What We Need Is An Amazon Workers' Strike Similar to Recent European One But Coordinated Worldwide/Confront The Biggest Monopoly/Examples From "The Invisible Committe"
Hey folks. With the little time I have was compelled to spontaneously throw something together for consideration.
Was just watching a couple of Jimmy Dore segments covering two European strike stories. They would appear to me to have some powerful ramifications, which naturally then seem to be MIA at the MSM.
These stories also dovetail into the gist of a rather unique and stirring manifesto that I've been reading, found in a comment on Naked Capitalism thread (a reminder to always mine the comment sections).
It's something called "To our friends" and is by The Invisible Committe (shades of Anonymous, I wonder?). It gathers a whole lot of evidence of people waking up to the massive problem of capitalism and contains many glorious examples of folks standing up in solidarity against it around the world.
It's available for free, here at the Anarchist Library.
It was so riveting and righteous that I had planned on writing a full essay on it. But I'm backlogged galore with so many essays and ever so beaten down with full-time Dad duties that it seemed prudent to attach it now with these couple of similar stories. Maybe we can still have another longer conversation about it another time. It's really worth reading, if not just perusing a bit if you have time (I haven't finished it yet).
This is the first of the Jimmy Dore's pieces, "Amazon Workers STRIKE In Italy, Spain, Germany & UK!"
I'm including a search of the article he mentioned, because Business Insider is asking too much inside information for my taste to view their site, namely which is to turn off my ad blocker. Nah, sorry.
Amazon asked Spanish police to intervene in warehouse strike ...
Amazon asked police in Spain to intervene in a mass strike at a warehouse on the outskirts of Madrid, according to local reports. Amazon wanted a police presence at the warehouse to ensure that ...
[Search domain www.businessinsider.com/amazon-asked-police-in-spain-to-intervene...] https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-asked-police-in-spain-to-intervene...
Amazon workers to protest warehouse working conditions on ...
Amazon protests in the UK will take the form of demonstrations, while workers in Spain and Italy are planning a 24-hour strike.
[Search domain www.businessinsider.com/amazon-workers-protest-warehouse-working-...] https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-workers-protest-warehouse-working-...
Amazon workers strike in Germany, joining action in Spain and ...
The Verdi services union called the one-day strike to back its demand for labor contracts that guarantee healthy working conditions at fulfilment centers run by the world's largest e-commerce ...
[Search domain www.businessinsider.com/r-amazon-workers-strike-in-germany-joinin...] https://www.businessinsider.com/r-amazon-workers-strike-in-germany-joinin...
Amazon faces shipping disaster as pilots go on strike ...
A pilot strike is threatening to ground flights carrying cargo for Amazon. AP Photo/Ben Margot A pilot strike is threatening to ground flights carrying cargo for Amazon during the busy holiday season.
[Search domain www.businessinsider.com/amazon-faces-shipping-disaster-as-pilots-...] https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-faces-shipping-disaster-as-pilots-...
Black Friday: Amazon workers protest warehouse working ...
Amazon Germany told Reuters that 620 employees participated in the strike across two of its warehouses, while the German union Verdi told Business Insider that 1,000 workers were walking out.
[Search domain www.businessinsider.com/black-friday-amazon-workers-protest-poor-...] https://www.businessinsider.com/black-friday-amazon-workers-protest-poor-...
Amazon at center of boycott on Prime Day - Business Insider
Amazon workers in Spain and Poland went on strike on Monday to protest against the conditions at its warehouses. Thousands more are expected to do the same in Germany on Tuesday. "Amazon is a ...
[Search domain www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-day-boycott-protest-2018-7/] https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-day-boycott-protest-2018-7/
(If someone wants to look into the reports of Amazon ordering the police in Spain to terrorize workers and put it in the comments I'd be grateful.)
Here's an eye-popping quote that Jimmy read, cut and pasted from the YouTube transcription:
"Amazon reportedly left police in Spain dumbfounded, by asking them to intervene in a mass warehouse strike and patrol worker productivity.
I'll say that three times..."
Fascism incarnate.
The corporations OWN the police. It's the same all over the world. Just like they did in America during the massive train strikes of the late 1800's, the factory workers strikes at the turn of the century, the sit-down strikes of the 1930's, the Civil Rights boycotts, the anti-Vietnam War protests, the Occupy protests. The Ludlow Massacre, the actual airplane bombing of striking miners in W. Virginia in the 1920's, the bombing of city blocks in Philadelphia in the 1980's, and on and on. Stated plainly, the American government has resorted to siccing the police (and armed forces at times) on behalf of corporations and banks to commit heinous murder and bloodshed upon folks protesting for a better life.
