CALL FOR ART! Support Workers this Black Friday! Expose Walmart!

CALL FOR ART!
 Support Workers this Black Friday!
         Expose Walmart!
Poster & Graphic Artists! This Black Friday, we invite you to help trans-
form the biggest day of mass consumption into a day of mass-resis-
tance. Join us in using your visual skillz to support a national move-
ment against inequality and exploitation when thousands of workers
and activists will be walking on Walmart, challenging the greed of one
of America’s wealthiest corporations.

Are you in? We have prepared some guidelines for you in the pages be-
low. Black Friday is THIS WEEK, so we are asking for really fast turn-
arounds. We will circulate the designs via social media and may print
some of them for the various sites.

Instructions
Deadline: Send in your COMPLETED art between now and Thurs. Nov 22nd
Size: Either a square JPEG sized at 1000 x 1000 pixels or a tabloid poster sized at 11x17
inches. (remember we can share the square image via Instagram and FB)
Themes: Keep reading, we have collected some suggested slogans from the campaign.
Email your images to: theculturestrike@gmail.com
Please don’t send files larger than 10mb.

Questions: Contact favianna@favianna.com

  THIS IS A JOINT PROJECT OF CULTURESTRIKE.NET & ARTISMYOCCUPATION.ORG
                              Posted on 11/19/2012

SLOGANS
Here are some slogans we encourage to use. Please note that we are not asking for posters that call for a
boycott. We want to call out Walmart’s actions, and to stand in solidarity with Walmart workers. We want
to be led by the workers.

SLOGANS SPECIFICALLY ABOUT WALMART
Walmart: Respect Associates Don’t Bully Associates
Walmart: Stop Bullying Associates Who Speak Out
Walmart: Respect Associates Freedom to Speak Out
Walmart: Respect Associates Freedom to Speak Out For More Hours
Walmart: Respect Associates Freedom to Stand for Change
Walmart: Stop Trying to Silence Workers!
Walmart pays workers $8.81 an hour on average.

SOLIDARITY WITH WALMART WORKERS
Picket lines vs Product Lines: Which side are you on? Stand with Walmart workers
Thank you Walmart workers for standing up. We are with you.
Stop retaliation. Stop fear. Stand with Walmart Workers.
Stand Up! Live Better!
Walkout on Walmart!

BLACK FRIDAY SPECIFIC
The only Black Friday line I’ll be in is a solidarity line. Stand up, live better.
Chose a voice at work over a cheap tv. Stand with Walmart workers on Black Friday.
Black Friday. Boycott Walmart. Support Workers.

ABOUT THE WALTON FAMILY
Another important aspect of this campaign is exposing the sheer disparity between
Walmart company owners and the workers. The numbers are shocking and infuriating.

Suggested Factoids for Rob Walton’s Wealth

It would take a Walmart worker 1.7 million years to earn as much wealth as Rob Walton
has.1

It would take a Walmart worker almost 27,000 years (26,964) to make as much as Rob
Walton made in Walmart dividends last year.2

It takes Rob Walton less than 5 minutes (4.63 minutes) to make what a Walmart worker
makes in a year.3

Total Wealth
Forbes lists Rob Walton’s wealth as $26.1 billion as of September, 2012.

Annual Income
It isn’t possible to know for sure Rob’s exact annual income. Last year, the Walton family
took home $2.7 billion in Walmart dividends alone We aren’t sure Rob’s exact state in
Walton Enterprises, but we can confidently stay that he received at least $420 million in
Walmart dividends last year.

1       This uses an average Walmart worker wage of $8.81 at 34 hours week for 52 weeks a year and
uses $26.1 (Forbes) as Rob’s total wealth.
2       This uses the same details for Walmart wages as in the footnote above and uses $420 million as
the figure for Rob Walton’s Walmart dividends last year. This is taken from his profile on Forbes.com
3       This stat uses the same details for Walmart workers as the other stats, then assumes the same
$420 million in Walmart dividends divided into an amount earned per minute ($3,365).

