What would Jesus buy this Christmas?

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If you want to have some small economic impact for the good this Christmas, then please at least boycott J.C. Penney, Kmart, Kohl's, May's, Sears, Target, and Wal-Mart.

There are two interesting lists regarding the retail giants. One is the Sweatshop Scorecard of retailers by Co-op America and is available at http://www.sweatshops.org/scorecard.html

The other is a Buy Blue.Org which is highlighting the large companies that donated to Republican or Democratic campaigns. http://www.buyblue.org/bluexmas.html

Do you see any relationship here?

Sweatshop Scorecard:Federated = C; J.C. Penney = D-; Kmart = D; Kohl's = D+; May's = C; Sears = D-; Target = D; Wal-Mart = F.

Retailers with large percentages of Republican contributions: J.C. Penney = 81%; Kmart = 86%; Kohl's = ; May's = 90%; Sears = 76%; Target = 72%; Wal-Mart = 80%.

Conclusion: Please boycott those stores.

Our consumer brand of American fascism is maintained by our unconscious consumerism. The TV ads we watch in the "privacy" of our homes create the self-illusion of individualism and freedom, but they are really the Madison Ave. version of the great Nuremberg rallies of Nazi Germany. Hitler and Goebbels would be envious of our slick consumer fascism which puts corporations in control of the government in order to make government profitable to corporations.

If these giant retailers didn't fund the Republican politicians do you honestly believe that we would still not have laws preventing sweatshop exploitation.

Check out the many good organizations supporting fairtrade, greentrade, and opposing sweatshops. You can start with these:

Co-op America
http://www.coopamerica.org/

Global Exchange
http://www.globalexchange.org/

Rainforest Action Network
http://www.ran.org/

Greenpeace
http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/
Watch out for "greenwash" masquerading as green.
http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/97/summit/greenwash.html

GreenSeal
http://www.greenseal.org/index.html

Buy Green
http://www.buygreen.com/index.htm

[I've only just learned about Green Seal and Buy Green. If you know something about them that I should know please let me know. Also if you have a favorite fairtrade, greentrade, or anti sweatshop website please let me know of it and I'll it to the list.]

Gregory