Chris Smalls says he did not hesitate when Harlem called.
The co-founder and former president of the Amazon Labor Union, whose fight at Staten Island’s JFK8 warehouse made labor history, is scheduled to appear Aug. 22 at a Grassroots of Harlem citizenry book party at 369 Malcolm X Boulevard. The event is being billed by organizers as a multigenerational, educational extravaganza on a block in the heart of a corridor of Black-owned businesses.
“When I got the email to be invited, I didn’t hesitate to respond,” Smalls said in an interview with the AmNews. Smalls says the invitation connects to the story told in his new memoir, “When the Revolution Comes: A Fight for the Future of the Working Class.”
Penguin Random House, Smalls’s publisher, describes the book as an inside look at Smalls’s efforts to help establish the first Amazon union in the U.S. – it says the book is a rallying cry for workers. Smalls said the book took about four years to finish — around three years of writing and one year to get it ready for publication. He says it’s “a memoir” that also delves into his childhood, family background, early work experiences, and the challenges that made the Amazon struggle resonate with him.
“It’s more on the autobiography side, because I start from my early childhood, with the exception of the prologue, which is where it starts like at a warehouse in the beginning of the book, but then it jumps back to my early childhood days,” Smalls said. “It just gives you more of a personal insight into who I am as a person.”
Smalls became a national labor figure after Amazon fired him following a 2020 walkout over COVID-era safety concerns. He and fellow workers went on to organize the Amazon Labor Union, which won a landmark election at JFK8 in 2022. Smalls was named to Time’s 100 Most Influential People list in 2022 alongside fellow organizer Derrick Palmer.
“I think this book, even though… I’m in my 30s, will still resonate with many people who have gone through similar trials and tribulations I went through,” he said, citing his experiences entering the workforce at 16, holding “odd jobs,” being married and divorced, raising children, being fired, and then organizing. “I think this book will remind folks of what happened and also motivate people to organize in their own workplace.”
Smalls’s book tells the story of what it takes to keep working as an organizer even after news headlines and publicity about your work have changed. He says he has most recently been doing book events, film screenings, and school visits, and attending international worker meetings and exchanges with Amazon employees outside the U.S. Though he no longer holds an official union position, he still considers organizing his central calling. “I don’t have an official position within my union, but I’ve never really needed that,” Smalls said. “I just don’t believe in having a title. I believe in doing the work.”
Smalls’ work now, he said, has taken him to more than 45 countries, including Cuba, parts of Europe and the Nordics, the Middle East, Brazil, Mexico, and other parts of the Global South. “My travels are also planting seeds and building international solidarity,” he said. “A lot of these trips are now more about what we’re going to do next. Like, how do we keep the message going, and also, you know, how do we fight back against the oppressors who are oppressing us all around the world?”
Smalls pointed to the U.S.’s weak union participation — saying private-sector membership is in the single digits — and contrasted it with countries where organized labor still has a greater reach. Federal labor data put U.S. union membership at 10% in 2025, with 5.9% of private-sector workers and 32.9% of public-sector workers belonging to unions. In countries like Sweden, estimates are that union density is at about 66% to 69%. He also noted that the U.S. labor movement still has a diversity problem in leadership and structure, even though Black and Brown workers tend to be their main workers.
“Some of these unions are still following that top-down tradition where they have a white male figure as the president, or they have an executive board that’s not really diverse,” he said. “And I think that’s a really big problem because that doesn’t resonate with the rank-and-file members, and we all know that most essential workers in the U.S. are Black and Brown.
“I’m still trying to figure out how we close that bridge and bring more people of color into the labor space, but also not just bring them in, but give them positions of power so that they can organize in their own communities,” he said.
Smalls wants to use events like this week’s visit to Harlem to do some of that work. “Instead of inviting police officers and firefighters on career day, now they’re inviting labor leaders like myself and my other colleagues, who are Black men,” Smalls said. “We’re now able to reach these younger kids at a younger age. And I think that’s really, really important because I wish at that age I had somebody who looked like me come into the classroom and talk to people about labor.” Chris Smalls is scheduled to appear Aug. 22 at 3 p.m. at the Grassroots of Harlem citizenry book party at 369 Malcolm X Boulevard. For more information, call 347-392-6036 or email whitesamuel086@gmail.com.
