March on Amazon! Tax Big Biz to Build Affordable Housing!

RALLY at Cal Anderson Park at 11am followed by a
MARCH to Amazon’s HQ in South Lake Union to
PROTEST their corporate extortion of our city!

Amazon, one of the most powerful corporations in the world, threatened to halt construction of a skyscraper if our movement succeeds in forcing the Mayor and City Council to tax big business to build affordable housing. This is extortion, and we must stand up to Bezos’ bullying. Having made a profit of $1.6B in the first 3 months of this year, the tax will be pocket change for Amazon.

The big business Employee Hours Tax (EHT) that Amazon is so desperate to avoid would raise up to $150 million annually to fund the construction of 750 units of permanently affordable housing per year and expand homeless shelters and services in Seattle. It would affect only the top 3% of corporations in Seattle- those who can most easily afford to pay.

It is no coincidence that Amazon is threatening the jobs of 7-8,000 construction workers at the same time that it scouts for a city to host it’s second headquarters. It wants to set a clear precedent to ensure that whatever city it chooses understands that Amazon’s bottom line comes first, before the interests of working people or our communities .

But we want to set a different precedent: that the interests of the 99% come before the greed of the 1%! Instead of a race to the bottom, a race to the top!

Amazon is a $700 billion corporation, controlling nearly 45 percent of the online retail market. It paid $0 in federal income taxes last year. Thanks to the Trump corporate tax cuts, Amazon now does not have to pay $789 million it owed in back taxes. Jeff Bezos is the world’s wealthiest person, with $131 billion. The tax that Amazon would have to pay in Seattle, approximately $20 million annually, is pocket change for them.

We must stand up against Amazon’s bullying! We cannot allow them to continue putting corporate greed before the rights and well-being of their workers and the cities they reside in!

NO to Amazon’s bullying!
YES to taxing big business to fund affordable housing!