“The reality of the United States is that it is a savage capitalism where we have 1% who are living a life of surreal wealth, while there are some 70 million people who earn a pittance that does not even give them enough to eat, and then After working 40 hours, they have to do 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 – in the Amazon warehouse in Garner (North Carolina): “We have 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 – are collecting signatures from workers who They leave and enter the warehouse to launch the union in this Amazon plant where they estimate there are about 5,000 employees.
“The process is complex in the United States to set up a union in a company,” explains Starn: “First you have to collect the signatures of 30% of the workers, and the problem is that there is fear, and people think that Amazon is going to find out. that they have signed and he is going to fire them.”
Starn also relates other obstacles that the company puts in the wheels: “Amazon does not want to give us the total number of workers, so we do not know exactly what 30% would be. But if you manage to get this 30% of signatures, the National Labor Relations Board will launch a consultation among the entire workforce, and if we achieve 51%, with that we would have a union, which would give us the right to negotiate with Amazon.” .
Of the 110 warehouses that Amazon has in the US, only one has union representation, in New York. If Garner workers achieved their goal, the RDU1 warehouse would be the second in the entire country. “Amazon’s market value is $2 trillion, Jeff Bezos is the second richest man in the world with over $200 billion,” Starn argues, “and it’s really unfair to have that much money while his packagers are here earning a pittance in a very hard job: we are the ones who pack and load the trucks.”
“The work is hard, it is what social scientists would call taylorism digital because your supervisor is the algorithm and the computer warns you because you have to make 180 packages an 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 are on your feet all day. And when a cardboard box from Amazon arrives at home, few of us think about the workers and how that package arrived so cheap, so quickly. But it depends on the workmanship, creativity and strength of us, human beings. And that has 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,” explains Starn: “If Trump comes back, he is going to do what he did in the past, and that is to put in an organization supposedly in charge of defending labor rights. from the workers to a bunch of right-wing lawyers who are totally against unions. In that sense, it is better that Harris wins, but the Democrats have not cared much about the most needy strata in this society, they are even afraid to say the word poor or minimum wage: they are always talking about fighting for the middle class, but There are 70 million Americans who are working hard without being able to pay rent. It is a capitalism perhaps with a slightly friendlier face, but we are not going to see many changes.”
Key status for November 5
North Carolina is one of the seven key states because the differences between Harris and Trump are very close. Historically, it voted almost exclusively Democratic from 1876 to 1964, at which time the extension of civil rights to African Americans was politically exploited by southern conservatives, who managed to take over the state ever since, except in 2008, when Barack Obama he 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 did so again, by 1.3 points, over Joe Biden in 2020.
At this time, the polls predict a new victory for Trump by 1.2 points: we are reaching the final days with the elections very close.
At a polling station where you can vote early, the Lake Lynn Community Center in Raleigh (North Carolina), several dozen people are waiting in line. Samantha Heller and Mika Murphy, from the DSA, distribute information about a municipal candidate, and a district candidate. “They are not candidates endorsed 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 who pay rent and are not owners.”
The DSA supports some Democratic candidates in this election, just as the Democratic Party supports some of its candidates, like Ocasio-Cortez, for example. However, they are critical of Harris’s position on Israel. “We here are more focused on achieving representation for our local candidates and strengthening the organization,” explains Murphy: “We are concerned about real estate speculation, the housing problem, big developers and Duke University paying taxes for their properties [se cifran en 50 millones al año] that does not pay because it is considered a non-profit center, for example.”
Along with Heller and Murphy there 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 says. A family of Ecuadorian migrants who have just voted defends the former president: “Let’s hope the Republicans win. We are Republicans, by principles, by economy and because Trump has more experience and is stronger. We like it a lot,” says David, the son. Alex, an African American, bets on the 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 consequences of Hurricane Helene influence the election results,” says Heller, who is 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 decrease because many people may be more focused on meeting their immediate needs and helping their community clean up and rebuild than on spending time figuring out if their polling station is still open and how they will get there.” .
Heller explains that North Carolina “has established resources to help voters affected by Helene, but it may not be a priority for them due to the scope of the disaster and cleanup efforts.”
And how can it affect electorally? “The misinformation spread by some state leaders about the federal government’s response is really worrying,” Heller continues, “but I imagine that the same people who buy into these conspiracies would have already voted for far-right candidates. But I continue to fear that this type of polarization could deepen distrust in the government in the same way that occurred with the COVID-19 pandemic and decrease democratic participation, while increasing support for the far right. Groups like the DSA now have the opportunity to provide aid to affected communities and draw attention to how capitalism fuels these climate change-induced disasters.”
North Carolina is precisely where 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 in the United States in a series of messages published a decade ago in a pornographic website and that they were revealed by CNN.
Many of his comments were sexual in nature, although there were also messages in which he described himself as a “black Nazi” and advocated the restoration of slavery. Although the real reason for the controversy is that their opinions in this sexual forum diverge from their political positions on key issues for the elections on November 5, such as abortion or the rights of trans people.
Mark Robinson, who has gone so far as to call Martin Luther King a “fucking communist” on the forum, wrote in another comment: “I’m not in the Ku Kux Klan. They don’t let black people in. “If I was in the KKK they would have called me Martin Lucifer Koon!”
Robinson has been the protagonist of several controversies for controversial statements and enjoys the firm support of Trump, who has nicknamed him on several occasions the “Martin Luther King on steroids” due to his skin color and weight. According to polls, Robinson will lose to the Democratic candidate, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein.
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