You really have to appreciate the business model of local news stations who send “reporters” from the Live At 5 News Action Eyewitness Doppler Radar We Care Action Action Team down to the big box stores to hype the run-up to the Black Friday sales. Add to that the related stories (“Ten Black Friday deals you don’t want to miss out on!”… “The hottest items this Christmas and why you may not be able to get any of them making you a failure as a parent!” …. “BUY STUFF! CONSUME, LITTLE PIGGIES, MORE MORE, CONSUME!!!“) and then the same local news program can spend all day on Black Friday running poorly-shot cell phone footage of shoppers gone apeshit with crap-lust.

Thanksgiving this year fell on the 49th anniversary of JFK’s assassination. I was just 20, married only 9 months, and my husband and I spent the weekend glued to the TV in our tiny apartment, weeping. That and the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center are my only two “never forget where I was when I heard” moments.

Firedoglake has been working with the Walmart strikers in preparation for Black Friday. We’ve been talking with young organizers across the country who are finally starting to have some traction against the big box monolith that has wiped out small American businesses everywhere they’ve been been built.

Walmart is not going to take this lying down. They have filed a complaint with the NLRB trying to stop the strikers, and yesterday when an employee in Florida walked off the job, Walmart called the police who issued her a warning for trespassing.

There’s a despicable creep that the owners of Big Box stores and other businesses have brought about in this nation. The creep has been aided and abetted by the American people themselves. A product of capitalism, the creep has turned Thanksgiving into a holiday where some workers in this country cannot spend the entire day with their families today because they have to report to work for Black Friday shopping hours today.

Many of you may remember way back in the summer of ’12, when the CEO of deep-fried diabetes factory Chick-fil-A came out against homo marriage (thereby conceding a shitload of wedding catering business to Arbys) and intolerant libtards were all, “We’re totally going to boycott your greasy slabs of chicken genocide which we never ate in the first place because meat is murder.”

Several sympathizers, seeing a point of weakness for Walmart, have jumped aboard with help in promoting the Black Friday protests. The United Auto Workers, one of the more insular unions as far as activity outside their specific area of interest is concerned, just went out to their members supporting the strikers and encouraging attendance

The historic Walmart worker strikes over the past couple months built energy toward an even bigger culmination. Walmart workers, protesting low wages, erratic hours, lack of health benefits, and most importantly disrespect in the workplace, decided to speak their grievances in a series of worker-led actions. Walmart responded with retaliation, including firings, reductions of hours, and intimidation in the workplace. One organizer and former worker was handcuffed in front of his colleagues when he returned to talk to them about upcoming actions.

As a result, the non-union coalition OUR Walmart protested with temporary strikes at 28 stores in 12 states. They inspired supply chain walkouts and strikes at warehouses, to protest similar grievances and retaliation. And this all leads to a major action at Walmart stores on Black Friday, typically the biggest retail sales day of the year. This will includes strikes, in-store actions, potential flash mobs, and solidarity demonstrations from sympathetic allies. Organizers have billed it as the largest one-day action against Walmart in history, much larger than the October strikes.

There’s only one thing: Black Friday is happening on Black Thursday night this year.

The wildcat strikes by non-union Walmart associates are approaching a critical mass. The first-ever strikes have now spread to 12 cities across the country – including Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Orlando, Seattle, and various locations in California – with workers joined by labor and community activists. Protests have been held in front of 200 Walmart stores in the US. Another 100 workers traveled to corporate HQ in Bentonville, Arkansas, to protest the retaliatory measures taken against workers who advocate for higher pay and better working conditions.

Now, OUR Walmart, the organization putting together the strikes and protests, have put out a threat for planned actions around the most important retail day of the year, Black Friday.

I don’t do Black Friday. I’m hideously claustrophobic and large crowds often set off my I’M TRAPPED MUST GET OUT OMG STABBITY reflex, so pretty much from now until Christmas my shopping will be confined to stores in my ‘hood and online.

I figured that there would be stories about Black Friday melees, as shoppers camped out to be first in line as big retailers hyped up specials. I also expected a few stories of violence and frenzy.