Description
Book Synopsis'Amazon Capitalism' grows ever stronger. This book provides the answers on how to fight the company's terrifying omnipotence.
Trade Review'Drawing on deep and wide-ranging scholarship, this compelling collection provides heartening evidence of push-back by communities and organised labour against Amazon. Essential reading.'
-- Kirsty Newsome, Professor of Employment Relations, Sheffield University
A must-read for scholars and activists alike. This stellar collection of essays documents exploitation and resistance at Amazon across the globe.
-- Carolina Bank Muñoz, Tow Professor of Sociology, City University of New York
'This important and timely book on Amazon's global empire is a must read for those who are concerned about economic inequality, massive public surveillance, and the threat to worker rights and democracy around the world'
-- Kent Wong, Director, UCLA Labor Center
'This brilliant compilation of essays shows us how, like Walmart before it, Amazon has risen to global dominance through shrewd use of technology, data systems and supply chains, and also by skirting and breaking laws'
-- Professor Stephanie Luce, School of Labor and Urban Studies, CUNY
'More than a book about Amazon. It is about the transition in global capitalism and its implications not only for Amazon's workforce, but on the global working class'
-- Bill Fletcher, Jr., executive editor of globalafricanworker.com
'An excellent book … it is clearly written and contains a stack of information about Amazon’s practices and the resistance they are generating'
-- Socialist Book Reviews
'Those hoping to build more power for workers have much to learn from this book’s examination of organizing within Amazon'
-- Labor Notes
'Offers important insights into Amazon’s insidious nature, the challenges of organizing, and also some glimmers of organizing success at the local and national levels'
-- Jonathan Rosenblum, Jacobin
'Absolutely essential reading for every driver, warehouse associate, and tech worker at Amazon'
-- Anonymous Amazon worker, Stansbury Forum
Table of ContentsList of Figures and Tables
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Preface: Amazon and the Future of Work in the Global Economy - Ruth Milkman
Introduction: Amazon Capitalism - Jake Alimahomed-Wilson, Juliann Allison, and Ellen Reese
PART I - AMAZON’S RISE IN GLOBAL POWER
1. Amazon: Context, Structure, and Vulnerability - Kim Moody
2. Power Accrues to the Powerful: Amazon’s Market Share, Customer Surveillance, and Internet Dominance - Dana M. Williams
3. Transnational Amazon: Labor Exploitation and the Rise of E-Commerce in South Asia - Jeb Sprague and Sreerekha Sathi
PART II - EXPLOITATION AND RESISTANCE ACROSS AMAZON’S GLOBAL EMPIRE
4. The Amazonification of Logistics: E-Commerce, Labor, and Exploitation in the Last Mile - Jake Alimahomed-Wilson
5. Automation and the Surveillance-Driven Warehouse in Inland Southern California - Jason Struna and Ellen Reese
6. Gender, Race, and Amazon Warehouse Labor in the United States - Ellen Reese
7. A New Industrial Working Class? Challenges in Disrupting Amazon’s Fulfillment Process in Germany - Nantina Vgontzas
8. A Struggle for Bodies and Souls: Amazon Management and Union Strategies in France and Italy - Francesco Massimo
PART III - COMMUNITIES CONFRONTING THE E-COMMERCE GIANT
9. Company Town: What Happens to a City and its Democracy when Amazon Dominates? - Katie Wilson
10. Lessons from New York City’s Struggle Against Amazon HQ2 in Long Island City - Steve Lang and Filip Stabrowski
11. What Happens When Amazon Comes to Town? Environmental Impacts, Local Economies, and Resistance in Inland Southern California - Juliann Emmons Allison
12. Worker and Community Organizing to Challenge Amazon’s Algorithmic Threat - Sheheryar Kaoosji
PART IV - STRUGGLING TO WIN AGAINST AMAZON
13. Amazon Strikes in Europe: Seven Years of Industrial Action, Challenges, and Strategies - Jörn Boewe and Johannes Schulten
14. Bursting the Bubble: The Emerging Tech Worker Movement at Amazon - Spencer Cox
15. The CEO Has No Clothes: Worker Leadership and Amazon’s Failures During COVID-19 - Dania Rajendra
16. Think Big: Organizing a Successful Amazon Workers’ Movement in the United States by Combining the Strengths of the Left and Organized Labor - Peter Olney and Rand Wilson
17. Amazonians United! An Interview with DCH1 (Chicago) Amazonians United - DCH1 Amazonians United
Conclusion: Resisting Amazon Capitalism - Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and Ellen Reese
About the Authors
Index
