Amazon Sites Targeted by Action Against “Black Friday”

Activists from several organizations, including Extinction Rebellion, have blocked Amazon sites in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands to speak out against excessive consumption.

Anti-Black Friday activists targeted Amazon sites in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe during a series of actions on Friday to condemn the overconsumption they said was encouraged by the US giant of online sales. In London, between 20 and 30 members of the association performed “Labor Behind the Label” (“the work behind the label”) in front of the company’s headquarters in the country, chanting “Amazon, Amazon, we are not robots”. Happened. And calling for an “American firm” to be charged, said an AFP journalist.

“Stop breaking the planet”, “Smile, it’s Black Friday” or even “Stop stealing workers’ wages”, may we read on the signs put up by the protesters. One of them wore a mask depicting Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

“Black Friday is a giant party to buy things” while a “climate emergency” requires the opposite to “curb our consumption”, condemning Anna Bryer, an activist for the association, noting that Amazon must The situation benefits. “We’ve allowed big companies like Amazon to violate workers’ rights for a very long time,” she said.

13 UK Sites

Amazon, which launched its promotional campaign on Thursday, kicking off the Christmas shopping season, is focusing most of the attacks on promotional offers offered by several merchants on Friday. “Make Amazon Pay”, an international coalition of forty organizations including Greenpeace and Oxfam, accuses the Seattle group of putting profit before the well-being of its employees and accuses employees willing to demonstrate against their working conditions or go on strike on Friday. supports.

Activists of the environmental movement Extinction Rebellion have organized a blockade of Amazon distribution centers to protest the “obsession with overconsumption” symbolized by them by “Black Friday”. The 13 British sites targeted by the organization early in the morning represent more than half of the American group’s deliveries in the country, according to them.

In the Scottish center of Dunfermline, around 20 activists were blocking vehicles from entering and some were blocking them from leaving, as the Press Association reported, with police arresting 13 activists at three blockades at the end of the day Was. An Extinction Rebellion (XR) explained in a statement, “This action is intended to expose the crimes of the Amazon, while also exemplifying a larger economic system designed to make us buy the things we want.” Which we don’t need.”

“long working day”

The environmental movement said it was also targeting two sites in Germany and the Netherlands, where activists specifically blocked access to an Amazon depot at Amsterdam airport. “Amazon employees face short-term contracts, long working days, low pay and unscheduled toilet breaks,” condemned the group’s Dutch arm on Twitter. When contacted by AFP, Amazon said it was working to use its network in a way to minimize consequences for its customers.

“We take our responsibilities seriously, including our commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2040,” a spokesperson for the group often criticized for its social and financial practices. He said he would provide “a safe and modern working environment” and support “thousands of small businesses that sell” on his platform. In the United Kingdom, a union representing independent retailers (BIRA) estimates that 85% of these small merchants will boycott “Black Friday”.