New footage from the Center for Public Integrity confirms what Hillary Clinton has conveniently omitted from her website and campaign speeches: she was on Wal-Mart's Board of Directors for six years, from 1986-1992.
It was during those six years that Clinton served with the notoriously anti-union Rose Law firm in Little Rock, defending Wal-Mart against workers who tried to unionize. It was also during those six years that Clinton served with fellow board member John Tate, whose favorite saying was: "Labor unions are nothing but blood-sucking parasites living off the productive labor of people who work for a living."
In this video, you can see Sam Walton, plain as the Wal-Mart logo's menacing yellow smile, as he presides over the grand re-opening of the company's original store in Rogers, Arkansas. Walton praises Clinton, "You're one of the finest lawyers -- legal persons -- that I've ever met or ever known. And without any question, you've added more to our board than any person we've ever had on that board."
Walton then proudly reminds us that both Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill (then governor of Arkansas) helped start the company's "Buy American" program. In case Clinton forgets to tell you, Wal-Mart touted Buy American with signs and advertisements claiming their clothes and other goods were "Made in the U.S.A."
Buy American was a horrendous lie. Not only did Wal-Mart continue to get clothes from Asian sweatshops, but they also became the nation's biggest importer of Chinese goods, forcing U.S. manufacturers out of business. Oh wait, maybe Buy American referred to clothing produced in New York's Chinatown, where in 1991 (during Clinton's Wal-Mart tenure), labor inspectors found 16- and 17-year-old illegal Chinese immigrants working without pay.
Now that this video is out, there's no way Clinton can deny being on Wal-Mart's payroll (the company gave her around $15,000 a year, $100,000 in Wal-Mart stock, and its lobbyists contributed tens of thousands to her presidential campaign). There's no way a champion of women's rights can deny being linked to a company that continues to defend itself against one major discriminatory suit after another. And there's no way a presidential candidate who is backed by a slew of unions can deny connections to anti-union fanatics like John "Blood-Sucking Parasites" Tate and a company that pays its employees salaries below the poverty line.
Unless of course Clinton omits it from her website, or the press inexplicably decides to leave it out of their otherwise exhaustive scrutiny of her career.
Back to the video... Sam Walton says, "But Hillary, I hope you can stay long enough to feast your eyes on this latest creation of Wal-Mart," to which Clinton jokes, "I want to shop, Sam!"
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the
comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the
comment you replied to
G. W. Bush goes AWOL and that is ignored!
G.W. Bush does INSIDER TRADING that is ignored.
G.W. Bush hellps bankrupt Silverado Savings and Loan bring down the whole savings and loan industry and that is ignored.
G.W. Bush get illlegal Honorable Discharge disgracing the military and that is ignored !
G.W. Bush has Politized your military and that is ignored.
BUT NOW HILLARY HAS CONNECTIONS WITH WALMART!!!!!!!!
I despise W-M and I never, ever shop there but I'm not the head of a large family living paycheck to paycheck. The issue is not as simple as "buy American" - it is possible to buy only American made goods but there is a large part of the population that doesn't have the ability to make their decisions based on where the goods originate; there are also a whole lot of people who wouldn't step food in W-M who buy luxury items made overseas and by people who are underpaid and under insured.
I support HRC - that doesn't mean I agree with everything she says or does - hmmm, where have I heard that before - oh yeah, now I remember...
"You're a great associate, Hillary!" I wonder if she still shops at Wally World? Wal-Mart execs and the Walton family are the real blood-sucking parasites. Thanks to them, we're all living in big box hell.
If she did not think it was a potential problem, why did Clinton leave the 6 year stint on the WalMart board off her bio on her website. Slight of hand - again. Maybe, just maybe, we (the voters) will be too dumb to notice. The chain of anti-union, anti-workers connections for Clinton is long - WalMart, Rose Law, Rupert Murdoch, The Fellowship. Can we really believe that she will challenge the WalMarts and Murdochs (corporations and lobbists) of this country to fight for the right to organize and for decent benefits and salary? I think not.
Since the Obama campaign has not been focusing on ripping his opponents down, he has not been on the stump this week constantly twisting these issues - Mark Penn, Bill Clinton's $800,000 for promoting the Columbia trade agreement, the Bosnia story, Clinton campaign money problems,etc.. It's sad that Clinton can't run a campaign more on her own merits - she feels she must distort out of context comments that Obama made while talking about workers reaction to 25 years of hearing politians (both parties) promise change but delivering little. A president Obama can be expected to treat us honestly - to tell the hard, but real truths we need to face if we are ever going to change the direction of this country.
