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U.S. | Global Justice and Anti-Capitalism

Earth warriors destroy Wal-Mart
by Barney Rubble
Saturday Sep 4th, 2004 12:24 PM
Vandals cause major damage to Wal-Mart

By Lindsay Nash, staff writer
Aug. 28, 2004 11:25 p.m.

ASHEVILLE - Vandals used on-site construction equipment late Friday night to ram into the shell of the Wal-Mart Supercenter on Swannanoa River Road, causing an estimated $900,000 in damage.

The vandals entered the site and either found a key or hot- wired a dump truck and drove it into different areas of the building, said Michael Patterson, a manager for Horne Properties, which is developing the site.

"It's just an unfortunate thing," Patterson said. "I've done over 130 different developments, and not once has this ever happened before."

The developers won't know the full tally on damage until contractors and engineers assess the structural damage, Patterson said.

"We're taking the necessary precautions," said Patterson, who plans to hire five different night watchmen to start monitoring the site. He said the construction should be completed, as planned, sometime in January.

According to Asheville police Lt. David Rutledge, the damage was discovered about 6:30 a.m. Saturday when workers found a dump truck still running.

Police had no leads Saturday night on the crime, and Rutledge said he wasn't speculating on motives yet.

Asheville City Council approved the construction of the Wal-Mart in July 2002, amid concerns and criticism from many Asheville residents.

The 219,622-square-foot retail store at the old Sayles Biltmore Bleacheries site on Swannanoa River Road is part of a 78-acre mixed-use development. The store will supply about 600 new jobs, according to Patterson. Also planned there are a Kohl's department store, Petsmart pet supply store and a Port City Java coffeehouse.


http://www.citizen-times.com/cache/article/buncombe_news/60486.shtml
Get used to it or change
by Robert Sprye
( beowulf [at] affv.nu ) Saturday Sep 4th, 2004 11:07 PM
Outstanding!

The owners of SlaveMart as well as other venues of corporate fascism may as well get used to their new tomorrow for it has come to roost today and it will continue to do so...with a vengeance.

Thanks to the corruption, lies, and outright criminal intent of the so called "elite" who are mere criminals.

My prediction is that within the very near future if your personal identity is one of the "500" you will either change yourself and your methods or you will simply...disappear.

Any citizen of this planet still ignorant enough to mouth tripe about their "job" when it is corporate fools such as these and their ilk who are the open enemy of all the earth, corporate criminals such as these that they support with their pittance paid labor, can hardly be considered allies.

The ignorant are extremely useful.

One never knows where, when, or how the liberation movement will strike next, does one?

It is no match to ensure that SlaveMart as well as other corporate extortionists miraculously start to lose customers....and employees.

You shouldn´t have left that engine running though...
this is ridiculous
by someone never heard of the insurance industry
Sunday Sep 5th, 2004 12:18 PM
or the security state.

token tantrums just don't make for much. change people's minds.
what about the age old tactic
by jimmy page
Sunday Sep 5th, 2004 12:37 PM
of burning the whole fucker down? god knows i'd LOVE to ram a dumptruck into a walmart, but really, that won't go very far..
well...
by robert plant
Sunday Sep 5th, 2004 12:40 PM
i have a little dump truck and it won't be true.....
blahblahblah
by revolution
Sunday Sep 5th, 2004 7:34 PM
blahblahblahblah
violence
blahblah when the time comes
blah blah blzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

time to change the channel.

or better yet
turn it off
and go to bed.
"violence . . . when the time comes"
by ready or not
Monday Sep 6th, 2004 9:06 AM
It'll come.
yeah right
by so will jaysus
Monday Sep 6th, 2004 9:39 AM
will it, like him, only save the faithful?
Home Delivery
by Robert Sprye
( beowulf [at] affv.nu ) Tuesday Sep 7th, 2004 12:07 AM
Here is a suggestion for those of you who like to waste your time amusing us with your puny attempts at futile insults;

Instead of merely posting anonymously like any other clueless consumer able to mouth off their ignorance while they openly demonstrate their fear of publicly standing for their convictions, just send us your home address and we´ll make sure the revolution pays you a personal visit.

After reviewing your personal profile, we´ll make sure they bring along the appropriate "gifts" for you.

This way, you and others who so desire can meet "jaysus" yourself, sooner than you may have anticipated.

Like it?

wow
by you bad
Tuesday Sep 7th, 2004 12:42 AM
man of steel, man of decisive leadership.

party hearty dude.
as for critiques of anonymity
by meduim aside
Tuesday Sep 7th, 2004 12:50 AM
"merely posting anonymously"

as opposed to, say, anonymously driving a dumptruck at a brick wall in the dead of night? dont hear ya clamoring for those digits... oh mister vigilance...
Better story from a non-corporate source
by Barney Rubble
Tuesday Sep 7th, 2004 3:00 AM
Wal-Mart Supercenter rammed

Structure may have sustained almost a million dollars in damages


By Willy Rosencrans


Asheville, North Carolina, Aug. 31 (AGR) — In the early hours of Saturday, Aug. 28, two Volvo dump trucks, each with a 37-ton load capacity, were driven repeatedly into the walls of Asheville’s new and highly controversial Wal-Mart Supercenter, still under construction on the site of the old Sayles Bleachery. The damage was discovered later that morning by workers and reported to police.

“They broke in,” said James Powell, site foreman of Nearen Construction, “got access to the dump trucks, and proceded to ram the Wal-Mart walls. They rammed the south-east end twice and the front entrance three times. One truck they left in the wall, and the other they hung up on a light pole base [in the lot].”

