Train nostalgia and cultural meanings

On Amazon, labour & logistics, and trains.

Benjamin Fong, of ASU's Center for Work and Democracy, as well as an editor at Damage and co-author of the substack On The Seams, talks to Alex and George about organising workers in locations of corporate vulnerability.

We also preview the forthcoming print issue of Damage, Trains, by discussing modernity and its avatars, and development and de-development in Brazil.

• Why target Amazon above all else?

• What are the "seams" and why are they important?

• Can labour still "go after the big targets"? Do these still exist given the dispersion of production and distribution?

• How much public appetite is there for blockages at pain points?

Links:

• On the Seams, Substack

• The Labor Movement Must Go All In on Organizing Amazon, Benjamin Y Fong, Jacobin

• Organizing Logistics Chokepoints: Hitting Them Where It Hurts, Benjamin Y Fong, New Labor Forum

• The Apotheosis of Point of Sale Data, Benjamin Y Fong, Phenomenal World