I have a confession to make. I find myself in a moral quandary regarding Amazon. I hate myself every time I carry up yet another box of diapers from the foyer that my partner orders to make my life easier. It's so goddamn difficult at times to avoid these tentacled monopolies. The simple fact that these companies destroy all competition should be the elephant in the room. And should have "Free Market" conservatives (the biggest fraud ever perpetrated, the propaganda of which gullible RW ideologues mindlessly repeat and defend though it is the Orwellian antithesis of what it purports to do) convinced that monopolies are the end result of capitalism in every way, shape and form. They have to be broken up.
So here's my thought for an antidote that should easily get traction from said RW minions too. Let's just use the example of the diapers. That's a commodity of which no family can seriosuly claim to avoid. Like so many other things, including energy, housing, internet service, etc, everyone relies on certain staples to some degree or another. Who in their right mind wouldn't want the government to get into the business of making diapers for cost, a completely non-profit venture (not like the bogus Neoliberal scams)? There aren't too many who would oppose that, would there be?
For my preferences, I wouldn't give a fuck if almost all the stuff I use every single day, from underwear to toilet paper, were made by the gov't. Call me a communist - they had some really good fundamental ideas. And I think if it were framed in the context of such every day usage all the criticism of "that would be communism" ostensibly by propagandized RW-ers would be met with the same reception that Bernie's ideas have been when criticized as "socialism" (i.e. free healthcare, college tuition, breaking up the banks, etc) - that is to say, with overwhelming approval.
Imagine if we had a government actively competing with private business. I'm not saying in all sectors. Only the major ones that everyone relies upon. The cost of many things would go down. And that would also stem the vile tide of oligarchy being entrenched in and ruining our lives.
And how about this massive protest in France? Again, Jimmy Dore is there covering it. Though I did happen to see a short segment on corporate lapdog CNN that my sister was watching over the holiday. But in classic fashion, the well-groomed reporter spoke seemingly from afar (or at a safe distance) and with none of the protesters, which is not what the RT reporter did of which Jimmy covered. Saw CNN at Occupy a few times; but they were there either to set up a predictable ridicule or perfunctory say-nothing hot air so as to avoid being seen as taking a position, god forbid.
France Teaches World How To Protest Properly
I love this. It was a protest against the government raising gas prices. Which Jimmy accurately points out is an austerity measure forced onto working people, while the Rich get socialism.
There were 2000 protest rallies across France! The media there called it "unprecedented," and that for a country well-known for its penchant for protesting. Size wise, France is smaller than Texas. 2000 rallies? Imagine that in Texas. Great report from RT at about 5mins in. Check out the comments from the protesters being interviewed.
And check this out: Many of the protesters showed up in the kind of yellow vests that workers who are helping people would. Made them look official. Bad "optics" for the fascist cops who used all manner of evil crowd control devices, including gassing (at about 9min). I always thought it would have been great if Occupy could have gotten into 3-piece suits and protested. Would have been so symbolically apropos.
Here's one of them, a guy adhering to the theatrical form of protest I also completely dig - more levity, especially in pressurized situations! (Incidentally there's a CNN clip somewhere of me and my friend at Occupy the day after the park was razed by the Fascists, of him wearing a little bday party hat to commemorate OWS's two month anniversary and holding a metal gate over his head).
“Petrol prices never stopped rising. It's the straw that's broken the camel's back.
Macron and his buddies are just like those before him. They are sending things from bad to worse. They ask for our opinion once every five years and then we suffer, we suffer.
We were given a choice between the plague and cholera. We chose the plague.
You see clearly that he's no better than the others. They don't care. They have chauffeurs. They don't pay for petrol.
There are other ways to raise money.
How about trying the rich?”
On a related note to Amazon, pretty good stuff here from the local NY politician who was the first to get out in front of the Amazon travesty.
Once we free young people from #debt peonage, we will unleash their creativity & passions to change the world - probably toward a #GreenRevolution. No wonder the lenders & elites want to keep them in debt for life.
