Left Wing Activists Force Amazon To Abandon Its Plan To Build $5 billion Headquarter In New York

Amazon on Thursday (14 February) announced that it is abandoning its plans to open a new headquarters in New York City.

Amazon had announced last November that it has selected New York City and Arlington, as the locations for its new headquarters.

Amazon claimed that it will invest $5 billion and create more than 50,000 jobs across the two new headquarters locations, with more than 25,000 employees each in New York City and Arlington.

The announcement had come after an yearlong quest by Amazon for its second headquarter (commonly referred to as HQ2) was almost like a national competition, with more than 200 local and state governments fiercely competing to submit proposals for a windfall $5 billion investment and the 50,000-person workforce the firm promised to employ.

In a public statement, the company squarely blamed its decision not to proceed with its decision to build HQ2 on the doors of politicians who had objected to the development and been critical of city and state leaders for offering Amazon huge tax breaks.

Amazon thanked New York Governor Cuomo and city Mayor de Blasio, for welcoming its plans and supported it along the way.

The rising star of US political firmament and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat whose district borders Long Island City, expressed happiness over Amazon's withdrawal.

“I think it’s incredible," she told reporters in Washington, DC. "It shows that everyday Americans still have the power to organise and fight for their communities."

“Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbours defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world,” she tweeted.

Alexandaria Ocasio-Cortez had also earlier accused the e-commerce giant of forcing its employees to work in “dehumanising conditions”.

She had tweeted “Is that culture of ‘strict performance’ why Amazon workers have to urinate in bottles & work while on food stamps to meet ‘targets’? ‘Performance’ shouldn’t come at the cost of dehumanizing conditions. That’s why we got rid of sweatshops,”