Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Through the fire of fighting Amazon Workers…
BAR Poet-in-Residence Raymond Nat Turner
20 Apr 2022
🖨️ Print Article
Through the fire of fighting Amazon Workers…
Chris Smalls, a leader of the effort to organize at one of Amazon’s Staten Island distribution centers, after the votes were tallied in New York City on April 1, 2022. (PHOTO: JASON SZENES/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK)

Through the fire of fighting Amazon Workers…

The fire this time: 55 gallon flames leaping reddish,
Gathering up young workers ‘round warmth. Thawing
spirits’ frost and Star-bucking trends…on Staten Island…
Drum, beating, burning, gathering young workers ‘round
Douglass dictum: “Agitate, agitate, agitate!”
Drum, beating, burning, gathering young workers ‘round
Douglass spinoff: “Organize, organize, organize!”
Young workers, “not smart or articulate;” Gathering ‘round
fingers of fire; Teaching themselves alchemy of class
struggle…

The fire this time: Lower/deeper… smoldering resurrection of
Toiler People. From slave ship schematics birthing plantation
concentration camp layouts—State of the art Exploitation—
Despotic, robotic speedup! Birthing skyscraper high turnover—
Blip on the continuum of Enclosures; Taylor System; and Henry
Ford’s Assembly line; and parasitic capitalism’s assorted
aliases…

The fire this time: White heat/hammer steeling new Pull
man Car Porter/Fighting Miner, ILWU/ Chicago Teacher
Lineage: “Too Big To Fail!” Lifting red/white/blue blind
folds revealing who’s Essential. Exposing ‘job creators’
surviving by sucking diamond beads of sweat; Devouring
back pain, blistered feet, cramps from best hours/days/years
of lives; From rumbling bellies scrambling to pay rent with
checks numerically marked, “Insufficient Funds!” From pre
mature ancestors; From paying ‘Pinkerton’ thugs $3,200
each, Daily, in a union town to keep one workplace non
-union…

The fire this time: Hear it crackle. Feel its Bern. Smell stale hot air
huffed and puffed from high fructose corn syrup politicians and
‘Labor’ lackeys of multibillionaire/wannabe slave masters of
space…

The fire this time: Feel its Ferguson-Arab Spring-George Floyd Summer
Occupy-Strike-tober street heat thawing spirits…

The fire this time: Feel the real “Yes, we can!” real “Change you can
Believe in!” in the fiery existential work of…saving our damn
Planet…

© 2022. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Former forklift driver/warehouse worker/janitor, Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet;
BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC.
You can Vote for his work at: GoFundMe  PayPal: paypal.me/towncrierRNT

Amazon workers
Amazon

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
When the Revolution Comes
17 June 2026
Chris Smalls and his best friend, Derrick Palmer, led the first successful drive to unionize an Amazon warehouse.
Collage saying "we are the union"
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Southern Human Rights Organizing and the Amazon Workers' Struggle
20 December 2023
Jennifer Bates is an organizer with the BAmazon Union, the effort to organize Amazon war
Joe Biden and the Democrats Have Nothing to Offer Organized Labor, the ALU Included
Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
Joe Biden and the Democrats Have Nothing to Offer Organized Labor, the ALU Included
11 May 2022
The Biden administration pays lip service to the trade union movement but has done nothing to break the Democratic Party’s long tradition of be
Laboring Beyond Black Representation
Too Black
Laboring Beyond Black Representation
06 April 2022
The allure of Black representation in high places can be very dangerous.
Bessemer Alabama Amazon Workers Continue Struggle to Unionize
Saladin Muhammad
Bessemer Alabama Amazon Workers Continue Struggle to Unionize
23 March 2022
The mostly Black labor force at an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama will have a second opportunity to vote for unionization.
The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Has a New Corporate Megadonor
Donald Shaw
The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Has a New Corporate Megadonor
09 February 2022
Amazon donated $1.7 million to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation last year as it faced allegations of illegal anti-union work.
How Amazon Exploited a Weakened America
Sarah Leonard
How Amazon Exploited a Weakened America
15 July 2021
Amazon will not stop squeezing every drop from workers until those workers have more power.
Bessemer Amazon Union Drive: An Interview with the Lead Organizer
Luis Feliz Leon and Joshua Brewer
Bessemer Amazon Union Drive: An Interview with the Lead Organizer
21 April 2021
“We feel like we got a heck of a start, and we’re proud of it, and we’re proud of the workers that are willing to continue that fight.”
The Union Battle at Amazon Is Far from Over
Alec MacGillis
The Union Battle at Amazon Is Far from Over
21 April 2021
Amazon is increasingly defining what entry-level labor now looks like in America.

More Stories


  • In the Spirit of Mandela
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Peoples' Senate Organizes the Community and Fights for Kamau Sadiki's Freedom
    16 Feb 2024
    We're joined by Kevin Steele and Raven, two organizers of the Spirit of Mandela Coalition and About the People. We discuss their work and the "People's Senate Giveback & Genocide Convention…
  • Congress staffers rallying for a ceasefire
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    "Democracies" Deny the Popular Will While Suppressing Protest and Dissent
    14 Feb 2024
    The nations that brag the most about "democracy" routinely ignore the will of their people. Support for Israel's war crimes in Gaza is but one example of this phenomenon.
  • Gaza destruction
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Fascist South Africa and Zionist “Israel”—Hitler’s Heirs, Victor Lungelo Mayekiso, 1969
    14 Feb 2024
    South African Pan-Africanist Victor Lungelo carefully maps the links between “Hitler’s Heirs:” Fascist South Africa and Zionist “Israel.”
  • Closeup of a child working in cobalt mine
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    China in Congo
    14 Feb 2024
    Ann Garrison speaks to Maurice Carney about the role of China in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s mining industry.
  • China Congo
    Dee Knight
    Disappointing “rush to judgment” on China’s Role in the Congo
    14 Feb 2024
    Dee Knight’s comments on a review by Ann Garrison in Black Agenda Report, of Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us