How do grassroots activists influence the policies of the world's larget corporations? Shareholder actions, spectacle, letters from religious leaders and thousands of regular folks, for a start.
In the latest episode of NationBuilder's Leaders and Creators, I talk with Robin Schneider, director of Texas Campaign for the Environment about flashmobs at Wal-Mart stores around the country, and her organizing start as a 17-year-old canvasser engaged in "door-step democracy."
Schneider's victories include convincing Dell, Apple and Samsung to recycle their obsolete computers; as vice chair of the Electronics TakeBack Coalition, she works to ensure that mistakes from Silicon Valley - home of the highest concentration of Superfund sites in the U.S. - aren't repeated in other tech hotspots around the world.
 Robin Schneider @txenvironment |
TCE is currently working with groups around the country to convince Wal-Mart to follow the lead of BestBuy and take back old TVs at its retail outlets, and just launched TakeItBackWalMart.com in concert with a series of Halloween-themed in-store flash actions.