It is no accident that the anti-corporate campaign emerged in the anti-government Reagan era. Perceiving the major political parties as thoroughly bought off by corporate interests, activists saw their only recourse as appealing directly to the corporations and to their consumers. In President Reagan himself, corporate interests found a true friend, but even more important, for the first time, business was successfully organized as a political force, one that could lobby more forcefully than ever for its own interests.

The anti-corporate campaign has had some successes: For example, many apparel companies targeted for abusing workers' rights overseas have had to modestly improve their suppliers' sweatshop factory conditions. Still, such small victories are a bit sad compared with the effectiveness of past strategies by Americans to curb harmful corporate behavior through strong unions, government regulation and vibrant social movements. In the history of the anti-corporate campaign, what's refreshing about the anti-Wal-Mart forces is their ambition in targeting not just one or two problems but a company's entire modus operandi.

What's also unusual about this campaign is that it's successfully engaging policy and politicians. At the state and local level, the anti-Wal-Mart forces are working to pass legislation obligating Wal-Mart to reimburse governments for the costs it inflicts on taxpayers -- in Medicaid, county programs for the poor, public emergency room costs -- by declining to provide its workers adequate healthcare. (Wal-Mart costs taxpayers an estimated $2.7 billion in welfare every year.)

Wake Up Wal-Mart worked with Sens. Ted Kennedy and Jon Corzine on a federal bill on this issue, which was introduced in June; unlike that one, however, several bills at the state and local level have attracted bipartisan support and have a prayer of becoming law. Republicans, after all, generally don't like to see tax dollars wasted. The Maryland Legislature passed one such healthcare bill recently, thanks to lobbying by both Wal-Mart Watch and Wake Up Wal-Mart, and is expected to override the governor's veto in January.

The ambitions of the anti-Wal-Mart forces may, in this era of modest, single-issue goals, inspire some eye rolling among the knowing, especially in Washington, where both Wake Up Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart Watch are based. Indeed, we live in an era of painfully small-scale do-good impulses, best characterized by Julie Delpy's winsome character in last year's Richard Linklater movie "Before Sunset." Sitting in a cafe with her long-lost lover (played by Ethan Hawke), she explains that she used to believe in changing the world through revolutions, politics and big ideas, but now she doesn't think any of those can work, so she works for a nongovernmental organization that distributes pencils to impoverished third-world schoolchildren (just pencils). I'd guess that every moviegoer familiar with the fragmented, microspecific world of nonprofit organizations cringed and nodded with recognition at this scene, but it was also a funny -- and sad -- reminder of a generation's dearth of politics.

It is precisely the willingness of the anti-Wal-Mart activists to rise above this nobly ineffective, pencil-sized universe and engage with a bigger picture, and with politics, that makes their campaign so promising. It is a campaign against greed itself, and the current direction of our economy, in which corporations can do as they please regardless of the human cost. It is this breadth of purpose that invites so many different kinds of alliances and activists. And since the last presidential election, plenty of socially conscious people are looking for something effective to do, something big, comparable to fighting President Bush. As Sefl points out, "So many of the same values" are at stake in the Wal-Mart fight. "And that is an element of our success right now." In the court of public opinion, the advocates may be making a dent: A poll conducted by Westhill Partners for Wal-Mart Watch and released on July 22 found that Wal-Mart's approval rating had, just since spring, plummeted from 59 percent to 50 percent.

Because they've rarely been tried, it's not clear that any of these strategies will work. Much stands in the way of the would-be Wal-Mart reformers -- including the company's formidable P.R. machine and its ability to buy off politicians. (These days, Wal-Mart's ads seem to showcase the company as a great employer and community partner even more than a shopping destination.)

What's more, Americans are desperate to catch a financial break somewhere. Since breaks are not forthcoming on the job, or from the government -- through, say, universal healthcare or free college tuition -- many will continue to look for relief in the aisles of Wal-Mart. When you're struggling to make ends meet, a $2.50 bra and a $30 microwave look pretty good. It may be that without more progressive people in government, and a more collective ethos in our society as a whole, activists may not be able to force Wal-Mart into fundamental changes.

Still, the momentum is unstoppable at present, and Wal-Mart's foes are hunkering down and building institutions that can sustain a long fight. Despite the political orientation of the troops and the "war room"-style strategizing, Sefl says, Wal-Mart Watch's headquarters is "not your typical campaign office. It has the feel of something that's going to be there for a while."

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