Climate activists have staged a protest outside the Finance Ministry in Paris, piling up delivery boxes and unfurling giant banners to demonstrate their opposition to Amazon’s expansion in France.
On Friday, activists from three groups – ANV-COP 21, Attac, and Amis de la Terre – gathered in central Paris to protest against Amazon, its impact on climate change, and its erosion of French values.
Activists erected a wall of cardboard boxes covered in slogans calling on the government to prevent Amazon from building new warehouses, and unfurled a banner over the Finance Ministry saying “change of owner.”
The banner was emblazoned with the faces of President Emmanuel Macron and Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos, while boxes bore the message “Macron, Amazon’s partner in crime.”
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The demonstration comes as the online shopping giant launched a delayed Black Friday sales drive in France.
“Amazon is destroying jobs and climate in France. It plans to massively expand in France, with dozens of warehouses already built and more to come. We demand a freeze [on building more],” Sandy Olivar Calvo, a spokeswoman for ANV-COP21, told Reuters.
ANV-COP21 claims that the French government has been complicit in Amazon’s growth there, and argue that the e-commerce giant destroys six times as many jobs as it creates and built 14 new French warehouses in 2019, contributing to the urbanization of farmland and loss of biodiversity.
Campaigners also claim that the company is at odds with the French tradition of having smaller local stores, and represents mass consumer culture.
In November, Amazon delayed its Black Friday sale after Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called on supermarkets and online retailers to postpone their much-anticipated seasonal offers in an attempt to give business back to struggling shopkeepers emerging from France’s second lockdown.
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