Raises Serious Questions about Efforts to Enter DC Market
WASHINGTON, DC, April 23 — After delaying construction on its six proposed DC stores, stunning revelations came to the fore this week about the extent of Walmart’s bribery scandal in Mexico. Its efforts to cover up reportedly illegal activity at the highest levels of the corporation show that the values of the company are not the values we want in DC, Respect DC charged today. Noting that Walmart clearly cannot be trusted, coalition members said that DC public officials must demand an enforceable community benefits agreement, as well as demand that Walmart’s construction continues to be halted until a federal investigation in the matter has concluded.
An in-depth investigative report published in The New York Times documented that Walmart “orchestrated a campaign of bribery to win market dominance” in Mexico, paying bribes totaling more than $24 million. Though an investigator hired by Walmart told top executives, “There is reasonable suspicion to believe that Mexican and USA laws have been violated,” the official who orchestrated the bribery campaign was later promoted to vice chairman of Walmart. In addition, Walmart’s current CEO, Michael Duke, was responsible for all foreign subsidiaries at the time, including Mexico, was kept fully informed, and did nothing to hold anyone accountable or bring the scandal to the attention of law enforcement authorities.
“This sordid episode demonstrates that Walmart tolerates lawbreaking in pursuit of market expansion and dominance,” said Dyana Forester of Respect DC. “Yet even that’s not the worst of it. Walmart’s clear efforts to sweep this bribery scandal under the rug, its failure to notify the U.S. and Mexican governments of apparent lawbreaking, and its subsequent promotions of the official who spearheaded the bribery and Mike Duke to CEO show that Walmart is still infected by a corrupt corporate culture.
“Walmart continues to show that it cannot be trusted,” Forester charged. “We call on Mayor Gray and the DC Council to put a halt on all permitting for Walmart’s proposed stores in DC, until a full investigation by the federal government is completed. Furthermore, we demand a local investigation of Walmart and its local developers’ political giving, as well as so-called ‘philanthropy’ to elected leaders, organizations, and public agencies here in DC.”
Please see http://theweek.com/article/index/227089/walmarts-explosive-mexican-bribery-scandal-a-concise-guide for a concise breakdown of the reported scandal and cover up.
Reposted from thefightback.org. Listen to audio of this story here.
“We don’t feel like D.C. should trust Walmart’s track record to build the future of this city,” Respect DC organizer Mike Wilson said Saturdaymorning. He spoke with TheFightBack in the lobby of Northwest One Public Library, just a couple blocks from the future site of the Ward 6 Walmart, one of six slated to come to D.C.
Wilson was scheduled to be among the panelists at a community meeting organized by Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6C on the Ward 6 Walmart planned for 801 New Jersey Ave, NW. Representatives from Walmart and JBG, the developer for the Ward 6 site (and the Fort Totten Walmart), were also scheduled to participate, but the meeting was suddenly cancelled Friday afternoon.
“Once Walmart and JBG found out that we had invited community members and residents to attend what they had wanted to be a closed meeting, it was cancelled by the Advisory Neighborhood Commission,” said Wilson. ANC 6C-01 Commissioner Keith Silver, who’s single member District includes the Ward 6 Walmart site, said that when things began playing out differently than he had anticipated, he and he alone pulled the plug on the meeting, without pressure from Walmart, JBG or the Bennett group, which controls the site at 801 New Jersey Avenue. Commissioner Silver hopes to reschedule the meeting in the very near future since site preparation is already under way.
A press release issued by Respect DC, a coalition working to make Walmart’s entry into D.C. conditioned upon its signing a community benefits agreement, said, “Walmart and JBG have attended only one community meeting [for the Ward 6 site] that was open to the public… That meeting [was] held over a year ago.”
Unlike D.C., which hasn’t held so much as a Council hearing on Walmart’s arrival, New York City has been proactive in dealing with the advances of the world’s largest retailer. “It would be shortsighted to allow this destructive monopolist to enter the New York City market via the Trojan Horse of ‘job creation,’” concluded a joint 2010 report by Hunter College and New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.
In addition to the promise of jobs, Walmart argues that opening stores in urban markets is a solution to food deserts. A recent study by the Office of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, however, concluded, “Walmart’s entrance into the New York City market could severely undermine – if not reverse – the progress made by [existing fresh produce initiatives].”
A report released last week by Food and Water Watch, “Why Walmart Can’t Fix the Food System,” explains why the country’s largest food retailer, which rakes in one-third of U.S. grocery sales, is not the solution to food deserts.
