“The reality of the United States is that it is wild capitalism with 1% living a life of surreal wealth, while there are about 70 million people earning a pittance that doesn’t even give them not enough to eat, and then after working 40 hours, they have to work more hours at Doordash [comida a domicilio]Uber or McDonalds. Orin Starn is an anthropologist and researcher at Duke University, as well as one of the promoters of the union CAUSE – Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity & Empowerment – at the Amazon warehouse in Garner (North Carolina): “We We need to change that. if we want to be a society with a little justice.
Starn, along with other colleagues from the union and the DSA – Democratic Socialists of America, a party that occasionally cooperates in elections with the Democratic Party, as in the case of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, for example – is collecting signatures from departing workers . and go into the warehouse to start the union at this Amazon factory where they estimate there are about 5,000 employees.
“The process is complex in the United States to create a union in a company,” explains Starn: “You first have to collect the signatures of 30% of the workers, and the problem is that there is fear, and people think Amazon is going to find out they signed and it’s going to fire them.
Starn also recounts other obstacles the company is putting in place: “Amazon doesn’t want to give us the total number of workers, so we don’t know exactly what 30% would be. But if we manage to obtain these 30% of signatures, the National Labor Relations Board will launch a consultation with all staff, and if we reach 51%, with that we would have a union, which would give us the right to negotiate with Amazon.”
Of Amazon’s 110 warehouses in the United States, only one has union representation, in New York. If Garner workers achieve their goal, the RDU1 warehouse would be the second largest in the nation. “Amazon’s market value is $2 trillion, Jeff Bezos is the second richest man in the world with over $200 billion,” Starn says, “and it’s really unfair to have so much “money while its packers earn a pittance here in very hard work.” : we are the ones who pack and load the trucks.
“The work is hard, that’s what social scientists would call Taylorism digital because your supervisor is the algorithm and the computer warns you because you have to do 180 packages per hour, and if you go slower, they rush you to go faster. And there isn’t even a chair on Amazon, only in the dining room. You’re on your feet all day. And when a box from Amazon arrives at our doorstep, few of us think about the workers and how that package arrived so quickly and so cheaply. But it depends on our know-how, our creativity and our strength, human beings. And that needs to be recognized,” he says.
Can the elections be an opportunity to change the situation? “The president is the person who appoints the director of the National Labor Relations Board,” Starn explains: “If Trump comes back, he will do what he has done in the past, which is put in place a organization supposed to be in charge. of the defense of labor rights, from workers to a group of right-wing lawyers totally opposed to unions. In this sense, it is better that Harris wins, but the Democrats do not care much about the most needy layers of this society, they are even afraid to say the word poor or minimum wage: they always talk about the fight for the middle class . , but there are 70 million Americans who work hard and can’t pay their rent. It’s capitalism perhaps with a slightly friendlier face, but we won’t see many changes.”
November 5 Key Status
North Carolina is one of seven key states because the differences between Harris and Trump are very narrow. Historically, it voted almost exclusively Democratic from 1876 to 1964, when the expansion of civil rights to African Americans was politically exploited by Southern conservatives, who have since succeeded in taking control of the state, except in 2008, when Barack Obama defeated John. McCain by about 14,000 votes (49.7% to 49.4%). From there, in 2012, Mitt Romney beat Obama by two points; Donald Trump won by 3.6 points over Hillary Clinton in 2016 and won again, by 1.3 points, against Joe Biden in 2020.
Currently, polls predict another victory for Trump by 1.2 points: we are reaching the final days with elections very close.
At a polling station where advance voting is possible, the Lake Lynn Community Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, several dozen people are waiting in line. DSA’s Samantha Heller and Mike Murphy distribute information on a city candidate and a district candidate. “These are not candidates supported by the Democratic Party,” Heller explains to the people in line, “but they are the only ones who do not accept money from real estate developers; In fact, they are the only ones paying rent and are not owners. »
The DSA is supporting some Democratic candidates in this election, just as the Democratic Party is supporting some of its candidates, like Ocasio-Cortez for example. However, they are critical of Harris’ position on Israel. “Here we are more focused on representing our local candidates and strengthening the organization,” says Murphy: “We are concerned about real estate speculation, the housing problem, big real estate developers and Duke University who pay taxes for their properties. [se cifran en 50 millones al año] it doesn’t pay because it’s considered a non-profit center, for example.
Alongside Heller and Murphy are several representatives of the rest of the candidates, such as a woman who distributes Republican propaganda and prefers not to be recorded. “We pray that Trump wins,” he said. A family of Ecuadorian migrants who have just voted defend the former president: “Let’s hope the Republicans win. We are Republicans, by principle, by economy and because Trump has more experience and is stronger. We love him very much,” says David, the son. Alex, an African American, bets on Democrats while waiting in line: “Harris is in a better position to be president. “He knows what this country needs to move forward.”
The impact of Hurricane Helene
“I’m curious to see if the aftermath of Hurricane Helene influences the election results,” says Heller, a researcher at the Global Food Research Program at UNC-Chapel Hill: “The devastation is so severe in many areas that “ I wonder if turnout will decline because many people may be more focused on meeting their immediate needs and helping their community clean up and rebuild than spending time determining whether their office vote is still open and how they will achieve it.
Heller explains that North Carolina “has resources in place to help constituents affected by Helene, but this may not be a priority for them due to the scale of the disaster and cleanup efforts.” .
And what impact could this have on the electoral level? “The misinformation being spread by some state leaders about the federal government’s response is truly disturbing,” Heller continues, “but I imagine the same people buying into these conspiracies would have already voted for far-right candidates. But I continue to worry that this type of polarization will worsen distrust of government, in the same way that has happened with the COVID-19 pandemic, and decrease democratic participation, while increasing the support for the far right. Groups like the DSA now have the opportunity to provide aid to affected communities and call attention to how capitalism is fueling these climate change-induced disasters.
It is precisely in North Carolina that the Republican candidate for governor, the African-American Mark Robinson, defined himself as a “black Nazi” and expressed his support for the return of slavery to the United States in a series of messages published ten years ago in a newspaper. pornographic site and that they were revealed by CNN.
Many of his comments were sexual in nature, although there were also posts in which he described himself as a “black Nazi” and advocated the restoration of slavery. But the real reason for the controversy is that their opinions in this sexual forum diverge from their political positions on key issues for the November 5 elections, such as abortion or the rights of trans people.
Mark Robinson, who went so far as to call Martin Luther King a “fucking communist” on the forum, wrote in another comment: “I’m not part of the Ku Kux Klan. They don’t let black people in. “If I was a member of the KKK, they would have called me Martin Lucifer Koon!”
Robinson has been the subject of several controversies for controversial statements and enjoys the strong support of Trump, who has repeatedly nicknamed him the “Martin Luther King on steroids” due to his skin color and weight. According to polls, Robinson would lose to the Democratic candidate, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein.