No arrests have been reported, and investigators have not identified any suspects. Asheville Police Lt. David Rutledge said the APD has leads but declined to comment further. He did say, however, that “We don’t have anything to lead us to believe that this is the work of eco-terrorists.”
An Asheville Citizen-Times story said the incident caused “an estimated $900,000 in damage,” the same figure included in a police report assigning $200,000 to each dump truck and $500,000 to the walls.

Powell said he didn’t know who arrived at that figure, and that company engineers would need to assess the damage before an official estimate could be made.

If this estimate is even roughly accurate, it dwarfs similar incidents at other Wal-Mart construction sites.

In October 2003, up to 30 pieces of equipment were sabotaged at a Supercenter construction site in Martinsville, Indiana. Sand was poured into fuel tanks, engine and hydraulic hoses were cut, tires were slashed and windows were broken, causing “tens of thousands of dollars” in damages, according to local news sources. The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) initially claimed responsibility but later disavowed it.

Sabotage reminiscent of Asheville’s occurred in Savoy, Illinois, in February 2001. Steel columns not yet attached to the roofing of an as-yet unfinished Supercenter were knocked down with a forklift; other columns were unbolted from the roofing and an unmanned bulldozer was set in gear and sent into the framework, bringing down part of the structure. The incident caused $100,000 in damages.

Local unions had been picketing the site since construction began, and a local police lieutenant suggested that they were behind the damage. Wal-Mart had hired non-union wokers from Kentucky and Tennessee rather than local organized labor.

No arrests have been made in either case.

The Asheville Supercenter, opposed by a large contingency of Asheville residents -- from neighborhood associations to environmental groups -- was the subject of several years of painful, acrimonious debate prior to its approval by city council in July 2002. Initial word of the corporate giant’s plans for a new Supercenter was met with outcry over its ethics: Wal-Mart is fiercely anti-union, supports sweatshop labor around the world, destroys local businesses unable to compete with it, and pays poorly and offers poor benefits. Recently it has been faced with lawsuits over discrimination against women and violations of wage-and-hour laws.

Locals also raised fears of traffic congestion and adverse floodplain impacts — the Bleachery’s 78 acres are located on an environmentally sensitive bend in the Swannanoa River.

In September 2000 developers were denied the variance they were seeking to make construction possible, and Wal-Mart claimed to abandon the plan. The 2001 city council elections installed a majority whose campaigns were funded by a political action committee, Citizens for New Leadership (CNL), organized by one of the property’s owners. In January 2002, during an annual council retreat, the CNL appointees voiced complaints from the “business community” about zoning laws, and council asked city staff to study cutting red tape.

The council replaced a Board of Adjustments member in March 2002 who had opposed granting the variance, rather than reappointing her as had been expected; the only other member opposed to the variance was ineligible to run again. One month later two variances were granted; a conditional-use permit was made for development of the site, and in July Wal-Mart was back on the table. Grading, clearing, and cutting on the 200,000-square-foot site began in November 2003.

The pace has quickened since the dump trucks left their mark.
“This won’t set us back as far as the grand opening,” said Powell. “It’ll be repaired in time.” Horne Properties, the current developer, says the construction should be completed as planned sometime in January.

The company can easily absorb the financial blow: Wal-Mart has grown to become the world’s largest company, eclipsing Exxon-Mobil, General Motors, and General Electric. Its sales comprise two percent of the total US Gross Domestic Product. In fact, it is the nineteenth largest economy in the world. Its import volume exceeds that of both Great Britain and Russia, and it is China’s fifth largest trading partner. If Wal-Mart maintains its current rate of growth, it will become the world’s first trillion-dollar company by the end of the next decade.

Wal-Mart’s media representative for the southeast, Glen Wilkins, didn’t even learn of the incident until two days later, when AGR staff called for an interview.

The dump truck exploit has, however, inspired Horne Properties to increase security around the site: five security guards are to keep watch over it all night. And despite the seeming insignificance of a million-dollar night out compared to the hundreds of billions in annual sales reaped by Wal-Mart, somewhere in the giant’s chain of command, the case has been registered and catalogued, added to a growing list.



http://www.agrnews.org/issues/294/localnews.html
"Better story"
by says a lot
Tuesday Sep 7th, 2004 9:03 AM
it's really all about the re-presentation, isn't it?

it's not revolution, it's ritual.
It's more informative
by Barney Rubble
Tuesday Sep 7th, 2004 9:33 AM
At least I thought so. Sorry you didn't appreciate it.

What to do with the ruling class.
by just wondering
Thursday Sep 30th, 2004 1:15 AM
Suggestions so far:

(1.) Slit their throats

(2.) Round 'em up and herd 'em off a cliff.

(3.) Cook 'em and eat 'em.

Note that while (1.) and (2.) are mutually preclusive, neither preclude (3.)

Is this the best we can come up with!?!

Doesn't *anybody* have any better suggestions?
I do.
by some idiot
Thursday Sep 30th, 2004 1:17 AM
Let's ignore them. Maybe they'll go away.

what is
by the probability
Thursday Oct 14th, 2004 7:52 PM
that nessie is right?

um.... probably not, on a preponderance of the evidence.
"Pointing out the need to kill Nazis is not hyperbolic"
by so...
Thursday Oct 14th, 2004 7:52 PM
How many Nazis have you personally killed? I'm sure you have some excuse why everyone else has to go out the dangerous work of killing while you hide at your computer.