“When there is one player this large connecting food producers and food consumers, consumers are no longer the food industry’s customers – Walmart is. And the saying ‘the customer is always right’ has never been more appropriate. Walmart is such a large customer that even large food processors cannot refuse any demands that Walmart makes upon them. The company’s model is based on practices that drive consolidation; take money away from farmers, workers and processors; and drive agriculture to get more industrialized.”
“It’s concerning to say the least that our elected officials, who are bringing these stores into D.C., aren’t willing to do the basic amount of research on what it’s going to mean long term for the city,” said Wilson, who thinks influence peddling is at least partly to blame for D.C. legislators’ lackadaisical approach to Walmart.
In Wards 4 and 7, where Walmart is looking to bring two stores each, the company’s lobbyist, David Wilmot, has done fundraisers and favors for the councilmembers. Wilmot threw a fundraiser for Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser at his home, and may have served on Bowser’s reelection finance committee, which she denies. In addition to throwing a fundraiser for Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander that was co-hosted by Mayor Vincent Gray, Wilmot recently acted as Alexander’s attorney in a case before the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance, for which he he charged her an undisclosed sum. “David Wilmot has been a family friend for years,” Alexander told the Post last year.
In addition to lobbying for Walmart, Wilmot has a stake in the Bennett Group which controls the New Jersey Avenue site thanks to a sweetheart deal with the District. Wilmot’s political connections may explain why the Bennett Group has paid so little in taxes while the valuable publicly owned property has laid fallow for more than two decades, serving as a parking lot for the federal government for much of it.
While political donations and favors may curry favor with councilmembers, Walmart brings in the big guns for the mayor. The Walmart/Walton Foundation has coughed up $3 million for a jobs training program and funded the recent IFF study of D.C. Public Schools (which not surprisingly reached the same conclusion as its paymaster: close public schools, open charters.) In 2010, the Walton Foundation donated $25 million towards the controversial teachers’ contract, which undermined tenure and sought to enshrine the anti-union Michelle Rhee as chancellor.
“There’s just no real willingness to look at the track record of this company,” said Wilson. “It’s just unfortunate that [our] elected officials have turned into either silent or loud cheerleaders for Walmart.”
Respect DC condemns the cancellation, continues to push for open meeting with community members
WASHINGTON, February 27 –Respect DC condemns the cancellation of a planned meeting between commissioners from Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6C and representatives from Walmart and developer JBG. The meeting, which had been in the works for several weeks, was originally scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Saturday, February 25th. It was canceled with less than 24 hours’ notice after Walmart and JBG found out Respect DC invited local residents to attend.
Since announcing in November 2010 their intention to build a Walmart as part of a proposed development at 801 New Jersey Ave NW, Walmart and JBG have attended only one community meeting that was open to the public. That meeting (held over a year ago in February 2011) happened because of the insistence of Commissioner Keith Silver, whose Single Member District includes the proposed site.
“I don’t understand why JBG and Walmart are so reluctant to meet with and answer questions from residents,” said Bobbi Krengel, a Ward 6 resident and member of the ANC 6C01 Impact Study Group. “They have begun construction on the site without even the most minimal opportunity for input from local residents. It doesn’t make any sense that our elected officials are allowing this project to move forward without any public meetings.”
Respect DC is calling on Walmart, JBG, and ANC 6C to work together to find a new date for a meeting that is open to the public. This meeting would begin a process for local residents to have real input into the development proposed at 801 New Jersey Ave NW.
Reposted from thefightback.org. Go here to listen to audio from this story.
As Republican presidential hopefuls vie for their party’s nomination, one last-minute entry has gone largely overlooked despite his impressive right-wing credentials.
“I’m more Republican than any of the candidates,” said Candidate Walmart, the first corporate person to run for president. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which determined that corporations are people and entitled to constitutional rights, “we decided that it only made sense that we should actually have a corporation run for president,” he said.
Candidate Walmart characterized his opponents as being too moderate. “Any of their promises, I can outdo them,” he told TheFightBack while dressed sharply in a jacket emblazoned with dollar signs. “Newt Gingrich wants to get rid of child labor laws. I say get rid of all labor laws.”
Recently, Mitt Romney came under fire for saying he wasn’t focused on the plight of poor people. For Candidate Walmart that was good, just not good enough. “The thing that I have over Mitt Romney is that not only do I really not care, I actually create poor people every day with my low wages and shoddy benefits.”
While the world’s largest retailer has been accused of using sweatshop labor for some of its products, Candidate Walmart feels they can do better. “I’m going to find out where we’re not using sweatshop labor and change that up because I want the most efficient, effective product distribution line that there can be, and you really only get that with child labor, slave labor, that kind of stuff.”
The first corporate person to run for president reminded shoppers, “Vote Walmart, vote early, vote often. And always remember low prices are awesome.”
