The BEST Wal-Mart Black Friday strike/protest in the country: Paramount, CA (*PIC HEAVY*) [View all]

[pinboy3niner]

• More than 1,000 protesters participated (including 17 W-M employees who walked off the job at that ONE STORE)

• 9 protesters were arrested, including a retired pastor in clerical collar, capturing news headlines and photos

• Impressive DIVERSITY of protesters in many ways

• Shoppers deterred by protest: shoppers report store surprisingly empty

• Strike organizers say 50 W-M associates walked out at this and 4 other SoCal stores alone, contrary to W-M PR BS


This store wasn't close to me, but it seemed a good idea to be there--both to participate and to document the action in photos--because it had a lot of advance publicity and "buzz," with about 200 L.A. Occupiers and others signing up in advance to join with workers in the protest.

The action, scheduled from 10am to noon, began with a rally in the parking lot of the Paramount Wal-Mart.







AHA! An Occupier! I think I recognize this guy from the Occupy L.A. protests...




The diversity of the protesters was impressive, not just as individuals but in the many different groups that showed up, on the ground, to support the strikers and W-M employees. Many union groups, beginning with UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which organized the strike) and going on to SEIU and others; political groups like the Wobblies; church clerics and church groups; young student groups, like the wonderfully passionate students from Pasadena City College; and veterans--like me and the Korean War vet I met, who wore our vet caps (in my case, along with my 'WE ARE THE 99%' T-shirt) to show U.S. veterans' support for this cause; and the striking W-M workers themselves, who displayed their own unique signs addressingtheir working conditions. Nice, too, to see the occasional Obama logo.




















After the parking lot rally, protesters marched past the Wal-Mart entrance in what seemed a never-ending procession, with chanting, drums, bicycle horns and noisemakers. Like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, it was a very long procession, drawn out even longer as the protest's volunteer marshalls halted marchers in front of the entrance frequently to allow shoppers to enter and leave the store. I tried to capture some of the signs, and the distinct groups, as they passed...





"We are the machinery. We can shut it down."



A great group of Pasadena City Colloege students.
























Of course, the REALLY BIG DEAL that captured the attention of the media was the arrests. Nine protesters volunteered to engage in civil disobedience and to be arrested for it. They sat down on Lakewood Blvd. and refused to leave, even after the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. issued a dispersal order (from a loudspeaker on a Sheriff's Dept. helicopter.).





As the nine sat in the street, brother and sister protesters came by to offer them pieces of bread, and flowers.








The dispersal order was issued at 11:50am. At 11:55am, the Sheriff's Deputies moved in...








Stephanie (sp?), in cuffs, signals to her fellow and sister protesters...



As soon as she was cuffed, the huge crowd of protesters loudly chanted her name...


The rest is here:

http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_22054148/walkmart-walkout-protestors-planning-arrests-at-paramount-location


Edited to add:

Best photo of Pastor Miller's arrest (via DU):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021874379

Good article by Nadin on a protest in San Diego:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021874865