Dear
Friends of LAANE:
LAANE
is going to expose and embarrass Wal-Mart and we need your
help.
Commemorating
the one-year anniversary of the defeat of Wal-Mart at the
ballot box in Inglewood, the Coalition for a Better Inglewood
(CBI), which led that campaign, has sent a delegation of
eight African-American and Latino leaders, under the leadership
of 
Inglewood
Assembly Member Jerome Horton, to Bentonville, AK to confront
Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott at their worldwide headquarters and
tell the media the other side of the Wal-Mart story.
The
delegation will deliver a proposal to Scott - signed by
prominent Inglewood pastors, elected officials, and activists
- demanding that the corporation agree to negotiate a Community
Benefits Agreement, which would include living wages and
affordable health benefits for employees, for its soon-to-be
proposed scaled-down Inglewood store. We will frame this
action in the context of last year's Inglewood defeat, (click
here for background information) and Wal-Mart's continuing
efforts to open a store there. We will also invoke the economic
justice legacy of Martin Luther King, whose assassination
is remembered nationwide on April 4, in a challenge to Wal-Mart's
attempts to appropriate his image in its aggressive PR campaign
pointing to the alleged benefits the corporation provides
to the African-American community.
Following
Wal-Mart's defeat in Inglewood and several less dramatic
set-backs since then, the company (rather than change its
policies) mounted a huge public relations campaign to clean
up its image. Our confrontation is timed to coincide with
a convening to which Wal-Mart has invited some 100 journalists
including representatives of all the major national media.
Their two-day PR event is intended to frame the corporation
as a community-friendly, good employer. Members of our delegation
will deliver the Community Benefits proposal to Scott and
conduct a press conference immediately preceding the CEO's
opening keynote address. We will highlight the discrepancies
between what Wal-Mart says about its policies and the reality
of its practices. Additional media outreach will be conducted
at an evening reception and by national teleconference to
reporters and op-ed editors. We think this is an incredible
opportunity to expose Wal-Mart and put the lie to its claims.
We
estimate the expenses of the delegation - including air
fare, hotel rooms, and media communications - will be a
little over $15,000. As we learned about the event at the
last minute, we did not budget for it and are looking to
our friends and supporters to help defray the expense. You
may make donations by sending a check to LAANE at:
215
W. 6th St., Suite 1204
Los Angeles, CA 90014
Or
you can click
here to use your credit card. Please contact Laura Joseph
at ljoseph@laane.org or 213-486-9880 ext. 101 for questions
or information about donations.
If
you have any other questions, or want more information,
please contact Madeline Janis-Aparicio at mjanis-aparicio@laane.org.
