Politics and Malls

[Carrol Cox]

A further note on malls and politics. In the case I wrote of yesterday,
Sears sent its own attorney down to Bloomington to participate in the
prosecution. But what was really at stake for Sears (and other mall
owners, particularly large dept. stores) was not the comfort or
protection of their customers *or* mere desire to exclude radicals. They
wanted to keep possible union pickets and leafletters at a distance. At
least at the beginning stages, it could be much more difficult to
organize union drive at a dept. store in the center of a privatized mall
than one with an outlet on a public sidewalk.

Carrol