He’s coming, can Wal-Mart Wade through?

Chief Opponent Wade Rathke To Fly Down Next Week To Mobilise Public Opinion Against Retailer
EVEN before Wal-Mart could set up shop in India, one of America’s most prominent anti-Wal-Mart activists responsible for dragging the retail behemoth to various courts in the US, Wade Rathke, is flying into the country next week to mobilise public opinion against the Bentoville retailer. He has also sought an audience with the Congress president and Prime Minister to bad mouth the retail giant. Mr Rathke is the chief organiser of Association of Community Organisations for Reform Now (ACORN) which also mobilised the public in South Korea and Germany against the retail behemoth, the two markets from where Wal-Mart subsequently withdrew, says a senior Congress Party functionary. A source close to the Congress president told ET, “Mr Rathke wants to apprise the Indian policy makers of the impact that Wal-Mart may have on the Indian society.” During his visit Mr Rathke is likely to meet representatives of various organisations and “affected stakeholder groups like traders, hawkers, farmers, trade unions, academicians and NGOs.” On April 22, he is scheduled to speak at a convention against corporate participation in retail to be organised by India FDI Watch. “The convention will discuss various aspects of a campaign which would build an intense and broader resistance to corporate onslaught on retail in India. This will be done through the formation of joint action committee and concretising demands,” said the organiser of the joint ACORN-India FDI Watch campaign Dharmendra Kumar. Wade Rathke has been a professional campaign organiser for the last 35 years and has founded a series of organisations on the issues of social justice and worker rights. He also spearheads a union of Wal-Mart workers, though the company has not accorded an official recognition to the forum. ACORN is one of US’ largest community organisations of low and moderate-income families. Mr Rathke has been particularly vocal against Wal-Mart’s labour practises in the US, having initiated a series of litigations and labour movements against the Bentonville retailer, which has on many occasions, been in the line of fire for violating labour laws in the US, Canada and some European countries. In January 2006, Wal-Mart had to pay $135,540 to settle federal charges that it violated child labour laws in Connecticut, Arkansas and New Hampshire. Still earlier, in March 2000, the company was fined $205,650 for violations of labour laws in one out of every 20 stores in the state of Maine, US.

Courtesy: EconomicTimes