Amazon: There Will Be No Justice – There is Just Us!

Yes to Bessemer Amazon Union – No to Service Unionism

Word on the street has it, a win at Bessemer Amazon will be a new start for the labor movement in the USA. We hope this is true and it happens. But a century and a half of working class experience tells us certain conditions need to be met for the union to win.

Workers! Don’t Give Up Your Power – Strikes and other Work Actions

We would say a “win” can only occur if the union members at Bessemer have direct control of their union and retain their freedom to stop production. The union’s real power comes from the membership’s ability to slow or stop production.

Striking – as a union, outside a union, or by wildcatting against a sellout regime union – won COVID protections in 2020. When workers stopped striking and looked to bourgeois elections to serve “justice,” the bosses started rolling back workplace protections, with fatal results.

Amazon workers cannot afford to limit their struggles. Their fight does not stop at a single facility. It is not restricted to a single city, region, or country. It is not happening only in warehouses. Nor is it limited only to Amazon. Other warehouse workers, delivery drivers, port workers, airline pilots, retail workers – the whole logistics sector – are in the same struggle against employers who want to condemn them to poverty. To fight back, all of these workers need to act together, without any limitations.

Turn Solidarity Actions into Direct Actions

Workers can be a major power in society – if they are united. Unionization at any Amazon facility, like the one in Bessemer, Alabama, is an important step towards turning that potential power into real class action. But it is only the first step. The struggle does not end with one unionization campaign, one facility, or even one company. It does not stop at any national borders. It is the struggle of the international working class for its own liberation, to which Amazon workers are now making a great contribution. To succeed, they need a union operated by and for the workers alone, one that is uncompromising in its fight for their immediate interests. In short, Amazon workers need a class union.

Build the Class Union

In a class union, the members exercise power collectively, as workers in a common struggle. There is no place for the tyranny of self-appointed leaders and “organizers” – whether they are bureaucrats from the regime unions, Democratic Party hacks, or careerists from the various “leftist” NGOs. Once they think they have the workers under their control, they will happily collaborate with the bosses. The fight against the bosses includes the fight against these collaborators.

Internationalize The Struggle – Make Common Cause with Amazon Workers In Canada, Germany, Italy, UK

The unionization campaigns at Amazon facilities in the United States are part of an international struggle taking place at the company. Amazon workers in Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy have staged successful actions of their own. Amazon workers in the United States should form relationships with their fellow workers in other countries. This will allow them to learn from each other’s experiences in their common struggle. More importantly, it will lay the foundations for unified actions across national borders. Amazon is an international company, so the struggle of Amazon workers must be international as well.