Wal-Mart Front Group Loses Front Man

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Andrew Young, the former civil rights leader turned chair of the front group Working Families for Wal-Mart, resigned from the pro-Wal-Mart group, after making remarks he now calls "demagogic" and "racist shorthand." During an interview with the Los Angeles Sentinel, Young said Wal-Mart should cause small local stores to go out of business, because "those are the people who have been overcharging us. ... First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs." Wal-Mart PR head Mona Williams said the retail giant was "appalled" by Young's remarks. A Financial Times overview of Wal-Mart's response to its increasing inclusion in political debates reveals that, on August 15, the company "sent 18,000 'voter education' letters to its employees in Iowa, pointing out what it said were factual errors made by politicians who had attacked the company. The group is to dispatch similar letters to its staff in other states."