“No Walmart in Chinatown”: Chinatown Community for Equitable Development and the Campaign Against the World’s Largest Retailer in Los Angeles Chinatown, 2012-2013

This thesis documents and analyzes the campaign against Walmart in Los Angeles Chinatown. During the campaign, which lasted from March 2012 to September 2013, a broad coalition of community groups and organized labor converged to oppose the opening of a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Chinatown. Drawing on online and mainstream media accounts, city and legal documents, and qualitative interviews with Chinatown activists, this thesis (1) examines the media narratives that were constructed around the Chinatown Walmart; (2) reflects on the debates and discussions captured in the city and legal archives; and (3) traces the formation and evolution of a multiethnic, intergenerational community organization, Chinatown Community for Equitable Development (CCED), during the campaign. Through their relationships, political vision, and organizing tactics, CCED members attempted to broaden their activism at the same time that they built grassroots power in Los Angeles Chinatown.