Jonathan Rosenblum is activist in residence at the Center for Work and Democracy at Arizona State University. A member of the National Writers Union, he is the author of We’re Coming For You And Your Rotten System: How Socialists Beat Amazon and Upended Big-City Politics and is a part-time delivery driver for Amazon.
Whether workers can organize Amazon will be pivotal for the fate of the labor movement worldwide. Initial victories in Coventry, England, and elsewhere show that when unions put serious resources into organizing, they can win.
In response to a successful unionization effort at a warehouse in Quebec, Amazon is shuttering its operations in the entire province. Its punitive behavior demonstrates that traditional organizing methods won’t work on the corporate behemoth.
The only way to stop climate change is to build a mass, working-class movement whose demands both resonate with average people and take on the billionaires who are profiteering from the climate crisis.
In response to Starbucks’ union-busting in Memphis, firing seven workers who were organizing a union there, the American labor movement should organize protests at Starbucks locations throughout the country. The coffee giant can’t get away with this.
Amazon represents the pinnacle challenge to union organizers and socialists throughout the country. Are we in a 1919 moment, still a generation of failures away from breakthrough success? Or closer to 1935, approaching the tipping point of winning real worker power?
Seattle socialist city council member Kshama Sawant prevailed over Amazon in her recent reelection. Sawant won by using the same strategies that make for successful workplace organizing — strategies that socialists around the country could take up against the corporate behemoths that want them to lose.
Since first winning office in 2013, Seattle socialist city councilmember Kshama Sawant has pushed a $15 minimum wage, landmark renters’ rights legislation, free public transit, and more. Which is why Amazon has declared war on her.
Jeff Bezos doesn’t deserve any praise for the recent raise at Amazon — not least because $15 isn’t anywhere near enough.
The Fight for $15’s successes in Seattle show that the campaign can achieve victories far beyond the fast food industry.