I have to give Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott credit: he knows how to run an offensive campaign. I mean that in two ways. Offensive in the sense that he is refuses to lay back and absorb beating after beating, and is taking his campaign right to his critics and to the public. And offensive in the sense that Wal-Mart's underlying strategy is clear: split the opposition to the Beast of Bentonville's destructive effects, continue attacking any vestige of public trust in government and, for good measure, make money at the same time.
Yesterday, The New York Times reported on the Beast's pledge to cut the energy use of many of its products and sell more energy-efficient appliances:
In a lofty address that at times resembled a campaign speech, the chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores, H. Lee Scott Jr., said that "we live in a time when people are losing confidence in the ability of government to solve problems." But Wal-Mart, he said, "does not wait for someone else to solve problems."
He then laid out sweeping plans for the company on several health and environmental issues, and he hinted that even more ambitious goals might be on the horizon. Mr. Scott said, for instance, that Wal-Mart is talking to leaders of the automobile industry about selling electric or hybrid cars -- and might even install windmills in its parking lots so customers could recharge their cars with renewable electricity.
....For instance, Mr. Scott said Wednesday that Wal-Mart had sold 145 million compact fluorescent light bulbs, which he said had saved enough electricity to forestall the need for three coal-fired power plants in the United States.
Brilliant strategy. Cynically brilliant.
As a global economic marauder, Wal-Mart knows exactly how to assess and conquer markets, largely by squelching or dividing its opposition. When the alliances between labor, environmentalists and consumer groups first formed several years ago, I, and others, wondered how such an alliance would hold together. Eventually, someone would crack and break, embracing the Beast because it offered some sort of change that appeared to be healing the grave damage created by the Beast's business practices.
Wal-Mart was smart enough to pick the environmental movement as the piece to try to split off from the opposition to its business model. Traditional environmental groups, unlike the environmental justice movements that are rooted more in urban communal struggles, never really got the labor movement. Many environmental groups talk about "green jobs" but they never actually say "green UNION jobs." I would say, with some notable exceptions like the Sierra Club (or, at least some of its leaders), that there isn't a whole lot of open sympathy for unions among environmentalists. Wal-Mart brilliantly understands that divide.
So, Wal-Mart will show its "social responsibility" by going "green" -- and making a pile of money in the process.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for saving the planet. BUT...
The forces that are ravaging the physical planet are the same forces that are ravaging the human beings who work on the planet -- or, as the case may be, don't work because the great "free market" can't find enough room on its balance sheets for profits and decent paying work for hundreds of millions of people.
So, Wal-Mart's basic message comes in three parts:
The Green Part -- Because of our massive size and our ability to make markets around the world, we will become the arbiter and the one-stop shopping location for "green" stuff, from light bulbs to lawn mowers to washing machines. And, praise the lord, we'll enrich the Walton family even more in the process.
The Government Sucks Part -- We are going to do all this because government is irrelevant. Actually, we, and our allies in the so-called "free market" (that includes the Chinese government, which conveniently ignores the "free market" when it comes to the the low-wage, Wal-Mart friendly, controlled labor market) are the government when it comes to shaping economic forces. Unstated is the fact that people are losing faith in the government because it has been hobbled, disabled and eviscerated by Wal-Mart and other corporate allies who have garrisoned to its mission a cadre of politicians and bureaucrats who have drained government of its resources to care for the people.
Screw The Workers Part -- Of course, that is very much a subtext or unstated message. While the Waltons bank all this new "green" cash, workers will be no closer to having a union and no closer to making a real living wage (and, therefore, continue to need Wal-Mart to shop for cheap goods). Indeed, Wal-Mart now says that half of its workers are on its Scrooge-like health care plan. The other half? On some other plan via a spouse, on a government-sponsored plan or without health care at all.
Brilliant. And offensive.