NY TImes Article: Wal-Mart Invades Earth

It's torn cities apart from Inglewood to Chicago and
engulfed the entire state of Vermont. Now the conflict's
gone national as a presidential campaign issue, with John
Kerry hammering the megaretailer for its abysmally low
wages and Dick Cheney praising it for its "spirit of
enterprise, fair dealing and integrity." This could be the
central battle of the 21st century: Earth people versus the
Wal-Martians.

No one knows exactly when the pod landed on our planet, but
it seemed normal enough during its early years of gentle
expansion. Almost too normal, if you thought about it, with
those smiley faces and red-white-and-blue bunting, like the
space invaders in a 1950's sci-fi flick when they put on
their human suits. . .

. . .No, Wal-Mart's only hope lies with its ostensible
opponents, like Madeline Janis-Aparicio, who led the
successful fight against a new superstore in Inglewood,
Calif. "The point is not to destroy them," she told me,
"but to make them accountable." Similarly Andy Stern,
president of the Service Employees International Union,
will soon begin a national effort to "bring Wal-Mart up to
standards we can live with." He envisions a nationwide
movement bringing together the unions, churches, community
organizations and environmentalists who are already
standing up to the company's recklessly metastatic growth.

Earth to Wal-Mars, or wherever you come from: Live with us
or go back to the mother ship.

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