Sign #PeopleOverCorporations #POCAgenda: https://t.co/mmXkDR1Y0q pic.twitter.com/TQWtVfYBQ7
— Ron T. Kim (@rontkim) November 19, 2018
When it comes to fighting corporate greed, it should’ve never been about left vs. right but bottom vs. top. Months before #AmazonHQ2 we called on our states to bust up #Amazon. Still not too late, sign the #PeopleOverCorporation pledge https://t.co/mmXkDRjzp0 pic.twitter.com/3wXL4IOHdd
— Ron T. Kim (@rontkim) November 18, 2018
I don't know of a better recourse to kick off non-violent, peaceful revolution than to support striking Amazon Workers (I don't care if I have to get diapers another way for a while). I know I'd get out and stand with them, especially to assuage my guilt for using their slimy services.
And, I think it's worthwhile to re-frame the conversation to include discussion about how government could get into the business of producing everyday items for cost.
That latter seems to me like it would be an immediate huge winner with the vast majority feeling the economic pinch.
A worldwide Amazon Strike would be a clarion call to workers all over the world, and to people who don't realize how bad monopolies are. That would in turn hopefully start a conversation about governments beginning to providing more goods and services in order to alleviate the economic inequality suffered by the vast majority of inhabitants of this earth.
Comments
These worker strikes perked me up, and "To Our Friends" also.
I'm just looking for some evidence that people are trying. And they are. Question is, when will it fill the Zeitgeist, as we realize we're all in this together? #ShutItDown
First step might be to as a nation stop paying attention to every fucking tweet the Orange Douchebag makes, and instead attack his policies and cronyism.
Greetings, folks. I just finished making the kids some Turkish bread homemade pizza, using a variety of good stuff in the fridge. Mom got a personal pesto one with mushrooms, while the Boy got one with puttanesca sauce and fresh mozzarella. Me and the Girl had some pasta with my Grandma's "gravy" that I made for Thanx (and I had another with sundried tomato and olive pesto). Damn, it's nice to have good ingredients here in Queens.
Now to another glass of red wine (friendly reminder: remember to take a glug of aloe vera gel if you've got acid reflux). Salute!
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Let me fix that,
"The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear"
{Monsters}
- Antonio Gramsci
I've been watching a Lot of the Actual Alternative websites that So Far have kept credible reputations and standards of reporting up. I liken it to a deep ocean tsunami; IN the deep ocean maybe a ripple on the surface, if that. Let that bad boy hit the continental shelf and Step Back!
I think we're rolling toward shoal,water. ThisIsGonnaBeFun!
Edit; yeah, that at didn't work like I planned.
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
From the business insider link
Thousands of Amazon workers across Europe went on strike on Black Friday in protest of the working conditions at warehouses.
Spanish police were "dumbfounded" by Amazon's request, which they categorically rejected, according to El Confidencial.
Amazon denied the allegation, calling the reports "ludicrous suggestions."
Amazon asked police in Spain to intervene in a mass strike at a warehouse on the outskirts of Madrid, according to local reports.
Amazon wanted a police presence at the warehouse to ensure that productivity remained high within the fulfilment center, while workers staged their protest outside, according to Spanish newspaper El Confidencial.
Spanish newspaper El Confidencial reported that Amazon met with police officials after the strike was announced. It wanted local officers "to force employees to go to their respective jobs and ensure their performance was identical to that of a normal working day."
Amazon's request "dumbfounded" police, according to El Confidencial. "The request was categorically rejected by the police, who maintained that controlling labour productivity doesn't fall within its powers," a police source said.
Law enforcement officials reportedly emphasized to Amazon that Spanish law protects workers' right to strike. They told the company that police would be present at the strike but would limit themselves to keeping the peace.
Amazon denied that happened.
Utter bullshit! If Amazon cares for its workers then they would pay them a living wage with full benefits. Bezos who makes $141,000 a minute and $246 million a day can certainly afford to do that. Reports are that working conditions inside their warehouses are so bad that Amazon has ambulances waiting outside to take people to hospitals.
But there's a reason for this
They do this precisely so that people aren't watching what congress is doing behind the scenes. This started during Trump's first 100 days when the GOP were busy revoking every last minute regulation that Obama's progressive side passed on his way out the door. Which was kinda the point. Things like not letting our internet providers sell our personal information to advertisers and other regulations that would have been great if he had done it long before he stopped pretending he was a progressive so that they couldn't have done it.