CURRENT WALMART POSTERS
Here are images that have recently been made by artists in support of the campaign. This can help give
you some perspective on what has been developed thus far. My own artistic opinion is that we need much
more corporate spoofing and some stronger imagery.

NOTE: Apologies for missing artist credits! We were in a rush.

MORE WALMART POSTERS
While these posters are not from the current Walmart campaign, they are great examples nevertheless.

CORPORATE SPOOFING - EXAMPLES
Here are some strike posters that have used corporate brands in the design. Reworking the Walmart star-
burst would be a great place to start. We want to call out their brand and link them to worker exploitation.

PEOPLE POWER POSTERS - EXAMPLES
Here are examples that depict the power of organizing and workers’ strikes. This shows people at the
picket lines, people moving forward, standing up, and fighting for their worker rights. Various approaches
- from showing full bodies to just hands to simple text.

Cool linoblock/woodblock look!             Remember you don’t need to show full bodies, sometimes just
                                           focusing on the actions does the trick.

                                                                      Or you can use some real photos in
                                                                      your design. Contact me and I can
You can also reuse quotes or statements about worker rights           get you access to some recent ones.
and worker solidarity.

MORE BACKGROUND
More background for your inspiration.

THANKSGIVING INTRO

Walmart has forgotten about families. This year, they are starting their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving Day at
8 pm to get a few steps in front of the competition. The benefits to Walmart’s bottom line will probably be marginal,
while the costs to workers and their families are much greater. Thanksgiving is a holiday that all Americans share
– regardless of where we come from, our religion, our political party or where we live. Yet, opening at 8 pm on
Thanksgiving means that thousands of workers will have to be on the job on Thanksgiving day. That means Thanks-
giving is cut short for many, and canceled altogether for more.

Walmart is the largest retailer and the largest company in the country. And the impact that they make on our coun-
try is great, but in this instance, and others, it is not good. In addition to the thousands who work at Walmart whose
families will not have a Thanksgiving holiday this year, countless more workers from other stores will also be
forced to give up their Thanksgiving plans because of the rising pressure to compete with Walmart’s early opening.

OTHER IMPACT OF WALMART ON FAMILIES

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg on the negative impact that Walmart is having on the lives of families across the
country. Our country, our economy is hurting not only because of the unemployment regularly discussed, but the
under-employment that is hitting families. Low-wages, rising part-time work and erratic scheduling – all practices
that Walmart is promoting in its stores – are keeping workers across the country from being able to support their
families. An independent firm had calculated that Walmart pays workers $8.81 an hour on average. Walmart claims
a little bit more.

But across the country, even if their hourly wages are higher, many Walmart workers are not getting the hours that
they need. Many who are looking for full-time hours are only scheduled for a few shifts a week. As a result, some
workers have take-home salaries of only a few hundred dollars. Not nearly enough to cover even basic necessities.
That’s why we see an increase in food stamps in our country.

Walmart is the biggest private employer in the country, yet we hear from so many workers who can’t make enough
to put food on the table for their families.

Walmart – a corporation with $16 billion in profits – yet some of its employees have to rely on emergency rooms and
public healthcare programs because of the huge increases in premiums and deductibles that Walmart has passed
onto workers in the last two years.

Workers at Walmart help to make one family, the Waltons, richer than 42% of the rest of American families – yet in
comparison, they are struggling to keep their own families afloat. And what’s even worse is that Walmart is using its
wealth, its power and its influence to try to silence the workers who do speak out for something different, some-
thing better.

When these workers have spoken out, Walmart has lashed out and some have had their hours cut, their schedules
turned upside down, and certain workers have even been fired. That’s not right. It’s not fair. It’s not American to try
to silence workers who are coming together to call for change. Things must change. It should not have to come to
this. Workers should not have to walk off the job to get the attention of their employer.

That’s why we’re here supporting workers and calling for change. Workers at our country’s largest employer should
not be struggling like this. Walmart must change.