Lifecycles Workshop #3: Electronics

Wednesday, 10 November 6:30pm-8:30pm

The Edmund Rice Institute for Social Justice
24 High St, Fremantle

Entry by donation.

The Bluestocking Institute's Lifecycles workshops focus on helping participants to develop action plans around the issues that they care about.

Speakers at Lifecycles: Electronics will discuss the environmental and social costs of producing electronic goods, ways to prolong their usefulness, and how to recycle them ethically. There will also be time for you to ask questions and share your own experiences and knowledge.

You are invited to bring old mobile phones that you wish to recycle.

For more information or to RSVP:
• visit the Facebook event page at http://is.gd/g2BSZ or
• email us at bluestocking@bluestockinginstitute.org or
• call Sky on 0411 595 834.

Sponsored by The Bluestocking Institute for Global Peace and Justice

Stampede in New York and across the globe

On a cold November morning in 2008, hundreds of shoppers crowded outside of a Wal-Mart store in Long Island, New York, anxious to get the best deals in the post-Thanksgiving sales. When the doors opened, the crowd surged ahead desperate for a bargain. In the chaos and confusion that ensued, Jdimytai Damour, a security guard was trampled to death.

While the rest of the global economy is crashing, the discount giant is doing just fine. In fact, Wal-Mart sales exceeded US $374 billion in 2008. This is more than the combined GDP of Portugal, Malaysia, Venezuela, Pakistan and Egypt. Perhaps it is stretching the analogy too far, but Wal-Mart's power in the global economy (even in times of economic crisis) looks like a global stampede to me.

The Wal-Mart website touts all it is doing to make goods more affordable for (American) families hurt by the economic crisis. The International Labor Rights Forum is organising a campaign focused on Wal-Mart with its 60,000 suppliers worldwide. It’s worth checking out. It seems to me that now more than ever it’s time to address the power of large multinational corporations like Wal-Mart to drive prices – and wages - down and the impact this has on workers worldwide.