Chris Smalls, activist and Amazon Labor Union founder, and other activists protested the Met Gala, which was sponsored by Amazon's Jeff Bezos this year. Police attacked and arrested Smalls. Here's why they're really mad.
Smalls and other organizers were there to expose the sneaky, underlying power of the capitalist labor and wage system, which prioritizes profit over people. Amazon has refused to negotiate a contract with the union for years. Smalls compares the company to slavery. In his former department, he was literally called a ‘picker.’ Meanwhile, Bezos spent millions on the gala, yet in previous years, the company paid zero federal taxes despite earning billions. As Smalls was being tackled for protesting the Bezos-backed event, celebrities were posing for cameras.
Before the gala, video interviews from Amazon workers were projected onto the side of Bezos's $120 million NYC penthouse. One video featured a 72-year-old Black woman, warehouse worker Mary Hill, who shared that most workers live paycheck-to-paycheck. "If it weren't for every associate in every Amazon facility, he wouldn't have all those zeros behind his name." The system ensures that billionaires like Bezos get to profit in perpetuity from exploiting workers who struggle to survive day to day.
Activist groups placed hundreds of bottles of urine inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art to demonstrate the recurring complaints by Amazon workers who, under intense working conditions, often have to skip bathroom breaks and pee in bottles. Ads plastered around the city read: "The Bezos Met Gala: Brought to You by the Company that Powers ICE."
The system wants us to be silent and get back to producing so corporations can keep getting rich. We must refuse. “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.” ― Zora Neale Hurston