{"id":46994,"date":"2025-12-19T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?p=46994"},"modified":"2025-12-22T09:34:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T09:34:58","slug":"amazon-and-the-cost-of-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/economics-unions-work\/corporations\/amazon-and-the-cost-of-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon and the cost of Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">We are growing accustomed to the annual timetable of Autumnal shopping inducements. Halloween spending starts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/ce9d3kpdp4do\">weeks before<\/a> 31 October. When it\u2019s done, the orange and black plastic bunting is swiftly replaced with Christmas decorations. In 2025, festive advertising began <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/e255e726-57fb-4628-a3da-5023651bbba0\">earlier<\/a> than ever before.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/bitesize\/articles\/zf2hjfr\">2010s<\/a>, the shopping run into Christmas has been turbo-charged by the Black Friday sales blitz \u2013 an \u2018event\u2019 tied to and imported from the US-specific Thanksgiving holiday period. Black Friday Week now runs until Cyber Monday, merging with the highly-saturated festive season through to the January sales.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The success of Amazon \u2013 the company responsible for importing these shopping \u2018moments\u2019 \u2013 is testament to its corporate, lobbying and marketing might. Behind the wall-to-wall Amazon adverts calling on us to \u2018unwrap the smiles\u2019, the costs of its cut-throat business model are severe. From eroding worker\u2019s rights, to facilitating war and ecological crises, the corporation\u2019s monopoly power is re-defining our notions of exploitation and extractivism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Streets paved with ads<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Amazon is the <a href=\"https:\/\/adage.com\/article\/datacenter\/amazon-ad-and-promotion-spend-topped-21-billion-highest-ever-any-marketer\/2602071\/\">world\u2019s biggest<\/a> advertiser, spending $21 billion globally in 2024. In Britain, this amounts to <a href=\"https:\/\/adage.com\/article\/datacenter\/amazon-ad-and-promotion-spend-topped-21-billion-highest-ever-any-marketer\/2602071\/\">\u00a330 million<\/a> on Out of Home marketing and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketingweek.com\/amazon-68m-tv-advertising\/\">\u00a368 million<\/a> in TV advertising, flooding our streets and houses with surround sound of calls to buy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Environmental campaigners can have a difficult time attempting to shift Christmas from corrosive overconsumption towards less commercially-oriented acts of social connection or mid-winter celebration. Even for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lup.lub.lu.se\/luur\/download?func=downloadFile&amp;recordOId=9021112&amp;fileOId=9021124\">ecologically-concerned<\/a>, deeply-embedded societal norms of family relationships, tradition and peer pressure compel demonstrations of love and affection through material gifting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The relatively new phenomenon of Black Friday, however, is easily distinguishable as naked runaway consumerism for the sake of big business profits. The Black Friday window produces around <a href=\"https:\/\/collectandrecycle.com\/black-friday-waste-statistics\/\">1.5 million tonnes<\/a> of waste in the UK, of which 80 per cent ends up in landfill, incinerated or poorly recycled \u2013\u00a0adding to the 3 million tonnes produced over the Christmas period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center rp-full-width rp-quote has-grey-color has-pale-1-background-color has-text-color has-background has-antonio-font-family\" style=\"padding-top:2%;padding-right:2%;padding-bottom:2%;padding-left:2%;font-size:clamp(1.743rem, 1.743rem + ((1vw - 0.2rem) * 1.571), 3rem);\">Black Friday produces 1.5 million tonnes of waste in the UK, of which 80 per cent ends up in landfill, incinerated or poorly recycled<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It doesn\u2019t matter that most Black Friday \u2018deals\u2019 are actually <a href=\"https:\/\/www.itv.com\/news\/2025-11-25\/most-black-friday-deals-cheaper-or-the-same-price-at-other-times-study-finds\">cheaper or the same price<\/a> at other times of year; Amazon has perfected the art of tech-calibrated addictive shopping. The government, bowing to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sustainweb.org\/news\/may25-tv-online-advertising-restrictions-delayed\/\">advertising industry pressure<\/a>, is for its part reluctant to take measures that could be seen as \u2018anti-growth\u2019. When challenged to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.badverts.org\/latest\/mps-say-fossil-fuel-marketing-is-a-co-ordinated-strategy-to-delay-structural-change\">restrict<\/a> advertising that harmed the government\u2019s own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/groups\/circular-economy-taskforce\">Circular Economy<\/a> goals, for example, Energy Minister Michael Shanks bullishly replied that Labour were \u2018not in the business of banning things\u2019.