I worked for Wal-Mart in the 80s and 90s. I met Sam once. He was a nice man who actually cared about people and Wal-Mart was a good place to work. It was later, when others took over after Sam's death that Wal-Mart began to change. In the town ten miles away, the union was corrupt and cost the town their packing plant. Now, however, Wal-Mart is like every other America company that has gone international.
To those who insist on excusing and rationalizing Hillary's 35 years of selling out workers and lower income women, I challenge you to take a look, open your mind, and think for yourself. If you are anti-union, pro-corporation, at least be honest and say so. But if you truly care about the plight of workers, especially women workers, then at least make sure you take an honest and open look at Wal-Mart's treatment of its workers and the long term and continuing Clinton connections. http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/research/ http://walmartwatch.com/womens_rights http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/wwa/fact.html
About 6 years ago I read an article while in a waiting room that changed my position on WalMart. It exposed them as the amoral & anti-American corporation they are.
The article was based on a study done calculating the average amount of dollars WalMart contributed to a state, (direct AND indirect thru taxes, etc) vs the average amount of state assistance given to WalMart employees, (food stamps, ADC, etc).
The numbers were $400,000+ to employees of WalMart (average per state) in state assistance vs S40,000+ from WalMart (average per state).
If Wal Mart paid a living wage and didn't play "39 hrs a week is part time" games, their employees wouldn't need assistance from the government.
Hillary Clinton should be ashamed of lying to the public via omission, but since she's shilled for Wal Mart, I don't expect her to be ashamed of anything
====
The next time you hear someone from the Failure Party, start railing on about the dangers of socialization remember those numbers and think of corporate welfare.
She's never denied her association with Wal-Mart, so I'm not sure why you think she's "lying to the public via omission." What exactly would you propose Hillary have done as a sole member of a 12-person board, the only women EVER to hold a chair in the company? She accomplished quite a bit considering the overtly hostile attitude the majority of the board held towards both women AND labor unions. Improved environmental standards AND the promotion of women to management positions (where before there were NONE) might seem token to you, but considering how hostile that company is to ANYTHING impacting the bottom-line, these are legitimate achievements.
But go ahead, blame Hillary for Wal-Mart's business practices, too, right along with the Kennedy assassination, Pol Pot, and the Icecapades. It has nothing to do with the hundreds-of-millions of people shopping at their stores every year, tacitly supporting the very practices you apparently feel one person is responsible for.
And you question my credentials with logic like that. Hillary obviously had no connection to the Kennedy assasination, Pol Pot, or the Icecapades. But she had a lot to do with Wal-Mart. She has profited off their treatment of workers. She managed to get a few middle class women promoted to management while the majority of women workers were further exploited. She sat in on discussions of union busting without any objections. She can't expect to take credit for her stands without having to be held to account for her lack of courage or conviction in taking a stand for lower-income workers, mostly women.
In fairness, Mr. Heller, why not write something about Obama's past:
OBAMA CONNECTION TO TERRORISTS REVEALED BY TALK SHOW HOST
There's a far-reaching scandal brewing for presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, thanks to a radio talk show host based in Oregon. Syndicated talk host Laurie Roth's revelations make the story about Obama's relationship with Rev. Wright look like child's play.
A top official at the Pentagon during former-President George H. W. Bush's Administration and a former CIA intelligence officer maintain that Barack Obama and former Weather Underground honcho William Ayers funneled money to Professor Rashid Khalidi, a known terrorist sympathizer.
Khalidi serves on faculty of Columbia University in New York and is best known as the professor who invited Iranian President Ahmedinejad to visit Columbia University after he finished his speech at the United Nations. According to confidential sources, Khalidi has direct ties to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), a group on the US State Department's list of known terrorist groups.
"One source for this information was once a top military figure in the 1990s. He doesn't take making allegations lightly. If he says something happened, it happened," said Roth < http://www.therothshow.com/ >
"Another source is a former agent for the Central Intelligence Agency, who is expert in counterterrorism," said Roth, who broke the story on her show ..."
Question: why would you work in a law firm that doesn't support your view on unions? It wasn't like she was stuck with the job, she has a frickin Yale law degree.
Question: why would you sit on the board of a comany that is anathema to your positions on women's rights and labor? Agail Yale law degree, read: meal ticket!
Question: Why would you agree to attend metting in support of a trade deal you oppose?
Question: Why would you hire a man representing lawless mercenaries, free trade, and insurance irregularities to run your campaign against these things?
