NEW YORK CITY, January 20– A Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is very involved in the struggles of workers around housing, health, racism and workplace exploitation. As 2019 began, we have been active in support of the Central American Caravan and against the invasion of Amazon, one of the largest companies in the world, which will be building its second headquarters in Queens.
Amazon has colluded with city politicians (Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo, both Democrats) to establish itself in NYC and win billions in subsidies, but the community is against the plan, knowing full well that Amazon’s presence will lead to a rise in housing costs and to congested trains, buses and schools.
At the end of November 2018, we took part in several protests against Amazon sponsored by a community organization we are active in. At one event, a Party comrade spoke to the protesters, denouncing Amazon for exploiting its 560,000 workers around the world,with low wages and dangerous working conditions, all to enrich the chairman of the company, Jeff Bezos – the world’s richest man, who earns more than eight million dollars per hour while his workers have to work overtime just to survive. (One-third of warehouse workers in Arizona are reportedly receiving SNAP benefits – food stamps.)
Our comrade pointed out another reason to oppose Amazon: it is a major contributor to the U.S. repressive state apparatus. The company is in negotiations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to sell its facial recognition software (Rekognition), which would help ICE deport even more undocumented immigrant workers (our class brothers and sisters).
Employees at Amazon have opposed the contract with ICE, horrified at the agency’s separation of families at the border with Mexico. Besides ICE, for years Amazon has supplied Rekognition to police departments, which can use the technology to identify and create a database of protesters. Amazon also has a $600 million contract with the CIA, notorious for its record of overthrowing progressive governments (Guatemala, Chile, Zaire, the list goes on), installing repressive regimes and running secret detention centers, where torture is normal.
The community organization we work in wants to force Amazon to either pay billions of dollars in taxes  or not come to the city, which doesn’t get to the heart of the problem. There are other liberal organizations in the anti-Amazon coalition that recommend boycotting Amazon and supporting small businesses–ones threatened by Amazon’s arrival–instead. But we cannot indulge in the nostalgia of the “good old days” of family businesses. Amazon started out as a small company and is now a mega-corporation. Meanwhile, most small businesses fail because of high rents and competition. Capitalism needs to be overthrown, not reformed.
The encouraging news is that Amazon workers are fighting back. Angry at low-wages, constant pressure to work faster, extreme heat leading to dehydration and collapse, and the high numbers of injuries in the warehouses, workers are organizing. Somali women held rallies outside the Minneapolis-area warehouse to protest speed-up and disrespectful treatment. Workers at a warehouse in Staten Island, NY are unionizing.  Recently, Amazon workers in Spain, Italy, Germany and Britain organized walkouts, shutting down production to protest low wages and lousy conditions.
Amazon’s treatment of its workers, and the way in which politicians cater to its needs is a clear example of how capitalist owners care only for profits and use their tremendous wealth to buy the loyalty of government officials. That’s why we need to end the profit-system and work towards communism, an egalitarian system whose goal is to create a better life for the working class. We dedicate 2019 to that goal.