Anti-Wal-Mart Campaign Comes to Western Mass.
Leighanne Noonan
Issue date: 11/3/05 Section: News
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In the past few weeks the national campaign against corporate mogul Wal-Mart has found its way to Western Massachusetts and Smith College. A community effort in the Pioneer Valley has formed to halt the construction of a Super Center in Hadley, and Feminists of Smith Unite and Students for Social Justice and Institutional Change are getting involved.
The two groups have united under the joint leadership of FSU's Ashleigh Rich and SSJIC's Lindsey Shively. "We are trying to have a Smith presence in a regional movement," Rich said.
Groups from the Five College Consortium, as well as community factions such as the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Hadley senior citizens, and Jobs with Justice are rallying together to prevent the store from opening. "What is really cool about this campaign is the diverse group of people it involves," Shively said.
Locally, the construction of the Super Center would create many problems, especially involving traffic. According to Shively, a Super Center draws approximately 50,000 customers a day. Bringing that many more people onto Rte. 9 "would increase traffic by 90 percent."
This traffic would cause problems directly affecting even the campus-bound college student. According to Rich, with the influx in vehicle circulation, "Every PVTA bus would be set back ten minutes."
The environment of Hadley would also be affected. According to Shively, "They want to build on wetlands" in an area that harbors more than one at-risk wildlife species.
Local issues such as these have brought community groups together. Opposition to Wal-Mart as a company "hits every issue," Shively says.
According to Rich, "Wal-Mart uses sweatshop labor, discriminates sexually, refuses to stock contraception and causes small businesses to shut down."
"Two to three local businesses close their doors when Wal-Mart moves in," Shively said. With the closing of these establishments, the products Wal-Mart refrains from stocking become scarce. This is an especially important issue to FSU and the women of Smith when it comes to the sale of contraception.
The two groups have united under the joint leadership of FSU's Ashleigh Rich and SSJIC's Lindsey Shively. "We are trying to have a Smith presence in a regional movement," Rich said.
Groups from the Five College Consortium, as well as community factions such as the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Hadley senior citizens, and Jobs with Justice are rallying together to prevent the store from opening. "What is really cool about this campaign is the diverse group of people it involves," Shively said.
Locally, the construction of the Super Center would create many problems, especially involving traffic. According to Shively, a Super Center draws approximately 50,000 customers a day. Bringing that many more people onto Rte. 9 "would increase traffic by 90 percent."
This traffic would cause problems directly affecting even the campus-bound college student. According to Rich, with the influx in vehicle circulation, "Every PVTA bus would be set back ten minutes."
The environment of Hadley would also be affected. According to Shively, "They want to build on wetlands" in an area that harbors more than one at-risk wildlife species.
Local issues such as these have brought community groups together. Opposition to Wal-Mart as a company "hits every issue," Shively says.
According to Rich, "Wal-Mart uses sweatshop labor, discriminates sexually, refuses to stock contraception and causes small businesses to shut down."
"Two to three local businesses close their doors when Wal-Mart moves in," Shively said. With the closing of these establishments, the products Wal-Mart refrains from stocking become scarce. This is an especially important issue to FSU and the women of Smith when it comes to the sale of contraception.