I'm still sick and slept right through the alarm yesterday morning, which bummed me out because I wanted to go to the 8 a.m. protest scheduled at my local Walmart. So I don't know how many strikers and supporters were there. But when I swung by there at 10 a.m., all I saw were a lot fewer cars than usual in the parking. I don't know if the strike had any impact, or if shoppers showed up instead during the overnight hours.

So while I don't know how many Walmart protests there were, please remember that when Wal-Mart Inc. claims its best Black Friday ever, you're hearing from a company with a long, long history of lying and you should take it with a large grain of salt:

Retail giant Walmart has been hit by protests and staff walkouts at stores across the US on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day in the retail calendar.

The actions began Thursday, as workers protested the retail giant's decision to open on Thanksgiving, which is traditionally a national holiday, and what they claim are attempts by Walmart to silence protests from workers. Industrial action continued Friday, with organisers claiming 1,000 protests in 46 states.

Walmart workers in Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Wisconsin, California's Bay Area, Chicago, Washington DC and other cities took part in the walk out, protesting wages and work conditions. The demonstrations were co-ordinated by OUR Walmart, a workers' group that last month led the first strikes that the retail giant had experienced.

OUR Walmart workers claimed the retailer was intimidating those who protest working conditions at the retailer.
Walmart countered that it had had its best Black Friday ever and that the majority of protesters were not Walmart workers.

"Only 26 protests occurred at stores last night and many of them did not include any Walmart associates," said Bill Simon, Walmart's US president and chief executive officer. "We had very safe and successful Black Friday events at our stores across the country and heard overwhelmingly positive feedback from our customers," Simon said.

He added that the retailer estimated less than 50 Walmart workers had taken part in the protests. "In fact, this year, roughly the same number of associates missed their scheduled shift as last year," Simon said.

But protesters disputed the retailer's numbers.

Dan Schlademan, director at lobby group Making Change at Walmart, said "hundreds and hundreds" of workers were taking action.

He said as a result of protests, Walmart workers had seen their employment terminated, threatened with having their hours cut and that the labor board was now investigating 35 specific violations of the national labor relations act.

Fox News is going ballistic at the prospect of Wal-Mart workers threatening to strike, so they've been concocting all sorts of phony conspiracy theories. You knew it was just a matter of time until they brought George Soros, the conservative bogey man, into their insanity, even if he has nothing to do with it. Watch this sophomoric rant by Greg-Ann Gutfeld.

Gutfeld: George Soros wouldn't know a Wal-Mart if he bought one. Let's face it. Is he our self appointed labor secretary? Why doesn't Obama just appoint him as the destroy America czar? He hates this place. Activists hate Walmart because it's the proxy for America that represents success. I would love to protest activists, but it's impossible to find where and what they do in order to protest them.

Wal-Mart is the symbol of the golden age of corporations exploiting their workforce. It's a success for a very select few on the backs of the many. The entire segment was one continuous rant against liberals, unions, MoveOn and anyone they thought of.

Fox News repeatedly promoted a false story claiming philanthropist George Soros directed people to protest at Wal-Mart on Black Friday, but it has not corrected its coverage.

Fox figures claimed that Soros was acting through MoveOn.org to orchestrate protests over labor conditions at Wal-Mart. While MoveOn did send an email urging recipients to support the Black Friday protests, it asked them to sign a petition, not attend the events, and MoveOn says that Soros made only one donation to the organization in 2004. Fox covered the false story Tuesday on America Live, Your World with Neil Cavuto, and The Five, and Fox Nation is still running the headline "Soros Behind Black Friday Strike.

They just lie about anything they want. MoveOn sent out an email asking people to sign a petition.

According to MoveOn, Soros has not contributed to the organization in more than eight years, since he made a donation in 2004 to an election-related initiative that no longer exists.

MoveOn's email encouraging people to sign the petition supporting the protesters contains no mention of Soros. Varney's statement echoes a claim in a Daily Caller article that quotes portions of the MoveOn email. Like Varney, the Daily Caller failed to support its assertion that Soros is involved.

The right-wing media have mounted an endless effort to demonize Soros, a financier who has donated to liberal causes.

UPDATE: The Daily Caller has updated its article by removing all references to Soros. At the bottom of the story, it has added a correction:

I was watching network news (ABC) last night, and they were talking about how the Black Friday sales were going to start Thursday night, and the reporter was gushing about all the great deals. Not one single word about the Walmart strike. After all, that's another world to those people!

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- As Wal-Mart workers prepare to stage a walkout on Black Friday, the world's largest store is fighting back.

Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) has filed a complaint with a federal agency accusing one of the largest labor unions in the country of unlawfully organizing picket lines, in-store "flash mobs" and other demonstrations in the past six months.

