Wal-Mart Watch: USAction’s Corporate Truth Squard exposes Wal-Mart as a pre-eminent corporate lobbyist in the fight to deny citizens the right to redress of grievances through class-action lawsuits, a move endorsed by Dick Cheney in his latest appearance at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has a lot at stake in this one: only the US government is sued more often than Wal-Mart. This Maryland class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart is but one example:

Defendants have adopted, and are using, unfair business practices to minimize Associates’ [workers’] compensation and increase profits. Among those unfair business practices are failing to pay Associates for off-the-clock work, under staffing Defendants’ stores, causing Associates to work without receiving adequate meal and rest breaks, and manipulating time and wage records to reduce the amount paid to Associates below the wages actually due and owing…

Wal-Mart Watch: Good Jobs First releases a new report, “Shopping for Subsidies: How Wal-Mart Uses Taxpayer Money to Finance Its Never-Ending Growth,” demonstrating that Wal-Mart and its backers’ agendas are only against government intervention when its on behalf of their workers:

The $1 billion figure we cite for total public assistance to Wal-Mart may very well be the tip of the iceberg.

Time to get Wal-Mart off welfare.

Out of sight, out of mind:

“We don’t do body counts,” proclaimed General Tommy Franks, the American military commander who led the invasion. When Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the chief spokesman for US forces in Baghdad, was asked what he would say to Iraqis who saw TV footage of civilians killed by coalition troops, he replied, according to The New York Times: “Change the channel.”

The UN International Labor Organization decries the lack of basic labor protections – de facto and de jure – around the world:

The report (*) centres on freedom of association (**) and the right to collective bargaining, two key fundamental workers’ rights enshrined in ILO Conventions 87 and 98…Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), said, “freedom of association and collective bargaining are not a luxury but fundamental rights and the basis for sustainable and adaptable labour markets”. Despite this, the ILO report notes that in numerical terms, the level of ratification of the two core Conventions covering the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining means that a startling half of the world’s workers remain unprotected by the conventions’ provisions. Alarmingly, large countries as Brazil, China, India, Mexico and the United States have still not ratified fundamental ILO Conventions on freedom of association.

The report looks at several areas in which this fundamental right is frequently flouted, including in export processing zones. “Workers attempting to organise are sometimes blacklisted, reprimanded or sacked. The catalogue of abuses in such workplaces is long. One example of this involves a Korean textile worker who was threatened at gunpoint by his employer to make him resign from his trade union”, said Ryder.

Don’t say they didn’t warn you:

Presented last fall with a detailed catalog of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, the American military responded on Dec. 24 with a confidential letter to a Red Cross official asserting that many Iraqi prisoners were not entitled to the full protections of the Geneva Conventions. The letter, drafted by military lawyers and signed by Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, emphasized the “military necessity” of isolating some inmates at the prison for interrogation because of their “significant intelligence value,” and said prisoners held as security risks could legally be treated differently from prisoners of war or ordinary criminals. But the military insisted that there were “clear procedures governing interrogation to ensure approaches do not amount to inhumane treatment.”

In recent public statements, Bush administration officials have said that the Geneva Conventions were “fully applicable” in Iraq…

Kevin Drum considers the symbolism of Governor Romney trying to deny Equal Marriage rights to gay couples using a law designed to stop interracial marriage:

That’s a perfect symbol, isn’t it? Gay marriage opponents are now invoking laws originally designed to make it more difficult for blacks and whites to marry each other. I hope they’re proud of being the modern day heirs of Jim Crow.

A victory for workers in Qatar:

The Gulf state of Qatar has announced it will soon allow workers to form trade unions and take strike action. An official statement said the new labour law, decreed by ruler Hamad al-Thani, would become law in six months. A minister quoted by AFP said for the first time workers would be given “the right to strike when amicable settlements cannot be reached”. The legislation also bans under-16s from working, sets an eight-hour working day and equal rights for women. Women will also be entitled to a paid 50-day maternity leave.

Hopefully they’ll fashion a regulatory system more robust than ours…

Wal-Mart Watch: UFCW President Joseph Hansen makes his case for the struggle to organize Wal-Mart as a national cause:

The UFCW sees Wal-Mart as not just a problem for the UFCW. We see it as a problem for all the workers in America. Wal-Mart claims to be about low prices, but when you look hard at what the company is, it’s low wages, no benefits, high turnover. It’s turning our economy into a Wal-Mart economy. We’re going to have a low-wage, no-benefit economy, and we’re slowly but surely, and in some cases not so slow, we’re being driven down toward the bottom. It’s not good for our country…people have to look at what those low costs bring. They bring lower wages and a lower tax base to the community. Wal-Mart shoves some of the services that other employers provide, particular health care, off onto the community. That’s what you get with the low prices. You might save a dollar, but you’re threatening your own job and you’re certainly creating a worse situation for your own community.

Just remember – they hate us for our freedoms:

TA transit police confirmed yesterday they will begin stopping passengers for identification checks at various T locations, apparently as part of new national rail security measures following the deadly terrorist train bombings in Spain. Although officials would release few details about the initiative, the identity checks will mark the first time local rail and subway passengers will be asked to produce identification and be questioned about their activities.

The Statesman, highlights an interesting quote from General Myers in today’s Times:

…but he spoke of the need to integrate the military and political missions. “It applies to the war on terrorism; it also applies to the efforts in Iraq,” he said.

As Alyssa observes, looks like someone recognizes that there’s a distinction between the two…

Just added two new sections on the sidebar with suggesting some fo the many causes out there to write on behalf of or donate to. Feel free to send you own suggestions – as always, it’s “eidelson” at “yale.edu.”