Environmental activists have once again targeted Walmart heiress, Alice Walton’s, superyacht, Maker III, with reddish-purple paint.
According to media reports, members of the political activist collective, Deep Green Resistance, took to the waters of Marina del Rey in Los Angeles County, California, to voice their protest against Ellison’s extravagant lifestyle. The activists targeted Maker III shortly before 6 am on the 7th of October, spraying the yacht with bright paint, washed away with a few hours of high-pressure showers.
This incident was not the first time, however, that the activists had chosen to target Maker III. In 2018, the yacht was attacked and splashed with paint saying “Refugees Lives Matter”. This protest was to draw attention to the plight of the thousands of refugees seeking help all over the globe. The activists successful made their message visible to passers-by, while also shocking Walton into considering the issue.
Walton, one of the world’s wealthiest people, has been singled out for some time as a symbol of the unjust gap between the super-rich and the rest of us. The billionaire doesn’t appear to like the attention, once describing the splattering of her yacht as “violent”.
With the latest deep green spray-paint incident, activists hope to send a clear message to Walton and other billionaires like her about how their lives of luxury affects others. In contrast to the sailors of Walmart’s coal-powered super-yacht, many members of society continue to struggle to make ends meet.
In a statement released after the incident, Deep Green Resistance said: “the multi-millionaire’s huge yacht displayed a stark contrast to the insurmountable suffering caused by poverty, exacerbated by the Walton family’s ruthless business tactics and the climate chaos now attached to their enterprise”.
Just two days after the paint incident, Maker III was seen departing the harbor, but the message from the activists seemed to have reached its target. Let’s hope Walton takes note and that we will start to see more wellbeing for everyone and less monolithic wealth concentrated at the top.
