Occupy Walmart!

On November 11th, Alice Walton—one of the heirs of the Walmart throne opened the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville Arkansas. The project cost the Walton Family Foundation a whopping $1.2 billion, and was launched hardly weeks after slashing the healthcare of hundreds of thousands of Walmart workers.

In response, members of the Organization United for Respect at Walmart joined protestors at various Occupy encampments around the country to tell their story as members of the 99% and placing the Waltons squarely within the 1%.

This wasn’t hard to do. The Waltons are the richest family in the United States, representing 4 of the 11 wealthiest people in the country. This family could give nearly $5,000 to every resident of New York and still have $1 billion left over.

Although members of OUR Walmart were not able to get back to Bentonville to reach those who gathered for the museum opening, participants in the newly launched “Occupy Bentonville” were present with leaflets and signs. They mobilized in front of Sam Walton’s original five and dime to show that there is opposition to the company’s practices even in their own backyard.