A Walmart press release this morning downplayed what commentators have called historic strike actions by Walmart workers this Black Friday across the United States.
The release noted that “the same number of associates missed their scheduled shift as last year,” but hundreds of protests in 46 states beginning Thursday evening have drawn attention to the retailer’s poor labor practices while according to The Nation, workers struck at stores in Dallas, Kenosha, Wis., San Leandro, Calif., and Clovis, N.M. At least one worker went out on strike at stores in Ocean City, Md., Orlando and Baton Rouge. Rep.-elect Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) joined a Walmart worker as she walked off her job in St. Cloud.
Walmart stores rang up almost 10 million transactions from the time doors opened for Black Friday shoppers at 8 p.m. Thursday until midnight. Meanwhile the following strikes and protest actions have been reported:
This Black Friday, rethink what the corporate media tells us is ‘normal.’
The Occupy Movement has found an unlikely ally in a senior Bank of England official, Andrew Haldane, who has praised protesters for their role in triggering an overhaul of the financial services sector.
Haldane, who oversees the City for the central bank, said Occupy acted as a lever on policymakers despite criticism that its aims were too vague. He said the protest movement was right to focus on inequality as the chief reason for the 2008 crash, following studies that showed the accumulation of huge wealth funded by debt was directly responsible for the domino-like collapse of the banking sector in 2008.
Speaking at a debate held by the Occupy Movement in central London, Haldane said regulations limiting credit use would undermine attempts by individuals to accumulate huge property and financial wealth at the expense of other members of society. Allowing banks to lend on a massive scale also drained funding from other industries, adding to the negative impact that unregulated banks had on the economy, he said.
You can’t un-ring the bell.
Professor of Journalism (University of Texas) Robert Jensen, on Talking Radical in a Mainstream World
It represents the elite. THe 1% and defends their interests, and responds to their donations and lobbying teams. It seems like if you can’t afford a lobbyist, your vote doesn’t matter much.
That happens one person at a time. One conversation at a time. One moment at a time. Open up your mind, examine, question and think for yourself. Question everything, and ask yourself, “Could we do this better?”
(via occupiedstories)
![theatlantic:
A How-To Guide for Depressed Young Environmentalists
After the 2008 election, we saw an opportunity to win both federal climate legislation and to secure an international climate deal in Copenhagen. When both went down in flames, many climate activists (myself included) fell into a kind of depression.
Fast forward to 2012. We’re living through the warmest year in American history. Wildfires and droughts are plaguing the West, prompting experts to warn of a looming food crisis, and Bill McKibben’s tour-de-force Rolling Stone piece “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math” has been viewed 1.2 million times in two weeks. The listservs I’m on are filling up with huge threads with subject lines like, “I’m scared.”
What happened? What do we do now? I and many other members of the millennial generation have spent the past few years developing answers to these questions. The good news is that we now know a great deal about what works, and we know what we need to do. […]
So how do we, as a generation that will be grappling with these issues far into the future, ensure that the good curves win out?
Read more. [Image: Chris Eichler/Flickr]
r](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8pjkuUeci1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
A How-To Guide for Depressed Young Environmentalists
After the 2008 election, we saw an opportunity to win both federal climate legislation and to secure an international climate deal in Copenhagen. When both went down in flames, many climate activists (myself included) fell into a kind of depression.
Fast forward to 2012. We’re living through the warmest year in American history. Wildfires and droughts are plaguing the West, prompting experts to warn of a looming food crisis, and Bill McKibben’s tour-de-force Rolling Stone piece “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math” has been viewed 1.2 million times in two weeks. The listservs I’m on are filling up with huge threads with subject lines like, “I’m scared.”
What happened? What do we do now? I and many other members of the millennial generation have spent the past few years developing answers to these questions. The good news is that we now know a great deal about what works, and we know what we need to do. […]
So how do we, as a generation that will be grappling with these issues far into the future, ensure that the good curves win out?
Read more. [Image: Chris Eichler/Flickr]
r
