delivering democracy

Why We’re Taking on Amazon

Amazon’s business model is a symptom of a much larger problem: corporations have rigged politics and the economy so they can hoard wealth and power at everyone else’s expense. When corporations like Amazon have too much power, we lose control over our livelihoods, we lose the ability to make decisions about our own communities, and we lose control over our government.

If we work together, we can:

• Make sure our government serves the people, not corporate lobbyists. It’s we who should decide what is best for us— not monopoly corporations or their lobbyists. We can rewrite the rules to make corporations and billionaires pay their fair share, enforce strong laws against monopoly abuse, level the playing field with workers and small businesses, and make sure technology is developed in a way that enhances our lives.
• End big business extraction from our local communities. We can stop Amazon from getting corporate handouts that drain our public resources and erode public services. We can stop them from building warehouses and data centers without meeting worker and environmental standards. And, we can stop them from undercutting our local businesses.
• Protect the planet – and prioritize energy and water for people, not corporations. Amazon’s AI and cloud computing technologies are largely powered by gas, oil, and coal – accelerating the climate crisis while driving up household utility bills. Meanwhile, its trucking and shipping operations expose nearby residents to dangerous levels of pollution.
• Build worker power. Warehouse workers, drivers, and tech workers are fighting for safer conditions, better pay, human rights, and climate protections. Through collective action and workplace organizing, workers are claiming a voice at work and a say in how Amazon operates in our communities.
• Stop Amazon’s growing surveillance empire. We can block Amazon from using technology to track us at home and work. We can stop it from mining our personal data and manipulating our behavior for profit. And we can halt a growing military-tech industrial complex that is already complicit in human rights abuses at home and abroad.
• Break up monopolies like Amazon that wield too much power. Amazon has grown too big and too strong. It is so big that it can bully small businesses, customers, workers, our elected representatives, and local governments – all while helping itself to tax money that should go to schools, housing, transit, and other public essentials we all need.