End the Cover-Up at Walmart

End the Cover-Up at Walmart

Join the call from Walmart workers for a thorough and accountable investigation into the company’s reported cover-up of bribery in its Mexico operations.

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On April 21, David Barstow reported in the New York Times that Walmex, Walmart’s largest foreign operation, had passed more than $24 million in bribes to politicians who could grease the wheels of its expansion in Mexico. After discovering the corruption, the retail giant’s top mangement in the US moved to cover up the scandal. Barstow’s expose, a triumph of investigative reporting, was well-timed for activists seeking to change the company as Liza Featherstone points out in The Nation. A call for resignations at the company is mounting , with the massive New York City Pension Funds, a Walmart shareholder, now on board.

 TO DO

Among those leading the efforts to reform Walmart are company employees like Venanzi Luna, who created this petition calling for a change in leadership at America’s largest retailer and a thorough and accountable investigation into Walmart’s reported cover-up of bribery in its Mexico operations. Join her call and then share this post with family, Facebook friends, Twitter followers and your local media outfits. A new website—6degreesofwalmart.com—is also looking to change Walmart’s behavior by targeting the company’s political spending for right-wing causes, calling on the company to disclose its political spending and allowing citizens to directly challenge Walmart on political spending.

 TO READ

Confronted with evidence of widespread corruption in Mexico, top Walmart executives focused more on damage control than on rooting out wrongdoing, this investigation by The New York Times found.

 TO WATCH

In this video Luna explains why she’s devoted so much time to working from within the company to improve her status as well as those of her Walmart colleagues.

A weekly guide to meaningful action, this blog connects readers with resources to channel the outrage so many feel after reading about abuses of power and privilege. Far from a comprehensive digest of all worthy groups working on behalf of the social good, Take Action seeks to shine a bright light on one concrete step that Nation readers can take each week. To broaden the conversation, we’ll publish a weekly follow-up post detailing the response and featuring additional campaigns and initiatives that we hope readers will check out. Toward that end, please use the comments field to give us ideas. With your help we can make real change.

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Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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