Bill Moyers Journal (PBS) had an informative segment on a community organizer in South Chicago last night, that was attempting to get Wal-Mart to pay a living wage to employees. Wal-Mart threatened to close its' stores there if the Chicago City Council passed the living wage bill. Unfortunately, back room politics (bribes and threats) ultimately defeated the bill. Wal-Mart's attitude-"Poor people are lucky to have a job at all." I think this is the attitude that leads to economic, if not actual, slavery.

Also this related post from KnoxViews

Wall-E vs. Wal-Mart
Submitted by WakeUpWalmart on Tue, 2009/02/10 - 5:05pm.

I watched the great movie Wall-E last night. If you haven't seen it yet, fire up your Netflix or jot down a note to hit Blockbuster after work.

If you have seen it, you probably recognized the corporate behemoth of Buy-N-Large. We have a similar, sinister company down here on Earth called Wal-Mart.

In the movie, Buy-N-Large has gotten so gargantuan and out-of-control that it has taken on every aspect of society: It peddles every possible product at its Supercenters, it sells gas, it controls the banks -- and it has even taken on the role of a quasi-government.

Wal-Mart would love to be Buy-N-Large if it could. Indeed, the Bentonville behemoth has recently attempted to grow beyond its traditional Supercenter model. It has introduced gas stations and has even tried to create a bank!

But perhaps most ominously, Wal-Mart is even getting involved in elections. During the 2008 election, management pulled employees into meetings to urge them not to vote for Obama because -- gasp! -- he would fight for worker's rights.

The similarity between the Bentonville behemoth and the Buy-N-Large behemoth is funny, but it's scary, too. It's why I'm doing work with Wake Up Wal-Mart.

Consider Wake Up Wal-Mart as Wall-E. I know that analogy doesn't really work -- but both WUWM and Wall-E fight/are fighting the behemoth to restore environmental vitality and quality of life back to America. I urge you to join the fight!