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NOW Kicks Off Wal-Mart Holiday Shopping Campaign

By Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz, Senior Field Organizer

NOW President Kim Gandy, sporting one of NOW's "Wal-Mart Discriminates" umbrellas, joins activists protesting at a Wal-Mart in Maryland.

The holidays are quickly approaching — along with some important decisions about where you will spend your holiday dollars.  NOW activists have one clear answer for the public: Find out about Wal-Mart's discrimination against women before you consider spending your holiday dollars at Wal-Mart!

Wal-Mart faces numerous allegations of discrimination against women. Facing the largest class action suit in the country, filed on behalf of 1.6 million past and present female employees of Wal-Mart, the company continues to get black eyes as more and more revelations of their employment practices come to light. Such new allegations include, among others, their intention to lower health care costs by hiring "healthier" employees. They are anti-union, anti-worker, and they perpetuate human rights violations and environmental degradation around the world through the manufacture of goods in factories abroad which pay sub-standard wages. It is hardly a place where many feminists want to be spending our hard-earned dollars.

Activists protest at a Wal-Mart store in Maryland.

But in many places around the country, Wal-Mart is the only game in town. Also, Wal-Mart's lower prices make products more accessible to working-class and poor people.  This means that NOW's "Truth about Wal-Mart" message needs to include consumer education on these issues. It is critical that we continue to protest at their stores to bring light to the abuses.

Wal-Mart's corporate behavior will be featured in the new movie by Robert Greenwald (producer of the critically acclaimed "Outfoxed" and "Uncovered"). It is called "WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price," and opens the week of Nov. 13, 2005. NOW's campaign against Wal-Mart is featured in the film.

Defiance and resistance come in many forms. Be creative this holiday season by sending Wal-Mart the message that ending discrimination is good business — and good for business. Join NOW's Wal-Mart campaign today!