In its complaint Thursday, Wal-Mart said the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and its subsidiary known as OURWalmart is trying to force the store into collective bargaining even though it is not the official union for Wal-Mart's employees. The UFCW represents over a million meat packers and food industry workers.

The complaint comes just days before Wal-Mart workers' plan to stage nationwide walkouts on Black Friday, arguably the biggest holiday shopping day for any U.S. store. Union-backed groups OUR Walmart and Making Change at Wal-Mart, along with a watchdog group Corporate Action Network are calling on the country's largest employer to end what they call retaliation against employees who speak out for better pay, fair schedules and affordable health care.

The planned walkouts build on an October strike that started at a Wal-Mart in Los Angeles and spread to stores in 12 other cities. More than 100 workers joined in the October actions.

Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar pointed out in a statement that the number of workers participating in the walkout is a "very small minority" of its 1.3 million workforce. Tovar said that Black Friday is like the "Superbowl" for retailers and that Wal-Mart is ready.

"If [the store employees] are scheduled to work, we expect them to show up and do their job. If they don't, depending on the circumstances, there could be consequences," said Tovar.

In a letter to UFCW's general council sent on Friday, Wal-Mart said the workers' ongoing actions violate the National Labor Relations Act, which prohibits picketing for any period over 30 days without filing a representation petition. The retailer said the actions have disrupted business.

I want to make a suggestion. I'd like everyone who reads this to email everyone they know with a link to these videos, and ask them not to shop at any store on Thanksgiving night, and to support the Walmart Black Friday strike.

This is some of the most moving and powerful advocacy I have ever seen on television, and I'm grateful to Chris Hayes for the fine work he continues to do. You cannot watch this without responding to the quiet dignity of these Walmart workers, who want a living wage and humane working conditions.

And, as one worker put it, to spend Thanksgiving with his kids and play a little football.

If you'd like to help, here's the Walmart Strikers Food Fund.

I have a bit of an issue about being in large crowds, so Black Friday shopping is never on my list of holiday to-dos, nor do I ever shop at Walmart, because I hate their labor practices. So supporting the Walmart employees Black Friday strike is actually a big no-brainer for me. But I know that there are many people who don't have the luxury of other stores in their area to patronize or are financially strapped enough that the deals that can be had at Walmart can mean the difference between having a Christmas gift for everyone in the family or not. I'm not judging those in that situation. But as a progressive, I would hope that even if that is the case, you could manage to stay home that one day, in solidarity with Walmart employees who, despite working for the most successful company in the world and for the richest family in the world, routinely are living at or below poverty levels.

And for all their pooh-poohing of the Walmart Black Friday strike, it does look like the suits are getting nervous about how this is playing to their key customer base:

In past interviews, Walmart has denied that it illegally retaliates against workers for activism, and [Walmart VP of Communications David] Tovar denied the latest allegations in an interview with The New York Times. But the company has not denied that it holds mandatory meetings to discourage it. (As in a union campaign, such “captive audience” meetings are legal, though some “threats” are not.) OUR Walmart confirmed that workers have reported being required to attend such meetings in the lead-up to Black Friday.

Christopher Bentley Owen, an overnight stocker at a Tulsa Walmart supercenter, told The Nation he and his co-workers were lectured about the strike at a mandatory 10 pm meeting last night. According to Owen, the highest-ranking manager on the graveyard shift read, “word for word,” what appeared to be a prepared script from corporate headquarters slamming the Black Friday actions planned by the labor group OUR Walmart. The statement called OUR Walmart a “wholly owned subsidiary” of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union, called its actions a “stunt,” and warned that by discouraging customers, the Black Friday actions would hurt employees’ end-of-quarter bonuses. Rather than downplaying it, said Owen, “It seemed like they were treating it like the notion of people picketing outside of stores could be a big deal.”

Owen said that his manager read, verbatim, a list of questions and answers that appeared to have been designed to instruct managers how to respond to workers’ questions, rather than to be read word for word. According to Owen, the manager read a hypothetical question from a worker who had heard that the strikes were legally protected, followed by an answer that, “It seems to us that this action is not protected by the law.” He read a hypothetical question from a worker about whether striking on Friday could lead to punishment, and then, “Answer: No comment.” After reading that, said Owen, “He kind of chuckled.”

Judging by the scripted questions and answers, said Owen, “They want to communicate to us, or plant the idea in our heads, that we could get disciplined.” Owen described the statement as “very much corporate-speak. It didn’t seem like it was written by our guy.” When the co-manager opened the floor for actual questions, said Owen, no one spoke up.

CREDO Action has an ongoing campaign for people to voice their support of the workers at Walmart for liveable wages and better working conditions. Please take the time to make the call and report back to CREDO. Let the Walton family know that they should be thankful for all their blessings in this season and pass just a little bit more on to the employees that built that largesse for them.