The Everyday Low Prices of Blogging for Wal-Mart

Adrianne Shropshire

The Everyday Low Prices of Blogging for Wal-Mart

Blog readers beware. While you might think you are reading the independent opinions and corporate-influence-free ideas of political pundits across the country, what you might actually be getting is a word-for-word opinion, straight from the Wal-Mart PR spin machine. While nothing seems to be too low for Wal-Mart (prices, wages, benefits) I still was a little surprised to learn that they've targeted the blogosphere in their search for friends and even more surprised to learn that conservative bloggers are lifting the words right off the PR presses and passing them off as original material. Talk about moving a message.

It's interesting though to get a look at whose support Wal-Mart believes they must consolidate. MoveOn certainly has transformed what is defined as a mobilizable base. And here I thought that given their usual commercials highlighting working-class African Americans playing basketball with their kids, or single African American mothers shopping with kids or their girlfriends, or Queen Latifah, or Beyonce... I thought Wal-Mart was almost exclusively focused on trying to convince working-class communities of color, and specifically African Americans, that everyday low prices should always outweigh dignity, respect, and a decent paycheck. I mean if Destiny's Child and their families shop there for Christmas presents doesn't that excuse the fact that the children of "associates" don't have health insurance?

Trying to convince these communities would make sense, since it is in these communities that Wal-Mart is trying to expand their low-road job show. And the relative ease with which they seem to slide into these communities is a sad commentary on the economic outlook of the regular folks who reside there. Having to decide between a crappy job or no job is not only a terrible position to be in but a false choice as well because Wal-Mart doesn't have to offer crappy jobs and we don't have to accept them as the only option.

But alas, poor Wal-Mart. In search of a friend. A company that seemed invincible is suddenly in desperate need of good PR. So, I'd like to be helpful to them and here's my little tip for Wal-Mart (and everyone else who they've inspired with their low-road business model): Wanna change your public image? Pay a decent wage; let your "associates" decide for themselves whether they would like union representation or not (and, oh, don't close the store if they choose the union); don't discriminate against women, people of color, or immigrants (go ahead, settle those law suits); and do what every other self-respecting, responsible employer does and provide affordable healthcare.

Comments

Excellent blog! There is another way Wal-Mart can change its public image: improve the working conditions of the thousands of people manufacturing its products worldwide. If one went to China, for instance, and saw the disregard for the health and safety of factory workers making goods for Wal-Mart, not to mention the measely wages (below minimum even in China), back-breaking hours, lack of health care or sick days, prison-like living conditions, dictatorial management, and lack of monitoring or code of conduct, one realizes that Wal-Mart must think (erroneously) that its domestic employees do not know how fortunate they are. Wal-Mart should be proactive in improving and monitoring the conditions for workers in factories worldwide that allow it to earn greater revenues than dozens of countries' entire GDP's, or stop using them to make its products.

What, if anything, do you make of long-time progressive, civil rights leader, DMI director Andrew Young's new role as Wal-Mart advocate?

He has taken on a leading role in a Wal-Mart sponsored group called Workiing Families for Wal-Mart which troubling. He's a guy I've long admired from a distance and -- rarely -- close up. So I'm loathe to think he's a shill.

Those of you who work for/with the Drum Major Institute are in a unique position to ask Ambassador Young about what he has in mind. So would you ask and tell the rest of us (or at least me)?

Oh boy.

So what I like aboug this blog is that it takes hard swings at the obvious problems (from a progressive perspective) as well as some less obvious issues. Wal-Mart is an example fo the former, the call for more accountability from ACORN a few months ago is an example of the latter. (Which I disagreed with, but in general I think we need to ask the hard questions of our allies as well as our foes.)

And that aside brings me to DMI Director Andrew Young. This is a man that I have long admired for his work with SCLC, then in his forays into electoral politics and eventually his ambassadorship. I always viewed him as a man of integrity and strong core values.

So I'm more than a little blown away by his recent shilling for Wal-Mart. And I'm going to call it shilling. He says it's about getting econmic development into low-income African-American communities. If that's the objective, then I find it hard to beleive he couldn't find a company that actually treats its workers with dignity and respect to champion instead of Wal-Mart.

I really detest the penchant in the left for smearing people when they deviate the slightest from the party line or make make choices that we may disagree with on some issues. But there are also some things where it is easy to say that someone has crossed a bright and shining line. And Wal-Mart is one of those lines.

So I'm going to right here and now say that Andrew Young is teetering on the edge of selling out the constituency he claims to be advocating for. In fact, I'm just going to go ahead and say it. He's selling out.

Why isn't he bringing his reputation, skills, and fundraising ability to bear in service for groups like North Carolina's Black Workers for Justice, which hits all of his supposed interestes? Of for CAFE in South Carolina? Just to name two.

I fail to see Wal-Mart having anything in its interest except making more money using a business model that destroys communities and oppresses its workers. It certainly isn't accountable to anyone except its senior management and shareholders.

Putting Andrew Young in the fray is the economic justice version of greenwashing. Call it blackwashing in this case. This kind of thing makes me wonder how much of Young's decision is based in an innate bias agasint organized labor, perhaps the single biggest engine of economic growth for the middle class in America for people of all races, despite the pervasive and persistant strains of racism within that institution.

I can tell you one thing for sure. C. L. Dellums and A. Philip Randolph are spinning in their graves and MLK Jr's holding his head in his hands.

This is a disgrace.

I fully expect that the DMI will offer the same kind of calling to account to its director that it has done for other organizations and people on the left. Institutional credibility is on the line.