Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price' Debuts with 7,000 Grassroots Screenings Week

WASHINGTON, November 15, 2005 - The Campaign for America's Future hosts the Washington, D.C. premiere of "WAL- MART: The High Cost of Low Price" tonight. The new film, produced and directed by Robert Greenwald, takes viewers behind the glitz of Wal-Mart's television ads and new PR offensive to a deeply personal journey into the everyday lives of families struggling to fight against a goliath.

The Washington screening is one of nearly 7,000 taking place at house parties, churches and community centers across the country this week. For a full list of showings, visit http://www.walmartmovie.com

This morning, the Campaign for America's Future (CAF) hosted a news conference with Greenwald, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), and Red and Dee Ersy, the owners of four family-run grocery stores in Missouri which were put out of business by Wal-Mart. CAF co-director Robert Borosage moderated the news conference.

"Wal-Mart is the model 'low-road' corporation in the global economy. Its efficiency is celebrated, but its exploitation is caustic," Borosage said. "But Wal-Mart doesn't merely follow the low road; it drives its suppliers and its competitors into the same race.

"Across America, people are starting to realize the stark reality: Wal-Mart's triumph is the defeat of middle-class America. If Wal-Mart sets the pace, Americans will pay the price, in declining wages, rising health care costs, longer hours, worse workplace conditions and rising personal taxes to offset soaring corporate subsidies. America, as we know it, can't afford Wal- Mart.

"Now a new progressive movement is beginning to emerge. Once more, its agenda is to ban sweatshops, lift wages, empower workers and curb corporate power. And surely Wal-Mart is and must be that movement's first target. The question isn't why Wal-Mart gets such bad press. The question is why Wal-Mart hasn't been confronted sooner."

Reference: WalMartMovie.com

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