Christian Smalls is the leader of the Amazon Labour Union who stood up to these exploitative establishment globalist interests. In this episode, Christian talks about why unions are so difficult to form in America, and why it's so important that they form them in other countries like Canada and the UK. He also talks about his views on the Biden administration and why they should be more like the one in New York City that stood up for ordinary Americans in the face of corporate greed and oppression. Stay Free with Russell Brand! Remember, there's an episode every single day to educate and elevate our consciousness together. Stay Free, and enjoy the episode. You'll get a detailed breakdown of current topics that the mainstream media should be covering, but if they are covering them, they're amplifying establishment messages and not telling you the truth. Once a week, we bring you in-depth conversations with guests like Jordan Peterson, RFK Jr., Sam Harris, Veena Shiva, Vandana Shiva, Gabor Mate, and many more. We'll be delivering a podcast every day, 7 days, 7-days-a-week, every singleday, to deliver a podcast that elevates our consciousness and elevates consciousness. If you're ready to elevate your consciousness together, stay Free, stay free! - Russell Brand and enjoy this episode of Stay Free! . - Waking Wonderings (featuring: . . . , , , . . , and & Thank you, Russell Brand. - Thank you for listening to this episode! ! Stay free, :) - Stay Free. (R. Brand, R.J., R.K. Jr., Sr. & R. , R.R. . , and R. M. ( ) R. K. ? , Sam Harris? And R. McKinnon, Sr. & Sam Harris ( ) - R. R. J., Jr., Jr. & Sr. ? ? ( ) . ( ) Thank you! , Thank you so much for being a friend of the movement! ? . . ? . ? ? , ? , R R. & Gabor M. ? ? ? ? & , V. M.? Thanks for listening? , J. & S. ? . ? .
00:00:00.000Hello there you Awakening Wonders on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you download your podcasts.
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00:00:55.000Ordinary working people from across the globe were subjugated and exploited.
00:01:00.000Notable among the profiteers was the Amazon Corporation.
00:01:03.000We're seeing big tech behemoths emerge across the globe, subjecting ordinary people to the kind of tyrannical power not experienced since the age of Caesar.
00:01:13.000But similarly, there was an uprising of opposition, as there always will be.
00:01:18.000Christian Smalls from Staten Island, the one red borough in a sea of blue,
00:02:23.000You know, I'll be very clear, like you mentioned, you know, I've been to the White House, I met the man, I met the president, and I met pretty much everybody in his administration, from the Secretary of Labor to the Vice President Kamala as well, and a number of prominent politicians I've met as well.
00:02:47.000And when I think about Our victory against Amazon and not only just Amazon, but with the workers of Starbucks, Trader Joe's, Apple, Google, all these new unions that are forming and joining in the last year or two.
00:03:04.000I'm thinking about the root cause on why it's been so difficult in this country.
00:03:10.000And for me, somebody like me who just started traveling abroad and learning the different laws that are right over our border in Canada and when I crossed the sea to come to the UK and I'm seeing all these progressive laws that make it easier and better to organize and also hold corporations accountable.
00:03:32.000I'm wondering, as a new organizer, as a new union, why haven't we gotten the same type of laws on paper in America?
00:03:41.000And when I look at the Biden administration, yes, they have done some good things, progressive things with the NLRB.
00:04:17.000Uh, and there's no laws that make it easier for working class people like myself and other Americans to join these unions.
00:04:25.000And that's what I have an issue with here in this country.
00:04:28.000It feels like the language of supporting ordinary Americans and unifying America and supporting diversity and standing up for oppressed people and standing up for American workers is a big part of the rhetoric of the current administration, but it doesn't seem like it's a big part of the policy.
00:04:46.000Do you think that the ability of a global organisation like Amazon to spend $15 million Lobbying to ensure that their interests are met instead of the interests of ordinary Americans is part of the reason that the Biden administration will pay lip service to supporting American workers but when it comes to it will ultimately support the interests of their paymasters.
00:05:12.000Have you found that to be your experience and what kind of unity from like MAGA Trump voters To working people of all cultural and political persuasions is going to be required, Christian.
00:05:26.000Because I suppose one of the things that excites me about you is that you were just working at Amazon and you took a role of leadership and you've been impactful and effective.
00:05:34.000I know a lot of people like in our rumble chat right now feel that ordinary people don't have a chance against the machine, against the corporate elites, against the state establishment and state power.
00:05:44.000But is there anything you can say that can help people to recognize that when we come together there is a great power?
00:05:52.000When people ask me all the time, you know, how was you able to defeat, along with, you know, working class people, how were you able to defeat Amazon, a trillion dollar company with unlimited money and resources?
00:06:49.000Oh, capitalism and Bernie Sanders and AOC.
00:06:55.000It has to be a common issue that everybody can agree.
