As Amazon prepares to close operations in Quebec, laying off up to 3,500 workers in response to union organizing, Labour for Palestine endorses the “Ici, on boycott Amazon” campaign (boycottamazon.ca) and stands in solidarity with all affected workers.
The struggle for workers’ rights is intrinsically linked to the fight for Palestinian liberation.
Amazon has long been identified as a critical pressure target by the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). The Nimbus Project – an initiative by the Israeli government and its military – is a joint contract signed in May 2021 with Amazon Web Services and Google executives worth $1.2 billion that develops cloud computing infrastructure for the Israeli government and military. This project enables the Israeli army to execute lethal AI weapons programs like Lavender, crucial to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Furthermore, Amazon has long been collaborating with Israeli banks listed by the UN as companies linked to illegal Israeli settlements, and sells goods in these settlements. Amazon is helping “to make Israeli apartheid more efficient, more violent, and even deadlier for Palestinians.”
Meanwhile, in retaliation against growing labour militancy at the recently unionized DXT-4 warehouse in Laval, Amazon recently announced its shocking decision to close all 7 of its warehouses in Quebec, sending a brutal anti-union message of intimidation to its employees worldwide.
Labour for Palestine, in solidarity with the Palestinian Trade Union call for BDS, backs the Boycott Amazon campaign calls for:
1) A consumer boycott: We call on all workers to stop purchasing from Amazon and to use alternatives wherever possible, close your Amazon accounts, order products directly from companies, and end Prime Video subscriptions immediately.
2) An institutional boycott: We call on all workers to ensure that their companies and organizations stop purchasing goods and services from Amazon. We call on all workers to seek an organizational endorsement of the Boycott Amazon campaign within your respective unions and places of employment which should include a resolution to discontinue all institutional services provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS).
3) Solidarity on the picket line: We call on our membership to show up and support Boycott Amazon’s pamphleting, postering, and picket line activities in solidarity with affected workers.
4) Mobilization: We call on all workers to add your voice to the No Tech for Apartheid Campaign and support Google and Amazon workers who condemn the Nimbus Project.
5) Political education: We invite all workers and organizers to study, promote and support the successful labour organizing strategies of Amazon warehouse and logistics workers. We call on all Amazon workers to continue to expose the role of their employer in the ongoing genocide. Furthermore, we invite all supporters of the Boycott Amazon campaign to educate themselves on the demands of the Palestinian-led BDS movement and the importance of labour solidarity with the Palestinian people and workers.
It is only by standing in solidarity with the organized worker’s movement that we will be able to win democratic control over our workplaces and safe and dignified working conditions for all. By supporting the key demands of BDS, organized workers have the power to put an end to this genocide.
LabourForPalestine.com
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