In the News

Financing violence

Daily Vanguard
10/28/2005

Capitalism, Colombia and the U.S. government

By Khalid Adad

Under capitalism the purpose of a business is to maximize profit, and in the U.S. corporations are required by law to do just that. Businesses must search for opportunities for profitable investment. Whenever they find these opportunities they must eliminate impediments to profit making, whatever those happen to be.

WAL-MART STILL DOESN'T GET IT.

The New Republic
10/27/2005

By Clay Risen

Wal-Mart has been in the news a lot recently, with three announcements designed to convince the public that it is finally responding to its critics. In a speech to his employees on Monday, CEO Lee Scott promised to reduce greenhouse gases at the company's stores by 20 percent; roll out a new, cut-rate health-care plan; and push Congress to raise the minimum wage.

"With courage and commitment to change, we will be at our best and remain true to the legacy of the company Sam Walton founded some 43 years ago," he said.

China, India, Superpower? Not so Fast!

YaleGlobal
10/25/2005

Despite impressive growth, the rising Asian giants have feet of clay

http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=6407



By Pranab Bardhan



BERKELEY: The media, particularly the financial press, are all agog

over the rise of China and India in the international economy. After

a long period of relative stagnation, these two countries, nearly

two-fifths of the world population, have seen their incomes grow at

remarkably high rates over the last two decades. Journalists have

Update 1: Wal-Mart to Toughen Overseas Standards

Associated Press
10/20/2005

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will start holding its suppliers more accountable for environmental and social standards at foreign factories as public expectations in the United States rise, Chief Executive Lee Scott said Thursday.

Scott told suppliers at a business conference that the public has high expectations of the world's largest retailer. The company has come under mounting fire from organized opponents over issues including the environmental and labor standards of low-cost manufacturers it buys from overseas.

Hiding the Truth about CAFTA

Minuteman.org
09/26/2005

By Jim Hightower

If an ideologically incorrect study is done inside the Bush regime, does

it make a noise?

Not if the White House can squelch it, which is exactly what they've

tried to do to a report about labor abuses in Central America. For more

than a year, the Department of Labor has fought ferociously to block the

release of a study showing that working conditions in six Latin American

nations are abysmal and that government officials in the region do

Ex-Wal-Mart workers win battle

Toronto Globe and Mail
09/17/2005

By RHÉAL SÉGUIN

Quebec - The Quebec Labour Board has ruled that the closing of a Wal-Mart store this year amounted to a reprisal against unionized workers and has ordered the company to compensate former employees.

The labour board concluded that Wal-Mart Canada, Inc., failed to prove that the closing of its store in Jonquière in April was "real, genuine and definitive" as required under the Quebec Labour Code.

Wal-Mart Questions Motives Of Lawsuit by Labor Group

New York Times
09/16/2005

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Wal-Mart Stores issued its first response yesterday to a lawsuit that accuses it of allowing sweatshop conditions at overseas factories, saying that the labor rights group that filed the lawsuit on Tuesday had ''a history of presenting opinions as facts.''

After the group, the International Labor Rights Fund, filed the class-action suit in Los Angeles on behalf of employees for Wal-Mart contractors in China, Bangladesh, Nicaragua, Swaziland and Indonesia, Wal-Mart said it needed to study the lawsuit before responding.

Suit Says Wal-Mart Is Lax on Labor Abuses Overseas

New York Times
09/14/2005

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

A labor rights group filed a class-action lawsuit yesterday against Wal-Mart Stores in which apparel workers in Bangladesh, China and other countries assert that Wal-Mart violated its contractual obligations by not enforcing its code of conduct for overseas contractors.

The lawsuit, filed in state court in Los Angeles, makes the novel argument that Wal-Mart's code of conduct created contractual obligations between it and thousands of workers employed by contractors who were supposed to comply with the code.

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