The Rise of Amazon

On November 27, the New York Times reported that in the first 10 months of 2020, the online sales giant Amazon had hired 427,300 workers, bringing the number of employees to 1.2 million. From about 350,000 in 2017, this growth is impressive, taking the company to third place in the world after Walmart, which employs about 2.2 million workers, and China National Petroleum with 1.3 million. These numbers should be enough to refute those who claim that the working class no longer exists. Amazon is listed on Nasdaq, the New York technology stock exchange, with a capitalization of $1.3 billion. In the list of GDPs of the various states it would be in thirteenth place, close to Spain, Australia, Russia, South Korea, and Canada. Yes, the stock market is just a big lottery for the rich, a house of cards that the spark of the crisis of capitalism will reduce to ashes, but here it is only to give a sense of proportion.

Such a giant inevitably raises tides, which sweep the world economy up in various emotions, resentments, and ideologies.

The last of these is represented by the French “petition” #NoëlSansAmazon (“Christmas without Amazon”), in which consumers are asked not to use Jeff Bezos’ company for the purchase of gifts, favoring neighborhood shops instead. The list of signatories is long, from the “socialist” mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, to various intellectuals of the French “left” and personalities from the world of culture and politics. Among the signatories there is also José Bové, the leader of the French “anti‑globalization” movement who became famous twenty years ago for his fight against McDonald’s.

The populists on the other side of the Alps could not miss the opportunity: the reactionary Matteo Salvini posted a survey on Facebook and Twitter where he asks followers if it is “right” to boycott Amazon. “I buy gifts at home, rather than with a click”, he said. Maurizio Gasparri of Forza Italia agrees with the idea “totally”. The ex‑fascist Giorgia Meloni called for “a Black Friday for our entrepreneurs, let’s buy Italian”.

But even in Italy the “left” are on the same wavelength, with too many adherents to list here. Aid to the petty bourgeoisie, in fact, holds appeal across the political spectrum.

The economic laws inherent in the capitalist system of bring the middle classes to ruin, as predicted by Marxism. If we accept capitalism we must accept this phenomenon, which cannot be separated from this mode of production. The centralization of production, and consequently of distribution, do not occur by chance or by the greed of individuals, but are the products of the laws of competition and cost reduction.

If it is true that in certain phases of the economic cycle, and in certain countries, strong growth has allowed the proliferation of the petty bourgeoisie, crises, such as the one that began a few decades ago, unleash unbridled competition that allow bigger companies to suffocate the small ones.

The need for capital to accelerate value creation has pushed the economy towards ever larger and more effective logistics and distribution organizations. Amazon is an excellent example of this process, and proof of the Marxist description of capitalism.

But, removed from any sentimentality and idealism, for Marxism the development of the productive forces is an objective fact, which it observes and describes. Its effects, even its tragic consequences, are ultimately positive because they create the conditions for the proletarian revolution. The socialization of the productive forces, which increases everyday under capitalism, cannot be contained by the old relations of production, and pushes for new forms.

This transition took place through a continuous historical process. The future communist society will also be able to take advantage of the technological progress that has taken place under capitalism, which will no longer used to infinitely increase the accumulation of profit, but to favor the satisfaction of the needs of the human species in a more full, satisfactory, beautiful, complete, and complex way.

This transition will not be automatic – it requires a political transition, the revolutionary seizure of power and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Today the technologies that Amazon uses are applied only for the unbridled search for profit. But in them the future society is already ready, at hand. The development of communication systems such as the Internet, of logistics in distribution as in Amazon, the increased use of robotics in production and distribution processes, already prefigure a communist society. Even if today, in the hands of the bourgeoisie, they are nothing but infernal tools that crush the international working class.

We communists therefore do not get lost in the petty-bourgeois slogan of “boycotting Amazon”, in a defense, however desperate, of small business. Instead we aim to defend the living and working conditions of those who work in that company. Precarious contracts, crazy rhythms, perennial blackmail are typical of the hellish world of Amazon. Communists are turning to those workers to organize their defense, which is the same as the workers at Walmart and China Petroleum, as well as the world working class.

Because communists know that there will come a day when the proletariat will find itself having to face this system more and more combatively just to improve its living and working conditions. This process, under the leadership of its class party, pushes the entire capitalist system towards its overthrow.