Black Friday Protests Planned

Stand with Walmart workers this BLACK FRIDAY! All across the country the UFCW and Walmart employees are scheduling Black Friday protests to bring attention to the unfair and inhumane treatment Walmart workers receive from this company. Walmart rakes in more than $16 billion in annual profits yet the most of its workers earn less than $25,000 a year, forcing them to either work more jobs or to receive government assistance. The dream of a national strike or protest about wages and workers’ rights, like France and other countries do, has always been thought of as impossible here in the U.S. Now with large mass corporations like Walmart, Target, Home Depot, McDonalds, Taco Bell, and Burger King, which are all across the U.S., it’s now feasible to have a national protests on the Black Friday. So far this year at least 27 Walmarts across the U.S. are scheduled to have Black Friday protests and we can only hope there will be more at other corporations that are exposed for paying slave wages. This is not the first year for the Black Friday protests at Walmart, it’s perhaps the third. Remember last year when Walmart was exposed for putting up a sign in one of its Ohio stores saying, "Please Donate Food Items Here, so Associates in Need Can Enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner." All of their employees are poor yet these selfish, greedy owners expect the other employees to compensate employees so the owners don’t have to? Walmart actually said it showed how the company tried to help its employees. They are not helping their employees; it’s the other employees helping the employees. Why is Walmart getting a pass on violating its employees’ rights and treating them like indentured servants? The inequality between Walmart owners and its employees is so blatant and obscene. If inequality is to be improved, it will have to be fought for by the workers because the government and elected politicians will not be the ones who will solve the inequality problem. They’ve learned not to bite the hand that feeds them. We can no longer depend on the Democratic Party to resolve our workers’ problems. It will be resolved by the wage slaves using the old tried and true tactics of civil disobedience and direct action. We can hope all we want for the elections to create some change, but not hold our breath since it hasn’t helped much in the past. As an example, judges have ordered non-associates, who are agents of the UFCW Intl., or our Walmart from going into Walmart property except to shop in Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Colorado and Maryland. A California judge has enjoined non-associate agents of the UFCW and our Walmart from engaging in certain activities inside California Walmart store, according to the UFCW website. Where is the Constitutionality in this? Since our political system appoints and sometimes we elect these judges, maybe this is another area we need to concentrate on to get judges that represent the people and not the corporations. Even still, we can protest on the sidewalks, lie we’ve done before. They are counting on us remaining ignorant; it’s up to us to change this misconception. We need to have actions to prove that there is hope and we need to educate the workers in the unions and outside of unions about their history and the degree to which the capitalist system is no longer working for them and the workers have to begin to think about a different way of life. We need action not only here in the U.S., but worldwide. All workers must stand together and we now have the tools to make it work. Remember to stand up for workers this Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Be there for the protests.