00:07:01.000And most of the time, when it comes to wages, I think we all can agree as working class people that everybody deserves a wage, especially when you're being deemed an essential worker.
00:07:13.000So that's how bringing people together, that's how you're able to defeat the establishment.
00:07:20.000No matter what corporation or what industry, no amount of money in the world can amount to the power of people when we come together.
00:07:27.000Yeah, I'm noticing Christian, a kind of populist uprising all over the world.
00:07:32.000It comes in different forms and the establishment are making, are working very hard to ensure
00:07:37.000that people stay divided along cultural lines because when there is a kind of unity that
00:07:42.000transcends the kind of cultural issues that are pushed to the forefront, there exists
00:07:47.000all of a sudden the power to topple regimes.
00:07:50.000I feel that with Amazon alone, there is, there are strikes and actions against Amazon and
00:07:56.000their elitist practices in over 30 countries.
00:08:00.000Have you noticed that the problems that working people across the world are facing have a
00:08:05.000kind of, I don't know, sort of some unifying characteristics?
00:08:16.000This is the reason why I travel abroad often to connect these struggles.
00:08:21.000The same thing that's happening in Staten Island is happening right now in COVID-3 UK right now.
00:08:27.000These warehouse workers are subjected to the same working conditions no matter where they are on the planet.
00:08:33.000So we must connect the struggles, we must stay together, and we must build international solidarity because Amazon is an international company.
00:08:43.000It employs over two and a half million people worldwide, a million of them in the States alone.
00:08:51.000So we have to understand that when we're talking about accountability and these politicians, like you mentioned, the president can't be talking out of both sides of the mouth.
00:09:04.000He can't say he stands with workers one day and then the same day give Jeff Bezos $10 billion of our tax dollars to fly to space on a penis rocket.
00:09:15.000He can't say he stands with workers and then break the railroad strike.
00:09:21.000He can't say every worker deserves to be in the union.
00:09:25.000But there's no laws that allow that to happen on a federal level.
00:09:29.000These type of things, and these type of rhetoric, these tweets, these good talking points, we're not going to settle for that anymore.
00:09:36.000And I think the time is now that not just me as a labor leader, but other labor leaders in the world, in the country, speak up, and step up, and stand up, and fight back.
00:09:47.000Because if we don't, we're going to be subjected to what we've been getting, and that hasn't been much.
00:09:53.000One of the reasons, Christian, that many centralist, neoliberal, authoritarian states are beginning
00:09:59.000to sound the same is perhaps they no longer feel that they have to reach working people,
00:10:05.000whatever country, whether it's yours or whether it's mine, because the forthcoming AI and
00:10:10.000automation revolution means that working people are going to have even less power.
00:10:16.000It's become more and more likely that people are expendable.
00:10:21.000More and more likely that if people demand to be paid decent wages for hard work, that
00:10:29.000they can easily be dispatched and replaced by increasing automation technology.
00:10:34.000I recently saw a piece, in fact, about how Amazon are able to stock their shelves using robots and able to handle dispatch and people are talking about drones the whole time.
00:10:45.000Do you feel that conditions will get worse for working people because, you know, because ultimately automation facilitates the powerful?
00:10:58.000Yeah, well that's the model of corporations and billionaires.
00:12:18.000And when we adapt to that, Uh, it really is alarming on how society's adapted.
00:12:24.000I can't even knock on my neighbor's door and borrow sugar because they have an idea of, now I can just click on Amazon.com and have this sugar delivered to my-my doorsteps without even having human interaction.
00:12:38.000And that is very dangerous when you don't have human interaction.
00:12:42.000I don't-I don't want a society like that.
00:12:45.000I think a village, uh, needs to stay a village.
00:12:48.000And I think people, community, is important.
00:12:52.000And having people behind technology in a controlled way is how we need to move forward.
00:13:10.000So we have to, as laborers, as working class people, We have to put our foot down now and let these corporations, these politicians as well, who are in bed with these corporations, let them know that we're not going to accept being replaced by robots.
00:13:28.000I tell you what, I think you are the perfect example of what I mean when we say on this channel, in this movement, that we have to rise up together, that we have to find leaders within our communities that are going to look for novel ways to oppose power, to look beyond the divisions that people continually inflict upon us.
00:13:44.000There are a lot of very powerful, loving statements coming up in the chat and a lot of inquiries about your t-shirt, which I know is an anti-Amazon t-shirt.
00:14:02.000Thank you so much for being such a pro-power voice, for recognising the power, the necessary power, Christian, of community and our sacred power as individuals working together.
00:14:16.000I think it's a very important message to convey.
00:14:18.000I wish you all the best with your fight against Amazon and your fight for rights for working people across America.
00:14:26.000Thank you for joining us today, Christian.