When teachers first started striking for better pay and working conditions I thought that the best thing to happen was for all teachers and other workers to go out together. This would have brought the country to its knees and gotten the PTBs attention. This is what happened in France when Macron started pushing his austerity policies across the country. People who work on the trains stopped working and boy did that cause major problems for people who lived and vacationed there.
On a side note have people been aware of the protests in France against the increase of gas taxes? People are wearing yellow vests and there have been hundreds of thousands of people in the streets. This weekend they shut down many streets causing huge traffic nightmares. But that also turned people against them and their tactics.
Here's what happened today.
Will Americans ever decide to jump out of their kettle?
Dinner sounds great. Enjoy the wine, Mark.
Just before reading yours,
I read annieli’s recent post here. There seems to be great potential in the numbers of workers, in both the airlines and amazon-like monopolies, to catalyse change.
Cheers Mark and babies!
Be careful what you ask for,
regarding the government making diapers, etc.
I lived in eastern Europe under communism, and helped to destroy it. It was no system for humans. The idea is good, and angels could probably pull it off, but humans are too corrupt and self-centered to ever manage a system like that.
The corruption was so thick and obvious that you could cut it with a knife. Bureaucrats would laugh in your face if you asked them to do their job. Imagine waiting fifteen years for a government issued apartment, only to realize that once you got it, the water pipes and electricity had all been intentionally sabotaged. The same guys who sabotaged your flat would then offer to make it right for a very hefty fee, after hours and under the table. The bribes had to be factored into every transaction, and to afford the bribes, you had to come up with some corruption of your own.
The strikes and all are fine, but government actually controlling the means of production is ludicrous, and any who would support that severely under-estimate the amount of corruption that governments typically engage in.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Thanks for the response and an opportunity to debate.
I don't doubt any of what you say about the corruption you experienced in the Eastern Bloc. It's been pretty well documented here for years and years.
I have a good amount of friends from that part of the world too, though most of them are younger and were in grade school during the fall of the Berlin Wall. But another guy about my age who is an architect who grew up in Serbia I think, spoke about going to college for free and getting a flat down by the seaside, all paid for by the government. I can think of a Russian girl roommate who translated a brief phone conversation with her grandmother in which she admitted she longed for the days of communism. Paul Robeson stood so tall, to powerfully and eloquently sing its praises, and paid dearly for it by being hounded and hunted by the fascist thugs of the FBI and CIA. Cuba has one of the greatest healthcare systems in the world and is a leader in organic farming and green energy (as is Russia).
Thing is we never hear the other side of communism. Of course even saying that, to American ears (though not at C99), puts one on the defensive right away. It must be said first that all economic and governing systems are subject to corruption, at varying degrees. One could very easily make the argument that capitalism has negated democracy entirely. It's beyond a shadow of a doubt that America is a complete fascist oligarchy that does a really good job pretending it isn't. But the fact remains - it is. No amount of Exceptionalism and Enlightenment propaganda and myth-making can cover that up. The courts, politicians, police, corporations, government agencies are all corrupt. It's all out in the open now, and has been for a long time to anyone who has really been paying attention.
The Communist experiments in Russia, China and Cuba were each different. One thing that can't be ignored is that the system of communism saved the world from Nazi domination. Fact is without the planned economy of Russia enabling them to push back on the monster war machine of the Nazis, not even the joint forces of the US and UK would have been enough to defeat them. No Western country was equipped to churn out the artillery and war machines at the rate they were, nor give of their sons and daughters (20 million died), which were the deciding factors. Russia won the Second World War because it had an economy that could produce large scale in every way. However, each of those communist experiments suffered under despotic totalitarianism that tore away at the utopianism.
In principle communism is a beautifully high-minded ideal that speaks to a universal brotherhood in which every human being is dignified with food, clothing and shelter. The very etymology of the word is all contains the cornerstone of society: community, to commune, communicate, common man, etc. America has invested perhaps billions of dollars in smearing and fear-mongering it to its citizens relentlessly for a century now.
That said, I don't know how much I'd personally like living in a society that I imagine to be (and have seen relics of in person) that drab kind of, pre-planned housing, commerce and infrastructure. At the same time, as I mentioned, I'd very much like to have the government supply many if not all of the basic necessities to modern living. Which ones to supply is a debate to have. But I know even conservative folks who think a lot more sectors perhaps should not be in private hands.
Socialism works. It need not be the full state ownership of most everything by the State as Communism is. But I'm all for taking production for lots of sectors out of the hands of private industry and into the governments. Capitalism created the middleman, and all of its subcontractors. Graft and extortion exist wherever the judiciary can be bought and sold.
