The case for expropriation
Amazon halts
construction in Seattle to protest tax hike
By Eric London
4 May 2018
On Tuesday, Amazon halted construction of a new 17-story office
building in downtown Seattle, Washington to protest a proposed city council tax
that would fund housing for the homeless. Amazon also threatened to sublease
office space it is presently using in another downtown building.
“I can confirm that pending the outcome of the head tax vote by
City Council, Amazon has paused all construction planning on our Block 18
project in downtown Seattle and is evaluating options to sub-lease all space in
our recently leased [Rainier] Square building,” Amazon vice president Drew
Herdener said in a statement.
Seattle’s Democratic Party-dominated local government
immediately promised Amazon it would negotiate to lessen the impact of any
proposed tax. Mayor Jenny Durkan proposed new negotiations between Amazon, big
business, and the trade unions. During the 2017 mayoral elections, a committee
supporting Durkan received a $350,000 donation from Amazon.
“I’m deeply concerned about the impact this decision will have
on a large range of jobs—from our building trades, to restaurant workers, to
nurses, manufacturing jobs and tech workers,” Durkan said Wednesday.
Amazon’s protest and the sycophantic response of the city
officials show how massive corporations dictate the policies of the government
and block even the mildest reforms.
The city council
proposal would tax large businesses in Seattle by a total of $0.26 per worker
hour for those employed in Seattle (i.e. if an Amazon employee in Seattle makes
$50/hour, Amazon will pay $50.26/hr, with $0.26 going to the city). This would
generate $75 million a year to fund the construction of 1,780 affordable
housing units within five years, as well as a modest expansion of social
programs for the homeless. If enacted at a city council meeting on May 15, the
tax would cost Amazon $20 million per year—roughly one sixth of what Amazon CEO
Jeff Bezos makes each day.
Seattle has the third largest homeless population in the United
States, at 11,643 in a 2017 count, behind Los Angeles and New York. The city
has done little to expand shelter capacity, and as a result the total of
unsheltered homeless increased by 21 percent from 2016 to 2017. Over the same
period, housing prices have risen 19 percent in downtown Seattle as workers are
priced out of the area or made homeless.
In April, Amazon
announced that its profits, which come from the hyper-exploitation of its
workforce, doubled in the first quarter of 2018 to $1.6 billion. According to a
company disclosure statement released in April, the median annual salary of an
Amazon employee is $28,446. Since this includes professional employees, the
actual conditions for Amazon’s nearly 600,000 warehouse workers across the
world are far worse. In India, Amazon workers told the International Amazon Workers Voice they
make as little as $230 per month.
In the United
States, Amazon wages aren’t enough for some workers to feed themselves. Large
minorities of Amazon workers rely on food stamps, including up to a third of
total Amazon workers in Arizona. Meanwhile, Business Journals reported in 2017 that
state and local governments have given Amazon $1.2 billion in tax cuts and
subsidies in recent years. In the last year, dozens of cities have promised
billions more in giveaways if Amazon locates its second headquarters in their
city.
The National Council for Occupational Health and Safety recently
reported that Amazon was one of the most dangerous places to work in the US.
Seven Amazon workers have been killed on the job since 2013 alone. Workers have
been run over by trucks, crushed by forklifts, had heart attacks on the job,
have been dragged apart by conveyer belts, and pinned under pallet loaders.
Less than a year
ago, the World Socialist
Web Site launched the International
Amazon Workers Voice to provide a platform for Amazon workers
to learn the truth about the company and to organize themselves independently
of the company and pro-corporate unions that only want workers’ dues money.
The IAWV calls on Amazon to be placed under the democratic
control of Amazon workers themselves. Amazon’s international logistics chains
must be placed at the service of the working class to meet social need and not
generate profit. The wealth of the company and its leaders—gained through
exploitation—should be expropriated and redistributed to meet human need.
All over the world, workers are told that there is “no money” to
meet the needs of the population. Amazon’s market capitalization is presently
$757.9 billion. Here are some of the social problems that could be addressed
with this money:
· Cost to
provide housing for all 634,000 homeless people in the US: $20 billion
· Cost to
provide food to 862 million malnourished people worldwide: $30 billion
· Cost to cut in
half the total number of people without access to clean water: $11 billion
· Cost to
provide an education to every child that doesn’t receive one : $26 billion
· Cost to
provide free maternal and prenatal care to every mother in the developing
world: $13 billion
· Cost to
prevent 4 million malaria deaths via treatment and vaccination: $6 billion
· Cost to
replace the entire water infrastructure of Flint with a safe and clean
system: $1.5 billion
· Cost to give
immediate $20,000 bonuses to all 3.1 million teachers in the US: $62 billion
· Cost to
provide $500 million in added education spending to each state in the US: $25 billion
· Cost to double
annual food stamp benefits for all 44 million recipients: $71 billion
· Cost to
dramatically reduce 50,000 opioid deaths by providing rehabilitation and
prevention programs: $45
billion
· Cost to reduce
health care premiums by 10 percent for 250 million US adults: $167 billion
· Cost to reduce
student loan payments by 10 percent for 44 million people in US: $148 billion
Total cost: $625.5 billion.
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