India's Fight Against Wal-Mart Begins

As is hardly surprising, protests have commenced over Wal-Mart's move into India -- and what you see on the left is just a sample of things to come.

See this article in The Hindu. “We believe Wal-Mart is going to ruin this country and millions of people will lose their jobs,” one protest organizer told the New York Times.

He's right. Don't be gulled by the Times's description of the protest coalition as a "coalition of trade unions, traders, students and communist parties." In the U.S., such demonstrations could be easily dismissed. In India, those are mainstream forces, and are taken very seriously by the Congress-led government.

Here is the website of the FDI-Watch anti-Wal-Mart coalition. The website makes some very good points about the impact of foreign direct investment on the Indian retail sector, and on Indian society as a whole.

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

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