In the threads about the recent and unprecendented Walmart protest, there wasn't much comment about WHY that particular protest came about. One of the most important points (perhaps THE most important point) in the business week article was this:
BANDING TOGETHER. Beginning last week, the two managers began talking with other employees, one at a time, getting their signatures in support of a protest. The demonstration may not have happened if not for the tight-knit nature of this predominantly Spanish-language community near Miami. At least 15 department managers joined the workers in speaking out against the new policies. "We are a Spanish-speaking community, some from Cuba, some from Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, and if something affects my brothers and sisters, it affects me," says Yahima Morales, who has been a department manager of health and beauty aids for four years at the store.
With all the misplaced blame on immigrants for the state of the US economy, I want to make this point very clear. Those are quite possibly the same people that will lead us OUT of our economic problems and put big business back in its place. These are people who are willing to take risks (proven by their willingness to pick up and move to an entirely new country); they don't have the complacency that we've demonstrated again and again in our response to election fraud, to corporate abuses, etc. They have communities with their own communication (languages/alternative media) - in other words, an ability to organize stealthily. Some of these people have experienced first-hand what it is to seize power for the people. We should be learning and listening from the experts. We are not the experts.
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