It lightens the load for people, by stemming poverty, sickness, making healthcare and higher education a right and not a privilege, which reduces cost of living. It was pretty much agreed upon across Europe following a second brutal continental bloodshed spree that governments had better begin quickly to ensure to their fatigued and shocked citizens the prominence of social programs that took care of everyone. Sure, friends from those countries do say you could be waiting for an operation for some time while priority patients take precedence. But the fact remains no one lives in the shadow of being foreclosed upon for a medial emergency. Add to that, we currently live in a country in which college students are holding ONE TRILLION DOLLARS of student debt. These things are totally unconscionable.
As far as bureaucracies go, the "free market" and private ownership of all sectors in a capitalist society results in just a different form of it. Private enterprise has expertly finagled a position in which they're protected from the public by archaic fine print contracts that are compulsory if you want what they're offering. And because capitalism always manifests into monopoly and concentrated wealth that power is used to further loosen the laws to their benefit and be able to win games of attrition in which they throw endless money at any case. As MLK said, "Justice delayed in justice denied." Point is there's no real recourse anymore in the American justice system. It's a rich man's domain. They clutter up the court dockets with bogus, frivolous cases in order to mar the institution further.
You can find landlords all over this country too, and especially in NYC, who engage in the same kind of graft, bribery and lawlessness. Money buys yourself out of accountability, whether in Bucharest or Boston.
Personally for me I'd rather not have to look around for everyday items such as toilet paper, trash bags, plastic cups, napkins, etc. If there was a local gov't store that sold this crap at a fraction of the price I'd buy most of it there. Plus, many of these things are owned by pure scumbags like the Koch Bros. Just look into the holdings of the richest people in the country and they own all of these industries. What better bonus from government ownership could there be than putting these bastards out of business?
I also look at the way socialist governments handle the beginnings and endings of life. In the Netherlands when a couple has a baby they are visited by home helpers from the State, who come bearing a care package box with all the necessities you'll need. As a recent father I know how disorienting the whole thing can be (and still is). It's the most basic fact of life - we're all born. And the onus on those people charged with caring and nurturing that baby can be quite overwhelming at times. To have someone come to your house (if you'd like) and help with the cleaning, organizing, transition would be such a welcomed relief. Yet we don't do anything of the sort. Child care, paid leave for a mother, and some for the father? Doesn't exist in a the cutthroat American capitalist society. Not only that, we make all those things infinitely more difficult and very expensive. It's a Profit>People system here, and I'm sick of it.
Why have we not figured this stuff out? Same goes for funeral expenses. Everyone's gonna die. It's traumatic enough for those who have to fly by the seat of their pants having to get all that person's affairs in order, account for the whole dizzying burial, and hidden costs involved. Why do we still not have a society in which all of this stuff is figured out in order to ease the burden - especially when it's another of many things that everyone will experience?
What if we could marshal the world into a communistic-minded unity to corral all industry in the world to act swiftly to turn back climate change, by developing wind and solar power, organic farming and more efficient city planning?
If it's communism to want such things, then I'll take it.
My point is, I'm less interested in semantics than in rational, empathetic and compassionate action. What then are we to do?
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
The 99% of the world do need to coordinate
The billionaires see no national borders they just see things to buy and rule and play with. We need to not be played with the nationalism shit and we need to coordinate.
Beware the bullshit factories.
The intro of "To Our Friends" addresses this:
Then the truth about what we're up against, and need to make clear to ourselves:
Here's the complete chapter headings:
Dedicated,
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Imagine if Americans woke up all at once
During my walk this morning hill Air Force base was doing something with a jet engine. I think it revs engines for some reason and it's usually just noticeable. This happens now and then, but today it was much more noisier than usual. The noise was so loud it drowned out what I was listening to through my headphones. I wondered if they even cared how it affected us, but then thought "it's the military and they can do whatever they want and we don't matter."
This is when I thought about why we let just a few thousand people dictate what we have to put up with? Imagine if enough of us said "no more!" The oligarchy is over now and we're going to make this country treat us all fairly. Maybe it's a pipe dream, but then again why do we just let them dictate our existence?
As I'm writing this my windows are rattling as well as the walls of my house. The noise is horrible and what makes it worse is I'm getting a migraine. Yay! Pretty colors and zig zagging lines.