Occupy Movement Targets Corporate Interest Group with Ties to Legislators American Legislative
Exchange Council (ALEC) will face ire of the 99%
A coalition of Occupy groups, led by Occupy Portland in Oregon, is calling on people "to target corporations that are part of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)" with direct actions and public events later this month. The Occupy groups, organizing under the banner Shut Down the Corporations, sees ALEC as the "prime example of the way corporations buy off legislators and craft legislation that serves the interests of corporations and not people." ALEC was instrumental in creating the anti-labor legislation in Wisconsin last year and the racist bill SB 1070 in Arizona, among many other measures pushed or passed in state houses across the country. ALEC uses its large coffers and wealthy membership to spread free-market, corporate-friendly laws around the country.
Arizona's controversial immigration law, SB 1070, was modelled on ALEC's No Sanctuary Cities for Illegal Immigrants Act. (Photograph: Michael Dwyer/AP)
The day of action is slated for Leap Day, February 29th.
According to their call to action:
Occupy Portland calls for a national day of non-violent direct action to reclaim our voices and challenge our society’s obsession with profit and greed by shutting down the corporations. We are rejecting a society that does not allow us control of our future. We will reclaim our ability to shape our world in a democratic, cooperative, just and sustainable direction.http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/21
= new reply since forum marked as read
I see my life, health and car insurance companies are on this list, and my cable company and my local drug store. This is sooo depressing.
I see Walmart is on there but not Target. I guess I'll only be buying my cheap crap at Target now.
by F29IE Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012 at 11:55 PM
maydaygeneralstrike@gmail.com 951-888-0355
Join Occupy Riverside, Redlands, San Bernardino Valley, Los Angeles and other Occupy groups in the region for the mass participatory direct action targeting Walmart's largest warehouse and distribution center. NO BUSINESS AS USUAL!
Occupy Riverside Calls for Action Targeting Wal-Mart on F29
The current economic system depends on exploitation of workers at every stage: production, distribution, and consumption. Here in the Inland Empire, our dominant industry is logistics--the storing and transporting of products. At warehouses throughout the region, workers are exposed to toxic chemicals and unsafe temperatures, and are often subject to wage theft. They work for giant companies like Wal-Mart, but indirectly. Wal-Mart contracts with warehouses, who contract with temp agencies, which allows Wal-Mart to deny responsibilities for the workers that earn them billions in profits. The workers have no unions to help them protect their rights, and every attempt to organize is squashed by the 1% at the top. Now, workers are being threatened with dismissal for nothing more than fighting for their rights. They must be defended!
We have heard Occupy Portland’s call to “Shut Down the Corporations” on February 29, and we are heeding it in the way that makes the most sense for our area. Many of us work at warehouses--the industry touches our lives in multiple ways, from the worker abuses mentioned to the pollution that the trucks and trains spew into the air we breathe. We are calling for a day of action at the world’s largest Wal-Mart warehouse to show the corporations and the 1% that we are fighting back, not only for the rights of workers, but also for citizens whose rights are infringed upon by legislative networks such as ALEC, of which Wal-Mart is a part.
We call on all area occupy movements and all people of conscience to join us on February 29 to take a stand for the human rights of workers, and against ALEC, Wal-Mart and the rest of the 1%.
More Details to come....
http://www.shutdownthecorporations.org
http://www.warehouseworkersunited.org
http://www.alecexposed.org
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150497264426776&set=t.1046970065&type=1&makeprofile=1#!/events/221156634636963/
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2012/01/251259.php
