If this doesn't speak volumes about the state of this society, I don't know what does. Early this morning a worker at the Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, Long Island, was trampled to death as he opened the stoor's doors and the waiting crowd of 2,000 people rushed in. The worker, whose name has not been released, lived in Queens. Perhaps he was a neighbor of mine. Most likely he was an immigrant as are a majority of Queens residents. We know he made terribly low wages and had virtually no benefits, and no union representation. That's a given since he was a Wal-Mart employee. We also know he was forced to come to work absurdly early this morning--many stores in the area were opening as early as 2 a.m. for their heavily advertised day-after-"Thanksgiving" sales--and that the shoppers who surged over him in a fatal frenzy were in the grip of a desperation to buy reduced-priced goods at this time of economic crisis. No doubt many of them face layoffs and evictions, and are drowning in credit card debt, but still are under relentless pressure to keep consuming the crap commodities produced for no purpose but parasitic profit and also do need to buy the basic goods that are impossibly overpriced yet necessary for their families' survival.
We know, in other words, that capitalism killed this brother. None of the rest of us in his class should rest, there should be no peace, until this murderous system is gone for good.