Question: why would you accept contributions from loobyists for people you disagree with?
Question: why would you work in a law firm that doesn't support your view on unions? It wasn't like she was stuck with the job, she has a frickin Yale law degree.
I ASSUME YOU AGREE WITH YOUR EMPLOYER 100%. WHY WOULD SOMEONE NOT WANT TO WORK AT THE MOST POWERFUL LAW FIRM IN THE STATE?
Question: why would you sit on the board of a comany that is anathema to your positions on women's rights and labor? Agail Yale law degree, read: meal ticket!
FOR MONEY AND INFLUENCE......AND THE ABILITY TO BRING THEM FORWARD ON ISSUES LIKE THE ENVIROMENT
Question: Why would you agree to attend metting in support of a trade deal you oppose?
BECAUSE, LIKE IN MOST ADMINISTRATIONS, YOU VOICE YOUR OPINION, IF IT GOES THE OTHER WAY, YOU GET ON BOARD.
Question: Why would you hire a man representing lawless mercenaries, free trade, and insurance irregularities to run your campaign against these things?
BECAUSE YOU DONT HAVE TO AGREE WITH EVERYTHING SOMEONE ELSE DOES....WHAT DO YOU THINK "UNITY" LOOKS LIKE?
Question: why would you accept contributions from loobyists for people you disagree with?
A QUESTION THAT CAN BE ASKED OF ANY CANDIATE, INCLUDING OBAMA.
Hillary pushed to improve environmental standards at Wal-Mart (before it was fashionable) and cajoled the rest of the board to promote more women to management positions (before her there were NONE). She was outspoken about labor issues, however on a board of 12 she was the lone voice who even broached the subject. There is nothing to criticize her on when it comes to her tenure on the board. In fact, once again, Obama's supporters only see the negative (that includes you ZP) without granting even an iota of credit for the good work she DID accomplish.
I am a PhD student who has done a great deal of research on Wal-Mart's history of abuse of its workers who are overwhelmingly women. Fact is, she sat on Wal-Mart's Board while her husband was governor-blatant conflict of interest. She accomplished nothing but window dressing. And she never objected to Wal-Mart's illegal union busting tactics. Like she did with NAFTA where she spoke against it in public but fought for it in private, she sold out the overwhelmingly women and minority workers, while perhaps helping a select few to gain exceedingly few management positions. But then again, that is the rap against first wave feminism.
Steve...how on earth is it a conflict of interest for the wife of a governor to sit on a corporate board? It happens all the time, because corporations want well-known names on their boards. Obviously, a governor wouldn't sit on their board, but please tell me where it is written that her sitting there was a conflict of interest.
I would love to see your dissertation on Wal-Mart, if such a thing exists, because you're completely off-base with your assertions. Your credentials sound like "window dressing" to me.
supporters shouldnt be blind to the truth about their candidates this applies to obama too who keeps denying having seen papers with his signature on them
Even leaving the wages aside, WalMart has very big problems with labour; things like locking the employees in, rewriting timesheets and generally screwing their employees over. Google this stuff, it's all out there.
In the late seventies I worked for a trucking company delivering and setting up copy machines up and down the west coast. We were based in L.A. and among the places we delivered were shops in the "skid row" area of LA. Some of these were sweatshops filled with illegal immigrant labor obviously working in deplorable conditions. Mostly Hispanic
Today, some of the companies who made a fortune on that cheap labor are now complaining that they can"t find workers with the education and skills needed to fill many of the positions they now have available. That is to say, now that they"ve transitioned to more high tech industries which require higher skilled workers they are having trouble finding people to fill the new positions. My question to them is; why didn"t you invest in the people who invested in you for the past however many decades in order to help build the workforce you need? And how dare you now seek to import even more cheap labor while laying off or avoiding hiring American workers that DO have the necessary skills and education to fill these positions?
Republicans always talk about personal responsibility, and for sure they are right to point out that we all DO need to be responsible, but where is corporate and government responsibility on these issues?
I would imagine Obama's ties to a once all white, gender biased organazation such as Harvard University should disqualify him from the presidency as well.
The sexist ex-president of Harvard, Lawrence Summers, was Secretary of the Treasury for ex-president Bill Clinton! And no blacks should go to Harvard because it has a history of being all-white? Not exactly Dr. King's dream! Cornel West was a professor there and . . . but what am I saying? It's a discussion about Wal-Mart and you bring race into it? Maybe it was all satire and I missed the humor.
Loading comments…
Posted April 10, 2008 | 09:36 PM (EST)