cutting, company-wide.
Partially in the face of growing criticism, Wal-Mart has launched an all out program to make its stores more environmentally friendly. In October 2005, the company's CEO Lee Scott decided Wal-Mart would move toward using more renewable energy, producing less waste, and selling products that help sustain resources and the environment.
On Thursday, the company released a 64-page report cataloging a dozen such programs -- from selling organic cotton clothes to using low-energy freezer cases.
The report shows, among other things, that Wal-Mart sold over 100 million compact fluorescent light bulbs in 2006, improved the efficiency of its fleet of vehicles by 15 percent, and gave away $301 million in charitable contributions.
"From the day that Sam Walton opened the doors of the first Wal-Mart store in 1962," Scott said in a statement, "our mission has been to save people money so they can live better. Today that mission extends to sustainability. We don't believe that our customers, whether they shop in a Todo Dia, ASDA store, Wal-Mart Supercenter, or Sam's Club, should have to choose between products they can afford and products that are ethically sourced, high quality, and environmentally friendly."
"We have found that there is no conflict between our business model of everyday low costs and everyday low prices and being a more sustainable business," Scott added. "To make sustainability sustainable at Wal-Mart, we've made it live inside our business. Many of our environmental sustainability efforts, for example, mean cost savings for us, our suppliers and our customers, so that in both good times and bad times, they will remain part of who we are."
Some environmental groups praised Wal-Mart for its efforts.
"Wal-Mart can change to more efficient light bulbs, but that doesn't change ... the enormous social consequences of its globally unsustainable business model."
- Ruben Garcia, Global Exchange
Environmental Defense, which works with large companies to help them design and implement green plans, issued a statement saying the report shows Wal-Mart "is moving the right direction, and learning as it goes."
"Over the last two years, Wal-Mart has built the foundation for a robust environmental program with many innovative and potentially transformational projects," Environmental Defense said.
But not all activist groups are so sanguine. A coalition of 23 groups, including Global Exchange and the International Labor Rights Forum, issued their own report critical of Wal-Mart's efforts, arguing that the company's new practices can't make up for a global business model that causes environmental degradation and tramples workers' and communities' rights.
Wal-Mart's "green" initiatives, the groups said, "lack real impact on global warming, employee health, and welfare."
"Wal-Mart can change to more efficient light bulbs, but that doesn't change its carbon footprint or the enormous social consequences of its globally unsustainable business model. If we look at its practices internationally, Wal-Mart has used its market power to cut costs at the expense of workers and the environment across the developing world," said Ruben Garcia of Global Exchange, who helped write the report.
