Comments mulang has made

Strategy

It's good to see that people are keeping up the debate about Walmart's ongoing problematic labor practices, and I think this bears upon the "what's their motivation?" question.

If we question whether Scott has truly found green religion (which I think we should), we ought to expand our analysis of their motives beyond a) cost-savings or b) generic 'greenwashing'. Is it possible these environmental policies are also designed specifically to split the opposition?  I'm sure Walmart would like nothing better than to be able to peel away the 'green collar' contingent (environmentalist, generally white-collar folk, such as most of the people in on this blog, I'm guessing) from the blue collar labor folks whose demands have sofar gone unmet by Walmart. Divide and conquer!  Walmart would have effectively split the solid wall of progressive opposition it has so far faced.

My point here is that we shouldn't necessarily let our verdict on Walmart hinge entirely on that "are they green enough?" question, and remember class and our positions of priviliage and the importance of political solidarity.  
On Learning to love Wal-Mart posted 3 years, 4 months ago 14 Responses