US giant Walmart is expanding its operations in Africa by bidding for a controlling stake in South Africa's Massmart, the continent's third-largest retailer with 288 stores in 14 countries.

But South Africa's trade unions are not happy. Despite Walmart's promise to create jobs and its assurances that it will honour existing labour agreements and rules, the union are threatening to boycott its operations because of its reputation as a company that engages in unfair labour practices.

It's happening all over the country. Union workers in both the public and private sectors have a target on their backs. Politicians are taking aim, determined to destroy the last remaining force dedicated to working people: the labor movement.

The world's biggest retailer already has tills ringing across the Americas, Europe and Asia. Now the sprawling Arkansas-based discount megalith Walmart is trying its luck in Africa.

South Africa's labour movement is bracing itself for its biggest campaign since its anti-apartheid heyday as it faces up to the likely arrival of Walmart – a company notorious for its anti-union tactics, with annual sales worth three times the country's budget.

In this modern age of lobbyists and the cattle-consumer mentality, we often find ourselves struggling to voice our concerns over how our world is managed. There are few tools with which we can wage war against corporate culture; we can vote, we can protest, and we can boycott.