An unlikely group of protesters pickets Wal-Mart; Grass Roots Mfg. groups to coalesce around trade.

The manufacturing activist group MADinUSA is taking to the streets. The national grass roots organization sent demonstrators to picket in front of Wal-Mart stores in Southington, Conn., and El Paso, Texas, on Friday. Nov. 28, the busiest shopping day of the year. The group handed out fliers about Wal-Mart's buying practices of favoring low-cost foreign producers and the negative impact the company is having on U.S. jobs.

The Connecticut demonstration attracted the attention of the state's three major television stations as well as reporters from the New Haven Register, Bristol Press, Waterbury Republican and New Britain Herald. The protesters were manufacturing company owners.

"The response was beyond expectations," says MADinUSA president Fred Tedesco, president of Pa-Ted Spring of Brisol, Conn. "The weather was miserable but it was really exciting to get such responses from so many people. [Our efforts are] starting to wake people up."

In a similar demonstration in El Paso, MADinUSA participants were told by Wal-Mart managers not to step foot on Wal-Mart property. The El Paso group of manufacturing business owner protesters carried one sign that read: "Think Before Buying. If It Says 'Made In China' Put It Back." The El Paso Wal-Mart "had a guard keep an eye on us," says Dan Harder who organized the event. "They were not very happy with us....I have received calls from people, all in favor of what we are taking a stand on."

MADinUSA is also part of a meeting scheduled for December 17 in Washington that aims to coalesce many of the newly formed manufacturing grass-roots action groups into a national coalition aimed specifically at trade reform. "The primary purpose of this coalition is to educate and energize our fellow Americans about the crisis in trade policy and to mobilize people to change those trade policies," says a statement from the Free Trade fin America Coalition (FreeTAC), which is spearheading the initiative. FreeTAC was recently created by billionaire industrialist and turnaround specialist Wilbur Ross. Once allied, the groups expect to represent as many as two million people.

"It's going to be a barn burner," says one organizer. "We will kick off a national campaign to educatea Americans because if we can't get them to understand that manufacturing jobs are flying out of the country then no matter what we do it won't go anywhere in Washington. None of the solutions are easy or quick but all of government and large retailers have to get on another page and there has to be some change. It's going to be a dog fight and it's going to get ugly, but if we're going top save small- and medium-sized manufacturers we don't have a choice."

Meanwhile, MADinUSA is urging people to sign an online petition that will be sent to Wal-Mart president H. Lee Scott asking friends not to buy their Christmas presents at Wal-Mart. "Sure it's cheap to shop at Wal-Mart, but at what cost?" the petition asks. "Wal-Mart brings you its rock bottom prices by underpaying employees and forcing its suppliers to do the same. And when big box Wal-Mart comes to town, local businesses that treat their employees better can't compete and are forced out of business." On the morning of Dec. 4, 19,801 people had signed the petition. It is located at the "Act for Change" Web site: http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/petition.cfm? itemid = 16041.