Another kick in the shins for global corporate power...

I bought The Big Issue recently (yes, Melburnites, it's sold over here too, for £1.40, or about $A3.50) for its article on the new Robert Greenwald doco: "Walmart: the high cost of low prices". Apparently this bloke has caused such a stir that there's even a section of the Walmart website called "Robert Greenwald: The High cost of Low Credibility".

I have to confess though, I couldn't find it when I went looking at www.walmart.com. What I did find, though, was that when you click on the "Staff benefits" page for employees, you get a "This page may have been removed" message. Interesting, when you consider that the documentary discusses claims that full time staff are so poorly paid that they qualify for state- funded health benefits, and thousands of American women have launched the worlds largest ever sexual discrimination class action against the company (alleging they were routinely paid less than male counterparts, and expected to attend 'team meetings' at topless bars).

"I'm going to paraphrase slightly," says Greenwald, "but of the 30 largest econmies in the world, 15 of them are private corporations, and only 15 of them are nation states." If only kicks in the shins like this would trigger more of a 'kick in the goolies' reaction...