Worker rights violations, unsustainable distribution practices, buying-power abuses, exploitation of agricultural labor, the destruction of independent local businesses and small-scale farming. These are some of the problems generated by Big-Box retailers. It's time to get out onto the streets to denounce these policies and demand that corporations respect human rights, workers rights, communities and the environment and urge governments to introduce new rules to curb Big-Box power!
We're writing from Global Exchange and International Labor Rights Fund to see if you're interested in collaborating with us to organize an international day of protest against Wal-Mart and other Big-Box retailers around the world. We've already gotten enthusiastic support for the idea from the World Social Forum, which was held in January in Nairobi, Kenya, and from a conference organized by CILAS (the Resource Center for Labor Advice) in Mexico City in February. We also received European support from the Supermarket Campaign Strategizing Day, held in London on March 1st. Now we are looking for support in the United States from people who agree that it is time to mobilize the grassroots to get out onto the streets against the Big-Box corporations!
Why an International Day of Protest against Wal-Mart, Big Box retailers in US and their international counterparts, Tesco, Metro, Carrefour and Ahold?
- Make the voice of grassroots activists heard by corporations, governments and consumers around the world.
- Give anti-Big-Box activists an exciting new local organizing project to rally around, promoting outreach through educational events.
- Bring new grassroots activists into the struggle to reform Big-Boxes and other corporate look-alikes (for example, student anti-sweatshop activists and environmentalists).
- Distribute thousands of educational flyers to shoppers on the day of action, educating them about the hidden cost of Big-Box retailers' low prices.
- Strengthen ties between US, European, Latin American and Asian groups working to reform Big-Box chains and international groups working on a variety of economic justice issues (labor issues, sweatshops, and corporate globalization).
- Generate media coverage of the consumer movement demanding policy changes regarding labor, environmental and community protections from Wal-Mart, Target and others.
A Few Ideas for the Day of Action
- Timing: The date we're considering is November 17, around the beginning of the holiday shopping season.
- Type of action: We'd like to get people out in front of Big-Box stores, holding rallies and handing out flyers to customers. Let us know if you have other ideas.
- Collaboration: We have already gotten very positive responses from so many different issue-focused groups so we envision this as an opportunity to develop concrete action plans that cut across multiple issues.
Please Join Us!
We want as many groups as possible to endorse this campaign before we put out the call to the general public. Please let us know if you're interested in joining us to create the largest and most powerful anti-Big-Box day of action possible. We don't all have to do exactly the same type of actions or have exactly the same demands -- the important thing is that we join our voices together on the same day to demand reforms from companies that are harming workers, communities and the environment.
Please Contact:
We look forward to hearing your ideas and working with you!
All the best,
Ruben Garcia, Global Exchange
Trina Tocco, International Labor Rights Fund
