Area Greens make anti-Wal-Mart doc

It has been four years since Ken Friberg “took the red pill.” Yes, like in “The Matrix.”

That’s how the St. Paul resident describes hearing Ralph Nader speak at the Target Center in Minneapolis four years ago. When the populist icon described the growing influence of corporations in America, Friberg’s interest was piqued, and he began to research the issue for himself. His view of the world, he said, was “shattered.”

“There has been no going back since then,” he said.

After investigating the world’s major corporations—their actions, their pay and their profit—Friberg found Wal-Mart to be the worst of the worst. He volunteered for political campaigns and met other area residents—from across the political spectrum—with similar concerns.

Now, Friberg and fellow St. Paul activist Elizabeth Dickinson have produced the documentary “Always Low,” a how-to guide for unions and other activists who want to fight Wal-Mart in their communities, and why they should. The film centers on the actions of the local Midway Citizens Community Coalition (MC4), formed to fight Wal-Mart in the Twin Cities.

Why single out Wal-Mart? Because in the pantheon of corporate sinners—Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Exxon—Wal-Mart holds most of the gold medals. It is the biggest corporation in world history and the country’s largest private employer, with an annual profit bigger than the combined GDP of Ireland and Israel combined. One of founder Sam Walton’s heirs is the richest man in America, and four other family members are in the top 10.

It is also the most-sued corporation in the world and the subject of the largest-ever discrimination class action suit, with 1.3 million defendants. It has been sued for discrimination against women, African-Americans and unions. It violated 1,371 child labor laws in one sample week, according to a recent study. Its reaction to unions is legendary; when one meat section of one store unionized, the company shut down all its meat sections in all its 3,200 American stores rather than risk another union.

For every dollar Wal-Mart makes, 80 cents goes back to corporate headquarters. The average Wal-Mart employee earns $7.50 per hour—two dollars less than the average retail worker—for an annual income of $13,861.

Union organizer Chris Conry said that Wal-Mart could close that gap with only a 2-to-3-cent increase in their prices for each product. Instead, managers at Wal-Mart encourage employees to apply for public assistance, so taxpayers pay for Wal-Mart’s conduct.

“Today the institution with the most power is the corporation,” Dickinson said. “The money and power corporations accrue are used to consolidate more money and power through changing laws in favor of the corporation. We know that some of the international trade agreements are being used to undermine local control all over the world—whether it’s prevailing wage laws or environmental laws or more.”

But Friberg and Dickinson said they are not attacking all corporations; there are many “big corporations whose leaders have integrity; Target, Southwest Airlines and IKEA corporations behave far differently than their counterparts at Wal-Mart,” Friberg said.

Instead, Dickinson said, they want to educate Americans “to take a thoughtful look at products,” because “our culture is seduced by the idea of saving money and does not think how it affects the greater system or real people.”

As Wal-Mart grows, so do the number of ways people are working to preserve their small-town and neighborhood values. The City of Excelsior, MN announced in an advertising campaign that they will “secede from the Starbucks Nation;” that is, prevent corporate giants from opening in their town and remain a community of Mom-and-Pop stores.

“The fight against the corporations is still in the educational stages,” Dickinson said. “Unions, community groups and individuals are informing and educating their communities about the injustices that some corporations perpetuate.”

People of all political backgrounds, in small towns and big cities, are forming a national movement to keep their jobs and communities intact, Friberg said, and he wants this documentary to be a tool for activists across the country. He said Americans “contribute 5 percent or less of our income or time to causes which better our world; however, we blindly go about our pursuit of happiness and fortune by contributing to the problem 95 percent of the time.”

“We have got to wake up and see the damage we are doing to our culture and others around the world,” Friberg said. “People are waking up and the movement crosses economic, political and religious boundaries to some extent. The TV-watching population only takes notice when a critical mass has been achieved, and that is coming.”

To purchase the documentary visit www.alwayslow.com or call 651-227-5473.