**Winner of the UALE Book Award 2021**

Amazon is the most powerful corporation on the planet and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, has become the richest person in history, and one of the few people to profit from a global pandemic. Its dominance has reshaped the global economy itself: we live in the age of 'Amazon Capitalism'.

'One-click' instant consumerism and its immense variety of products has made Amazon a worldwide household name, with over 60% of US households subscribing to Amazon Prime. In turn, these subscribers are surveilled by the corporation. Amazon is also one of the world's largest logistics companies, resulting in weakened unions and lowered labor standards. The company has also become the largest provider of cloud-computing services and home surveillance systems, not to mention the ubiquitous Alexa.

With cutting-edge analyses, this book looks at the many dark facets of the corporation, including automation, surveillance, tech work, workers' struggles, algorithmic challenges, the disruption of local democracy and much more. The Cost of Free Shipping shows how Amazon represents a fundamental shift in global capitalism that we should name, interrogate and be primed to resist.

About the Author

Jake Alimahomed-Wilson is Professor of Sociology at California State University, Long Beach. He is the author of Solidarity Forever? Race, Gender, and Unionism in the Ports of Southern California (Lexington Books, 2016), and the editor of Choke Points (Pluto, 2018).

Reviews

'Drawing on deep and wide-ranging scholarship, this compelling collection provides heartening evidence of push-back by communities and organised labour against Amazon. Essential reading.'

-- Kirsty Newsome, Professor of Employment Relations, Sheffield University

A must-read for scholars and activists alike. This stellar collection of essays documents exploitation and resistance at Amazon across the globe.

-- Carolina Bank Munoz, Tow Professor of Sociology, City University of New York

'This important and timely book on Amazon's global empire is a must read for those who are concerned about economic inequality, massive public surveillance, and the threat to worker rights and democracy around the world'

-- Kent Wong, Director, UCLA Labor Center

'This brilliant compilation of essays shows us how, like Walmart before it, Amazon has risen to global dominance through shrewd use of technology, data systems and supply chains, and also by skirting and breaking laws'

-- Professor Stephanie Luce, School of Labor and Urban Studies, CUNY

'More than a book about Amazon. It is about the transition in global capitalism and its implications not only for Amazon's workforce, but on the global working class'

-- Bill Fletcher, Jr., executive editor of globalafricanworker.com

'An excellent book ... it is clearly written and contains a stack of information about Amazon's practices and the resistance they are generating'

-- Socialist Book Reviews

'Those hoping to build more power for workers have much to learn from this book's examination of organizing within Amazon'

-- Labor Notes

'Offers important insights into Amazon's insidious nature, the challenges of organizing, and also some glimmers of organizing success at the local and national levels'

-- Jonathan Rosenblum, Jacobin

'Absolutely essential reading for every driver, warehouse associate, and tech worker at Amazon'

-- Anonymous Amazon worker, Stansbury Forum



Book Information
ISBN 9780745341477
Author Jake Alimahomed-Wilson
Format Hardback
Page Count 320
Imprint Pluto Press
Publisher Pluto Press
Weight(grams) 600g