On Saturday morning, I decided to join the large crowd gathered through the streets of Chinatown and in Los Angeles Historic State Park to protest against the opening of a new Walmart store in the neighborhood. It was my first experience with the we-are-the-99%/Occupy LA movement, and even though I care about these things (Walmart is an evil corporation which treats its employees like shit, I know!) the big attraction was the free improvised concert by Tom Morello and Ben Harper, turning the event into a new level.
The march, which was announced as the largest anti-Walmart event ever, started in the Historic State Park, the one that hosts the FYF fest each year, and it had attracted a large crowd (I would say hundreds? thousands? of people), the most spectacular of them being a large brigade of the teamster motorcycle club. Under the slogans ‘Unite Here’, and ‘Walmart: how the 1% hurts 99%’, the colorful crowd, carrying banners and signs condemning Walmart-bad-economics, such as ‘Walmart = poverty’, or Walmart: Respect workers now’, walked to the dragon gate in Chinatown, where a stage had been set up.
Between several Walmart workers and union labor representatives’ speeches, Tom Morello, as expected, showed up, galvanizing the crowd right away:
‘So let’s keep those sons of bitches out, with their poverty workers and their sweat shop products!’ he yelled with a smile, ‘This first song is a fighting song, this first song, brothers and sisters, is a freedom song,… the song that I am about to drop on your collective ass my friend, is an union song!’ he added before doing a very convincing rendition of, precisely the Nighwatchman’ s ‘Union Song’.
Wearing black clothes, a ‘Unite Here’ cap, and showing a ‘Whatever it takes’ on his guitar, Morello sure knows how to work up a crowd with just a guitar, a harmonica and a few fists in the air. After one song, I wanted him to continue, the vibe was good and powerful… and he did a second song, the unavoidable Woody Guthrie’s ‘This land is your land’, saying he would absolutely sing the censored parts, and after using strong words, he jokingly shouted ‘the struggle for social justice is not rated PG 13!'
He was totally excellent and funny, the sort of character you need for these rallies, I would have listened to him the whole afternoon, but he was already gone.
After a few more Walmart employees and various speakers talking about their struggles, the low wages, the horrific working conditions with no health care and no respect, after more exposes explaining how the giant retailer stays rich by keeping people poor, the event was not only about the implantation of a new store in Chinatown but was showing its anti-corporate America clear tendency.
‘Attention Walmart shoppers this store is closed forever’ declared someone in front of the construction site, and then Ben Harper showed up on stage to sing a song that may be called ‘We can’t end this way’, and that sounded more like a personal declaration than a protest song, if he hadn’t added some Walmart reference in the lyrics. 'I understand he is very famous', told me an elderly woman standing next to me, 'but I have never heard of him', she continued, 'oh yeah, he is well-known, he got a few Grammys', I replied, 'I will totally check his records', she added, 'because I like folk music!' She must have been in her early 80s and she was taking pictures, videos and even notes during the whole time,… I love young people! I left when people were still speaking on stage, but I had already been standing for four hours under the hot sun…
Ironically, the location chosen for the store, at Cesar Chavez Avenue, named after the farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist, seems to be such a slap in the faces of these people marching this afternoon. The future will tell if the construction continues in the neighborhood or if Rage Against the Machine’s man and mellower Ben Harper were powerful enough to stop the too-big-to-be-sued retailer. 