It’s been a bad few weeks for Amazon and their executives.

First, on Black Friday a global network of civil society organisations, trade unions and parliamentarians mounted global protests under the banner of a campaign to Make Amazon Pay – calling on Amazon to pay their fair share of taxes, but also be accountable for decent working conditions and respect for communities. Remarkably, Amazon achieved a sales income of €44bn in Europe in 2020 but paid no corporation tax reigniting calls for an urgent end to Amazon’s tax evasion.
 
Then, last Friday, a tornado hit an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois totally destroying the building, and, in the process killing six workers. However, questions are being raised about whether Amazon had adequate storm shelter for staff, whether the warnings to workers to move to sheltered areas were issued in time, and whether the shifts should have gone ahead that evening at all, given the warnings of severe weather forecasted. Family members of the Edwardsville workers have accused Amazon of failing to take the tornado warnings seriously and “… choosing the productivity of their company over their employees.” Employees at the so-called “Fulfilment Centre” have claimed that Amazon refused to cancel the shift and threatened to fire workers if they sought shelter from the impending storm rather than complete their deliveries. The US Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) is investigating whether there were any violations of health and safety laws that led to unnecessary deaths.
 
Amazon is well known for its questionable labour practices and anti-unionisation stance that have resulted in poor working conditions and worker exploitation.
 
Amazon Web Services has also been in some hot water over its technology development in violation of privacy and human rights. Its voice recognition apps have been accused of eavesdropping on client conversations to enable surveillance for massive information collection and intrusive digital advertising. Two months ago, the Open Society Foundations criticised Amazon’s anti-union surveillance as “… as a threat to democracy …” since Amazon’s surveillance of workers, consumers and detractors “… has built a massive infrastructure for community surveillance by police and other government agencies.” This follows the campaign led by the American Civil Liberties Union against Amazon’s facial recognition software, described in their letter, co-signed with 61 other civil society organisations, as “A grave threat to customers and communities across the country ... primed for abuse in the hands of governments.”

Earlier this year, Amazon was forced by a public outcry to shut down accounts and infrastructure linked to Israeli spyware firm NSO Group, amid the international scandal over its Pegasus software. The manipulation of digital platforms to curtail public participation, and to limit citizens from exercising their democratic rights is a hallmark of repressive regimes and of those who have power wanting to curtail any counter-movements. Yet Amazon is actively courting business from the US defense, intelligence and national security sectors for its products.

Amazon’s environmental record has also come under increasing scrutiny this year, particularly for locating polluting business activities in “communities of colour”. Moreover, as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, Amazon’s business has massively increased, but so too have its carbon emissions and its contribution to generating waste, both in terms of plastic waste and by destroying millions of unused or unsold products, including e-waste. While Jeff Bezos pledged US$2 billion at the COP 26 to the fight against climate change, Amazon is one of the biggest corporate polluters in the world thanks to its need to move products around the world requiring massive shipping-related smoke emissions.
 
And Jeff Bezos’ private preoccupation with building more rockets for space travel has led him to apply to infill part of a Florida wetland in order to construct a test site for his rockets. Here in Cape Town, Amazon seemingly can’t be bothered about the impact of the River Club redevelopment on the sensitive wetlands and riverine Valley of the Liesbeek. Bezos, who accumulated enough additional wealth in the first nine months of the pandemic to pay every Amazon employee a $105,000 bonus and still be as rich as he was before the pandemic, has neither improved his workers income, nor spent that money on “green” policies to make his company sustainable. As a result, Amazon is “… still missing the mark on environmental sustainability and “[there’s more] ‘pretending’ than going really green.”
 

Amazon is a company obsessed with its image and routinely touts the ambitious goals of its Climate Pledge. If it serious about ensuring that people and communities are treated with fundamental dignity and respect, it should rethink locating its HQ on a sensitive floodplain sacred to indigenous people in South Africa. Otherwise, it will forever be associated with an act of egregious harm to the intangible heritage of indigenous peoples and to the reduction of climate change resilience in our country.

We are in court on the 19th to 21st January 2022 to challenge the decisions that allowed this redevelopment of the River Club to proceed. We need your financial support to pursue this court challenge. Please consider assisting us with the legal fees. Please consider supporting us at our fundraising site.

You can also visit our website and follow the Liesbeek Action Campaign on twitter: @LiesbeekAction.

Now is the time to Make the Liesbeek Matter!