PI briefing | No. 45 | Make Amazon a payday

Amazon is reshaping capitalism in the 21st century. It has a market cap of over $2 trillion. Its founder, Jeff Bezos, is the third richest man in the world with over $220 billion. Their power to destroy the bodies of their workers, change our laws, undermine our public spaces, destroy our planet and support war is immense. But Amazon’s power is not limitless. The company faces resistance at every stage of abuse along its global supply chain. Today, this resistance unites in over 30 countries on every inhabited continent as workers and citizens strike and protest to make Amazon Pay. Together we will make Black Friday Make Amazon Pay Day.

But Amazon’s power is not limitless. Just as we move from country to country to avoid taxes, from camp to camp to mitigate strikes, we too organize everywhere. Amazon is now facing resistance at every stage of abuse along its global supply chain. Today, this resistance unites in over 30 countries on every inhabited continent as workers and citizens strike and protest to make Amazon Pay. Together we will make Black Friday Make Amazon Pay Day.

There’s a lot to resist. A U.S. Senate study found that nearly 45 percent of Amazon warehouse workers were injured on the job during the holiday season. In Bangladesh, Amazon is still refusing to sign the safety agreements negotiated after the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013, which killed over a thousand garment workers, due to garment workers’ demand for a monthly minimum wage of $207 continues to remain unfulfilled.

The company says it cares about the climate and made a much-touted net zero commitment in 2019. Since then, emissions have risen by more than a third. Amazon has higher emissions than over 160 countries.

These costs to our planet are not covered by Amazon’s tax returns. The company’s lawyers and accountants are so adept at booking profits in different jurisdictions and avoiding taxes that Amazon’s effective tax rate is tiny. An even more blatant example: The company paid no corporate tax in Europe in 2020 on sales of over 44 billion euros.

Amazon also profits from serious crimes. In 2021, Amazon signed a $1.2 billion contract to provide cloud computing to the Israel Defense Forces as part of the so-called “Project Nimbus.” Amazon hopes to make billions with Black Friday bargains – while providing critical support to the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank.

In response to this large chain of abuse, over 80 organizations, led by UNI Global Union and Progressive International, have come together under the slogan “Make Amazon Pay”. On each of the past five Black Fridays – an important shopping day in late November – there have been globally coordinated strikes and protests at Amazon.

This year hundreds of actions will take place in over thirty countries. Highlights include:

• A major strike in Germany in which thousands of warehouse workers walked off their jobs in key warehouses such as Bad Hersfeld, Graben, Dortmund Werne, Leipzig, Koblenz and Rheinberg;
• In France, Attac (Association for Taxation of Financial Transactions and Citizen Action) is leading a wave of direct action in cities across the country;
• In India, hundreds of Amazon workers demonstrated in New Delhi against unsafe working conditions, particularly after last summer’s extreme heat wave, while warehouse and gig workers took action in 12 cities across the country;
• Garment workers in Bangladesh are taking to the streets to demand fair treatment from Amazon suppliers.
• In Atalanta, USA, Amazon drivers at the company’s DGT8 factory in Atlanta join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and demand union recognition with a “March on the Boss”;
• In Italy, Amazon workers are on strike as part of the country’s general strike;
• In Onda, Spain, 500 workers strike for better wages;
• In Tokyo, Japan, activists protest against the exploitation of drivers in front of Amazon headquarters;
• In four cities in South Africa, activists and indigenous leaders are protesting against Amazon’s complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza and the desecration of indigenous lands in South Africa.
• In London, United Kingdom, workers and activists protest outside Amazon’s headquarters to take a stand against its abuse of its workers, its tax evasion, its destruction of our environment and the takeover of the Israeli war machine.
• In Istanbul, Türkiye, workers and union members protest in front of the Amazon office;
• In Luxembourg, a coalition of unions, tax justice and environmental organizations protested in a central square to denounce Amazon’s tax avoidance.
• In Bogota, Colombia, trade unionists protest in front of an Amazon call center;
• Booksellers around the world criticize Amazon’s anti-competitive practices;
• Thousands are joining the Progressive International, No Tech for Apartheid and the BDS movement to say “Not a cent for genocide”, with Black Friday falling this year on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. You can receive and share the deposit here.

All of these actions add up to a major global news story with thousands of articles, television and radio minutes. This reporting serves a purpose beyond simply telling a story of united resistance.

Each action spurs the next, building the strength – and most importantly, the confidence – of workers around the world to act based on one simple truth: When we fight, we win.

Türkiye exports oil to Israel

New research suggests that crude oil shipments from Turkey to Israel continued despite Ankara imposing a trade embargo in May over its Israeli actions in Gaza. Shipping data and satellite images compiled by researchers from the Progressive International-backed Stop Fueling Genocide campaign indicate that a tanker transported crude oil directly from the Türkiye port of Ceyhan to a pipeline near Ashkelon, Israel.

The story was reported by Middle East Eye and extensively by Turkish broadcaster Duvar.

Largest climate case in history before the World Court

Pacific Island students are bringing the world’s largest climate case to the International Court of Justice, calling on it to hold powerful states accountable under international law for the devastation their actions have wreaked on our world. They face a unfolding crisis – rising sea levels flooding their homes, extreme storms stealing lives, and a future that grows ever closer with each passing year.

In Fortress Europe

“Europe is a garden. Most of the rest of the world is a jungle, and the jungle could encroach on the garden.” That was the warning from the European Union’s foreign policy chief in 2022.

For decades, the European Union has policed ​​the border between “garden” and “jungle” with lethal force, opening the drawbridge to those fleeing Western wars, famine and climate change.

This hostile environment has a name: Fortress Europe. In the latest episode of The International, a global video series from former Irish MEP Clare Daly of Jacobin and Progressive International, the consequences at home and around the world are laid bare. Watch the film here.

Semilla defeats the justice system

Guatemalan political party and PI member Movimento Semilla has passed the law against organized crime, reversing Judge Fredy Orellana’s attempts to eliminate the party through legal warfare after its historic success in the 2023 elections.

Progressive forces win in Uruguay

Uruguayan Frente Amplio candidate Yamandu Orsi won last Sunday’s presidential election, beating right-wing candidate Álvado Delgado. Orsi secured 52% of the vote in the second round after leading in the first round. The PI sent a delegation to observe the elections.

Art of the Week: Make Amazon Pay Artworks by PI Art Director Gabriel Silveira.