The Class War Is Raging at Amazon’s Staten Island Complex
The atmosphere was electric at a prevote rally Sunday in Staten Island where workers prepared to cast ballots on whether to become the second Amazon facility to join the Amazon Labor Union. Bernie Sanders was among the speakers.
Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, left, speaks next to Christian Smalls, founder of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), during an ALU rally in the Staten Island borough of New York on Sunday, April 24, 2022. (Victor J. Blue / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
When Julian “Mitch” Mitchell-Israel was hired to work at LDJ5, Amazon’s sortation center in Staten Island, he was reading The Grapes of Wrath. In the book, John Steinbeck, addressing the powerful — “you who hate change and fear revolution” — writes that the real danger arises not when there is already a movement against them, but earlier, when two people first pitch a camp in a field together after losing their homes and realize that they have something in common.
“Keep these two squatting men apart; make them hate, fear, suspect each other,” writes Steinbeck:
For here “I lost my land” is changed; a cell is split and from its splitting grows the thing you hate — “We lost our land.” The danger is here, for two men are not as lonely and perplexed as one.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.