AP: Wal-Mart Opens Communist Branch in China

[DeepModem Mom]

Wal-Mart Opens Communist Branch in China
By ELAINE KURTENBACH
AP Business Writer


(AP Photo/EUGENE HOSHIKO)

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Capitalist icon Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, now has its first communist party branch.

The party branch, a Communist Youth League branch and a trade union were set up earlier this month at the outlet in the northeastern rust belt city of Shenyang, a staffer in the store's communications department said, confirming Chinese media reports....

***

President Hu Jintao, who heads the ruling communist party, reportedly prompted China's state-sanctioned labor group to launch a campaign to set up party-controlled unions in Wal-Mart branches. The retailer resisted for two years before employees in the southeastern city of Quanzhou successfully voted to set up a union in late July.

Wal-Mart has 60 stores in 30 cities in China and more than 30,000 Chinese employees, including 700 in Shenyang, according to the official Xinhua News Agency, which reported the news of the new party branch as an "urgent."

It wasn't immediately clear whether the party branch had an office in the store....

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHINA_WAL_MART?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-08-24-06-55-56

[TygrBright]

1. Profit Trumps Ideology. Big Surprise. n/t

[harun]

8. Profit is the prevailing Ideology today

People think it is the answer to all their prayers.

[whistle]

2. Chinese minimum wage = $0.40 per hour and any benefits are

...supported by the government, so Wal-Mart is right in their element.

[Kickoutthejams23]

3. Will they exclusively sell American products there?

[htuttle]

4. When referring to China's current economic system...

...I'd only use the word 'Communist' in quotes. They are far from it now days, and are much closer to Oligarchical Collectivism, as Emmanuel Goldstein wrote about in his book.

[Kolesar]

5. Note how the emerging powerhouses are totalitiarian

Putin can arrest his rivals for power, like the "oligarchs" at Gazprom Company. China imprisons or kills political leaders. India is a weak "democracy" that cannot effectively manage disease, birthrates, or hunger. In all fairness, I would not call India totalitarian.

[CollegeDUer]

6. WWMT (What Would Mao Think)?

nt

[tanyev]

7. Oh no! How can any self respecting Freeper shop there now?

[Trajan]

9. Remember 'Made In The USA' ? .....

MANY began shopping at Wal Mart when they bragged of their patriotic business practices ....

Now they can HONESTLY state 'Made In China' .....