The Cost of Free Shipping

**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.

Ellen Reese is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Riverside, and author ofThey Sat Cutback, We Say Fightback! and co-editor ofWages of Empire.

List of Figures and Tables
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Preface: Amazon and the Future of Work in the Global Economy - Ruth Milkman
Introduction: Amazon Capitalism - Jake Alimahomed-Wilson, Juliann Allison, and Ellen Reese
PART I - AMAZONS RISE IN GLOBAL POWER
1. Amazon: Context, Structure, and Vulnerability - Kim Moody
2. Power Accrues to the Powerful: Amazons Market Share, Customer Surveillance, and Internet Dominance - Dana M. Williams
3. Transnational Amazon: Labor Exploitation and the Rise of E-Commerce in South Asia - Jeb Sprague and Sreerekha Sathi
PART II - EXPLOITATION AND RESISTANCE ACROSS AMAZONS GLOBAL EMPIRE
4. The Amazonification of Logistics: E-Commerce, Labor, and Exploitation in the Last Mile - Jake Alimahomed-Wilson
5. Automation and the Surveillance-Driven Warehouse in Inland Southern California - Jason Struna and Ellen Reese
6. Gender, Race, and Amazon Warehouse Labor in the United States - Ellen Reese
7. A New Industrial Working Class? Challenges in Disrupting Amazons Fulfillment Process in Germany - Nantina Vgontzas
8. A Struggle for Bodies and Souls: Amazon Management and Union Strategies in France and Italy - Francesco Massimo
PART III - COMMUNITIES CONFRONTING THE E-COMMERCE GIANT
9. Company Town: What Happens to a City and its Democracy when Amazon Dominates? - Katie Wilson
10. Lessons from New York Citys Struggle Against Amazon HQ2 in Long Island City - Steve Lang and Filip Stabrowski
11. What Happens When Amazon Comes to Town? Environmental Impacts, Local Economies, and Resistance in Inland Southern California - Juliann Emmons Allison
12. Worker and Community Organizing to Challenge Amazons Algorithmic Threat - Sheheryar Kaoosji
PART IV - STRUGGLING TO WIN AGAINST AMAZON
13. Amazon Strikes in Europe: Seven Years of Industrial Action, Challenges, and Strategies - Jörn Boewe and Johannes Schulten
14. Bursting the Bubble: The Emerging Tech Worker Movement at Amazon - Spencer Cox
15. The CEO Has No Clothes: Worker Leadership and Amazons Failures During COVID-19 - Dania Rajendra
16. Think Big: Organizing a Successful Amazon Workers Movement in the United States by Combining the Strengths of the Left and Organized Labor - Peter Olney and Rand Wilson
17. Amazonians United! An Interview with DCH1 (Chicago) Amazonians United - DCH1 Amazonians United
Conclusion: Resisting Amazon Capitalism - Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and Ellen Reese
About the Authors
Index