Knick-knack monster Wal-Mart is facing an uncharacteristically well-organized worker strike this Friday, on what is one of the busiest shopping days of the year. The company is scared enough to try to get the NLRB to tell the company's own employees they can't protest. Since we can't imagine that that long-shot attempt at crushing dissent will be successful, you should be ready for Wal-Mart Black Friday: Protest Edition.

Will you drive on over to your local Wal-Mart on Black Friday morning, only to find yourself confronted by capitalism's misdeeds, in the form of protesting Wal-Mart workers demanding something approaching a living wage? Here is a list of planned Wal-Mart Black Friday actions around the country. Simply click to find out whether or not you will be forced to feel guilty as you shop for cheap plastic crap (or where you can go to help make others feel guilty for shopping for cheap plastic crap). You can also donate money here to sponsor a striking Wal-Mart work, if you are into that sort of thing.

Also, if you're interested in the economics of this issue, here is a study that Demos released yesterday that says that raising the salary of all full time workers at large retailers to $25,000 per year would lift more than 700,000 people out of poverty, at a cost of only a 1% price increase for customers. (Corporatist dissenters of this study, please feel free to air your grievances in the discussion section below.)

We will also note that Wal-Mart has decided to pay its dividends early in order to minimize its taxes, in a move that could save members of the Walton family "as much as $180 million in federal income taxes." Please contrast this to the ostentatious displays of patriotic rhetoric generally associated with Wal-Mart.

Have a black, black Friday.

[Photo: AP]