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A sprawling, deadly empire<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Amazon has built its empire by ruthlessly prioritising one-click consumer convenience and suppressing the pay and conditions of its workforce \u2013 now numbered at 1.5 million direct employees worldwide, with more in its supply chain. Injuries to its warehouse workers \u2013&nbsp;already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/clyjm507462o\">commonplace<\/a> \u2013 increase further under the \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrgrapevine.com\/content\/article\/2025-11-28-amazon-managers-speak-out-over-severe-impact-of-black-friday-christmas-on-their-mental-health\">severe pressure<\/a>\u2019 to meet Black Friday demand.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The corporation is also a notorious union buster, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/economics-unions-work\/work-trade-unions\/how-amazon-workers-can-organise-globally\/\">closing<\/a> seven warehouse sites across Quebec in response to a single site successfully unionising in regional capital, Montreal. In Britain, the GMB union accused Amazon of using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c8vd72zrpr1o\">underhand tactics<\/a> to narrowly defeat a historic vote on union recognition at its 3000 employee site in Coventry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beyond online retail, Amazon has expanded into delivery, entertainment, logistics, fashion and groceries. Amazon Web Services now account for around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2025\/10\/30\/aws-q3-2025-earnings-report-amazon-cloud.html\">two thirds<\/a> of the company\u2019s operating profits and over <a href=\"https:\/\/datacentremagazine.com\/hyperscale\/aws-remains-330bn-cloud-market-leader-driven-by-ai-growth\">30 per cent<\/a> of all global web cloud platforms. Its disturbing surveillance and AI technologies are being woven into the structures of repression, including use in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/2018\/10\/22\/139639\/amazon-is-the-invisible-backbone-behind-ices-immigration-crackdown\/\">ICE raids on migrants<\/a> in the US and the Israeli military <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/amazon-google-project-nimbus-israel-idf\/\">targeting of civilians in Gaza<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center rp-full-width rp-quote has-grey-color has-pale-1-background-color has-text-color has-background has-antonio-font-family\" style=\"padding-top:2%;padding-right:2%;padding-bottom:2%;padding-left:2%;font-size:clamp(1.743rem, 1.743rem + ((1vw - 0.2rem) * 1.571), 3rem);\">Amazon surveillance and AI technologies are being used in ICE raids on migrants in the US and by the Israeli military in Gaza<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Millions of people are now tied to Amazon \u2013 whether we like it or not. Its October 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/next\/2025\/10\/24\/amazon-explains-exactly-why-its-cloud-server-outage-took-down-much-of-the-internet\">web server<\/a> outage, for example, directly affected 2,000 companies including Signal Messenger and HMRC. The company has been steadily increasing its monopolistic power, with the US Federal Trade Commission alleging in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/news-events\/news\/press-releases\/2023\/09\/ftc-sues-amazon-illegally-maintaining-monopoly-power\">2023 lawsuit<\/a> that the company extracts nearly half of every dollar of revenue made by its sellers. For economist Yannis Varoufakis, this unprecedented level of power marks a new era of \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguin.co.uk\/books\/451795\/technofeudalism-by-varoufakis-yanis\/9781529926095\">technofeudalism<\/a>\u2019, where traditional capitalist interests are subservient to Big Tech.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Amazon has relied upon the public services of transport, education, healthcare and technological infrastructure to grow its empire, it has also shown a world-beating ability to dodge paying the taxes that fund them. Thanks in part to the UK government\u2019s \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2024\/sep\/26\/amazon-uk-pays-corporation-tax-for-first-time-since-2020\">super deduction\u2019<\/a> initiative \u2013 a tax break for corporations claimed to \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/guidance\/super-deduction\">promote growth<\/a>\u2019 \u2013&nbsp;Amazon paid no corporation tax at all 2020-2023. In 2024 alone, its corporation tax avoidance cost the UK exchequer an estimated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ethicalconsumer.org\/ethical-campaigns-boycotts\/amazon-uks-substantial-tax-avoidance\">\u00a3575 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Levers of justice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Individual consumer choices such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ethicalconsumer.org\/ethicalcampaigns\/boycott-amazon\">boycotting<\/a> Amazon, buying second hand at Christmas or gifting experiences rather than physical items are all worthwhile consciousness-raising exercises, which are often an important first step in social change.