Dozens Arrested (Including Santa Claus) At Walmart Black Friday Protests

The biggest Black Friday protest ever hit Walmart today, and so far dozens of people who are calling on Walmart to pay their employees a living wage have been arrested. Santa Claus was also cuffed and taken away in California.

Protests were scheduled today at 1,600 Walmart stores in 49 states, by workers and their supporters who are demanding that the nation’s largest private employer pays their workers a living wage.

According to OUR Walmart, 11 workers and supporters were arrested at the store located outside of Chicago, and 35 Walmart protesters were arrested in Sacramento, CA, including the world’s most famous resident of the North Pole:

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Thousands of protesters gathered at Walmart stores around the country to deliver a simple message. A family can’t survive on what Walmart pays their workers. As CBS Detroit reported, “Organizer Reverend Edwin Rose said that the average Walmart employee makes around $25,000 per year. ‘They’re having food drives for their own employees — most places have food drives for other people, for poor people,’ Rose said. ‘In this case, the poor people are inside working.'”

Walmart donates heavily to Republican candidates and the Republican Party, “Since 2000, 69% of Walmart PAC’s and the Walton family’s political donations have gone to anti-gay, anti-environment, pro-gun, pro-business conservatives like Ted Cruz and John Boehner.” Walmart lures Democrats and liberals in the door with cheap deals, but the money that the left spends in their stores supports John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and the Republican Party.

Behind all of the homey television advertising featuring Melissa Joan Hart and Anthony Anderson is a corporate behemoth that is increasing the gap between the wealthy and the poor. Those cheap deals on televisions that Walmart is offering on Black Friday come at a heavy price. Just remember that those always low prices that get you into the store are keeping workers poor, and Republicans in power.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association