In this episode of the Sumud Podcast, Dr. Ed Hasan speaks with Chris Smalls, founder of the Amazon Labor Union, about organizing inside one of the world’s most powerful corporations and what it takes to confront corporate retaliation. Smalls recounts the COVID walkout that led to his firing, the fight to unionize Amazon workers, and how labor struggle connects to global resistance. He also reflects on why he stands with Palestine and shares his firsthand experience joining the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

Christian Smalls is the founder and former president of the Amazon Labor Union, the first independent, worker-led union to organize Amazon workers in U.S. history. He also founded The Congress of Essential Workers (TCOEW), a national collective fighting for safe working conditions, fair wages, and justice for essential workers across the country. In 2025, Smalls volunteered with the Gaza Freedom Flotilla to help break the siege on Gaza and amplify global awareness of the humanitarian crisis. He is also the creator of the Labor Party USA, a grassroots political movement built to move beyond the two-party system and center the needs of working people. Before emerging as a national labor leader, Smalls spent five years as an Amazon supervisor, helping launch multiple major warehouse facilities in the Northeast. He was fired in 2020 after leading a walkout over unsafe pandemic conditions—an event that propelled him into the national spotlight and international media.

In this conversation, we explore
→ Organizing Amazon workers and confronting corporate power
→ Warehouse labor, exploitation, and modern-day slavery
→ Systemic racism inside corporate America
→ Retaliation, walkouts, and union-busting tactics
→ Black liberation, trade unionism, and Palestine
→ Saying “Free Palestine” and the cost of solidarity
→ The Gaza flotilla, imprisonment, and state violence
→ Why people power beats billionaire money

Director: Dr. Ed Hasan | 2026