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the scale of devastation of the overproduction and overconsumption of the Black Friday and Christmas period, and the techno-authoritarian direction of travel from Big Tech\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/tech\/tech-news\/mapping-trumps-connections-techs-right-wing-brotherhood-rcna180693\">alliance<\/a> with the far right, requires a systemic response. We need an approach that harnesses the consciousness raised by individual choices towards meaningful collective action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Make Amazon Pay is one such response. The global coalition of trade unionists, tax justice campaigners and environmentalists has organised strikes, protests and walkouts every Black Friday since 2020. In 2025, actions took place in 38 countries under the <a href=\"https:\/\/progressive.international\/wire\/2025-11-28-pi-briefing-no-44-how-we-make-amazon-pay\/en\">Make Amazon Pay<\/a> banner.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In India, tens of thousands of workers rallied across 20 cities, demanding improved pay and protection from lethal heatwaves \u2013 conditions that effectively turn Amazon warehouses into furnaces. Workers\u2019 anger is fueled by the fact that, twelve years on from the Rana Plaza factory collapse, Amazon still <a href=\"https:\/\/progressive.international\/wire\/2025-11-27-its-been-12-years-since-rana-plaza-why-is-amazon-still-refusing-to-protect-bangladeshi-garment-workers\/en\">refuses to sign<\/a> the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group rp-full-width has-pale-1-background-color has-background has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignfull has-media-on-the-right is-stacked-on-mobile is-vertically-aligned-center is-image-fill-element\"><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p>\u2018Subvertising\u2019 activists graffitied advert sites in Leipzig, Germany in support of the Make Amazon Pay coalition<br><br>CREDIT: SUBVERTISERS INTERNATIONAL<\/p>\n<\/div><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Leipzig-Make-Amazon-Pay-subvertising-ZAP-Games-2025-photo-credit-Subvertisers-International.jpg\" alt=\"An advert for Amazon \u2013 in a bus stop in front of an Amazon building \u2013 has been graffitied to send solidarity to workers \" class=\"wp-image-46996 size-full\" style=\"object-position:76% 44%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Leipzig-Make-Amazon-Pay-subvertising-ZAP-Games-2025-photo-credit-Subvertisers-International.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Leipzig-Make-Amazon-Pay-subvertising-ZAP-Games-2025-photo-credit-Subvertisers-International-620x450.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Leipzig-Make-Amazon-Pay-subvertising-ZAP-Games-2025-photo-credit-Subvertisers-International-310x225.jpg 310w, https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Leipzig-Make-Amazon-Pay-subvertising-ZAP-Games-2025-photo-credit-Subvertisers-International-768x558.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In Germany, Amazon saw its largest strike in company history on Black Friday 2025, as thousands of warehouse workers in nine locations formed picket lines. Anti-advertising groups&nbsp; united across Europe with their own intervention the <a href=\"https:\/\/subvertisers-international.net\/zap-games\/\">\u2018ZAP Games\u2019<\/a> \u2013 for <em>Zone Anti-Publicit\u00e9<\/em> \u2013 two weeks of creative actions against the outdoor advertising industry that has filled our streets with intrusive digital billboards. Groups staged creative interventions across 19 cities \u2013 interrupting advertising infrastructure as part of wider \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/adfreecities.org.uk\/2025\/12\/unboxing-black-friday-ads-the-true-cost-of-total-control\/\">ad-free city\u2019<\/a> campaigns to reclaim public space altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the mountains of waste from fast fashion and discarded electronic goods, governments remain unquestioningly wedded to retail sector success. The potential of the Make Amazon Pay coalition is its muscular ability to halt business-as-usual at production sites around the world and to intervene in the circulation of capital and profit accumulation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking to the future, the discourse around consumerism must differentiate between the legitimate need to lift people\u2019s material conditions and the harmful consequences on our wallets, wellbeing and environment of never-ending rounds of shopping. As we prepare to enjoy Christmas despite the consumerism blitz, we can find inspiration from the coalitions of groups that are building movement power, year-on-year, in the name of human dignity and a liveable planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amazon\u2019s Black Friday-January Sales consumerism juggernaut is uniting campaigners. Robbie Gillett charts the corporation\u2019s varied crimes \u2013 and explains the necessary response<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":46995,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[620,2535,295],"tags":[3168],"class_list":["post-46994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corporations","category-environmental-justice","category-technology","tag-robbie-gillett"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Amazon and the cost of Christmas - Red Pepper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Amazon\u2019s Black Friday-January Sales juggernaut of consumerism is uniting campaigners against the corporation&#039;s varied crimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/economics-unions-work\/corporations\/amazon-and-the-cost-of-christmas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amazon and the cost of Christmas - 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