On April 6 a coalition of community, political and religious leaders joined in Inglewood to defeat the world's largest retailer at the ballot box --- and, perhaps, set a precedent for communities who do not believe economic gain is worth paying any price.

This coalition succeeded in defeating a Wal-Mart sponsored ballot measure to allow the Arkansas-based retailer to build a giant retail and grocery Supercenter without an environmental review or public hearings. The ballot measure also included language that, opponents claimed, would give Wal-Mart unprecedented control over local issues like traffic control and public ordinances --- more control, effectively "in this area of Inglewood than the city council," said Keisha Krumm, an organizer with LA Metro-IAF, a community-organizing group.

Despite the retailer's expensive public campaign, which included prime-time television commercials and neighborhood rallies, 61 percent of Inglewood voters said no to the measure in the largest voter turnout for a special election in the city's history.

"Many times people feel powerless against these huge corporations," said Msgr. David O'Connell, pastor of St. Michael Church in South Los Angeles (near Inglewood) and a member of L.A. Metro-IAF. "This defeat shows the power that small organizing has. You say to Wal-Mart, 'You can't do this.'"

The election was being watched by cities all over California where Wal-Mart --- which spent $1.6 million on its unsuccessful Inglewood campaign --- has announced plans to break into the grocery business by building 40 Supercenters. Inglewood's would have been the first in Los Angeles County.

'The right way'

For Inglewood, a working-class town roughly split between African-Americans and Latinos, the development of a major retail center is seen by many as a source of revitalization of the city.

Indeed, economic revitalization is what Wal-Mart was selling --- but the residents of Inglewood weren't buying. Local organizers said it was the combination of what they called the company's low wages, questionable labor practices and strong-arm tactics that did Wal-Mart in.

"The community does want economic development in Inglewood. But they want the developers to come in the right way without trying to strip the city of power," said Rev. Jarvis Johnson, a senior clergy organizer with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE). "It's important to make sure jobs that come in are ones that pay a living wage and have health benefits for workers."

The fight for decent working conditions is exactly why it's important that local religious leaders are involved in the economic development of the community, said Msgr. O'Connell.

"The actions of corporations affect our families so badly because we have parents working two or three jobs to make ends meet, leaving no time for their kids," he said. "Our economy should be judged on what it does to the poor. Corporations should not just exist for profit to shareholders."

This message of "good development, not just any development" was what community and religious leaders worked tirelessly to get out to the community. It was a message clearly heard by all, including Wal-Mart.

In the days after its defeat in Inglewood, Wal-Mart Stores president and CEO Lee Scott acknowledged the store's image problems at a speech before the Little Rock, Ark., Chamber of Commerce.

"We as a company have to do more to reach out. We are not as good as we need to be," said Scott. "There are things we do wrong. With 1.5 million workers, I don't have the comfort to feel that all the decisions we make every day are always right --- even my own."

An image problem

A foray into large cities like Los Angeles is relatively new for Wal-Mart, which historically built in smaller rural areas where the land was more abundant and less expensive, and the competition less fierce.

Wal-Mart was able to use its high volume sales and huge inventories to undercut the prices of smaller retailers and become the dominant retailer in the area. As it expanded into larger cities, it used this same method to gain market share.

Wal-Mart's position as the largest corporation in the world with over $245 billion in revenue in 2003 allows it to strictly control its manufacturing costs and wages to the point that its revenue alone accounted for 2 percent of the U. S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2003, noted Dr. Peter Dreier, a professor of politics and urban and environmental policy at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

At an April 21 lecture at Marymount College in Rancho Palos Verdes, Dreier detailed just how much economic and political power Wal-Mart has. As the largest importer of Chinese manufactured goods in the world, the retailer made $6.6 billion in profits last year, yet Chinese workers who make goods for Wal-Mart "make as little a 13 cents an hour ... while a shirt that sells at Wal-Mart for $9 costs as little as 75 cents to make," said Dreier.

The average salary of a full-time worker at Wal-Mart in the United States is $8 an hour or about $13,000 a year for a 40-hour work week.

"Wal-Mart brags that 70 percent of its workers are full-time, but at Wal-Mart full-time means 28 hours a week which means about $11,000 a year," said Dreier. "This means they are officially below the poverty line and many of them are eligible for food stamps and welfare. Very few Wal-Mart workers have health insurance, so when they get sick they go to the public hospitals like County-USC."

Positives for the city

Proponents of the defeated initiative lamented losing a source of jobs --- low-paying or not --- that Wal-Mart might have brought to the area. But the struggle has brought some economic positives to the city, community leaders assert.

"Because of Wal-Mart's interest, now other developers are interested in our city," said Mary Bueno, a parishioner at St. Michael Church and an LA Metro-IAF leader. "For the first time in 30 years, the city is having meetings to show what's in development. This fight has given the community the idea that they can have some say in the decision-making process in Inglewood."

The city, which has a solid middle class population, wants developers to know it is a viable market for mid-level and high-end retailers --- not just the Wal-Marts of the world.

"Just as the city had the ability to host the Lakers [who played at the Forum], it has the ability to host Nordstrom or anything else any other community has," said Rev. Johnson. "Inglewood is the gateway to Los Angeles because of its proximity to the airport, and we want people to know they can come to Inglewood --- and that it's a safe community."