[News] At company conference, Google workers protest & activists chain themselves to street

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*‘Google Profits From Apartheid’, Google Workers & **RELEASE **Bay Area 
Community Protest Company Conference Celebrating Google Cloud’s First 
Profitable Year*

/Protest Escalates Years of Community Opposition to Company’s $1.2 
Billion ‘Project Nimbus’ Contract With Israel/

//

See Photos and Videos Here 
<http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=As-2BXatcE2qVJbVbpC2SgK4w85yN2rhorccVh2PQtVy8SNbxmCyFi-2FzuSMX1zA5UhRmD80HxOs9SbRl7HvgrhPGuDvko8kaS8Fcfay8PQGrbcwyk899aZqTofw8FMBdYo6-Rj_Np2n8AK-2BlBGvcwADjB-2FUCIP22LApLVR-2F3kxnGkOdp0oDHd8a9dL9hjfZndPqSJVEiw1t4IKT6xvzwmD3I1WA83ssJmBDgBfFBHdjg1afmyVGnXSqrvRksrT-2BMIbVkV3517NoGqKRFw2dnhLdA6HuANOGMntbc5IHIVwbk04Y2M3SD0VDylcK-2BnmtKc3Kwy9ksDbn7CHSobNoTwh4eQZBQiU97ErqpejnxHrPpIwEw3DwZEiqKn2BhAbs9dZm4ANYYdP5BW9VnZMvnRpQCDzQOFwCl5oE-2FJ71P9geIUSUllMG7fz7l17Ww6iLIhDJXghJcWb8Q14MgmbwrnYViUGxOlQvKsn78kYF-2FM0YFG4GKoy37Tx6hNHDP-2BfMoGMzi8p8TkIsSyYAylPzy4hY4IGmTw-3D-3D>

(San Francisco, CA) – This evening at the Google Cloud Next conference, 
over 20 community activists locked arms and chained themselves to 
fixtures in the central plaza of the Moscone Center in downtown San 
Francisco. The activists did so in protest against Google and Amazon's 
$1.2 billion contract with the Israeli military and government.

Joined by Google workers and hundreds of additional community members 
rallying in the central courtyard, chained protestors took over a main 
conference thoroughfare and bridge walkway and unfurled a giant banner 
reading "Google: Project Nimbus Fuels Israeli Apartheid." Private 
security and San Francisco police were called to the scene, as thousands 
of conference participants transitioned to the event's inaugural happy 
hour.

"/Palestinians are subjected to Israel's technological warfare every 
day. The tech promised by Project Nimbus will be used to murder, jail, 
surveil, and ethnically cleanse Palestinians,/" says *Romi Abdelkarim, 
an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement,* who was also one of 
the activists to chain themselves to other activists on a conference 
center walkway in an act of protest. "/The automated technology used on 
Palestinians is something out of a dystopian movie: AI guided machine 
guns, facial recognition and location trafficking, AI manned 
armed-drones, and high-tech civilian registration programs. We will not 
allow Google to build more of this racist, genocidal technology for 
Israel./"

Part of a campaign called #NoTechforApartheid organized by tech workers, 
civil society, and community members, these protests represent the 
rapidly growing movement of tech workers taking public action against 
these contracts. This protest also takes place during the 75th 
anniversary of the Nakba, or the mass displacement and dispossession of 
Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

"/Google has continuously silenced and intimidated workers who speak out 
against Project Nimbus/,” says *Ariel Koren, a former Jewish Google 
worker* who faced retaliation for her opposition to the contract, and 
who also joined 20+ activists in civil disobedience. "/Google initially 
withheld information about the contract to the public and its own 
workers, actively insisting the project is a mundane civilian contract. 
But over the past two years our concerns about the contract’s nefarious 
military use have proven to be completely correct. Amidst the company’s 
threats and retaliation, workers have only grown more emboldened to 
fight against building tech for apartheid/."

This action follows almost two years of activism by Amazon and Google 
workers to pressure their respective companies to cancel their cloud 
contracts with Israel. Last September, on the heels of Google worker 
Ariel Koren’s forced resignation 
<http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=As-2BXatcE2qVJbVbpC2SgK7JAUEaCg-2F7GgUszK-2BWoDN30s4tZR1ID39qPaXhaDqw08htlREak27c8fKu0NcPiCTtMkv8wEMKqBfOyKJnXApLXzuRJBikDNoqAfWK8Y6lcEI00_Np2n8AK-2BlBGvcwADjB-2FUCIP22LApLVR-2F3kxnGkOdp0oDHd8a9dL9hjfZndPqSJVEiw1t4IKT6xvzwmD3I1WA83ssJmBDgBfFBHdjg1afmyVGnXSqrvRksrT-2BMIbVkV3517NoGqKRFw2dnhLdA6HuANOGMntbc5IHIVwbk04Y2M3SD0VDylcK-2BnmtKc3Kwy9ksDbn7CHSobNoTwh4eQZBQqXvOomv-2B3rJXv-2BrB7UNqx9AvGmdvLCD2yF-2B39AGYKgffCiqPNpKZL-2BW1L4UIQHhsvfeqCP2J9cM7yDPFhNDDhb7-2FClQfTUBunpjiNXpRYRH2RiNCWZC2G9D1SxKI055MF4-2FPgj5W6-2FYIDMWFVKFivpYj54AUQBASeDEF8MoOd93FC0tUww3BergVjrbLn6oiA-3D-3D>, 
Amazon and Google tech workers led protests with hundreds in attendance 
in front of their offices in New York City, San Francisco, Durham, and 
Seattle.

Citing the well-documented human rights abuses and violations of 
international law committed by the Israeli government and military 
against Palestinians, thousands of workers 
<http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=As-2BXatcE2qVJbVbpC2SgK6vPFvY68YcUIkMuaLjeRGWaA5Da-2BJOPbE-2BJUKjwTuCh5w2qV0cYZNEEcIKEHfR0sFnj2ekVEapo2gffQn-2BJe2oh3VoMfzD1Ldyc6pR82LaNYgvuKcj01KDMi8g6ibUoSaPBXIo2wt2pNzUKP2Dwbla-2BWkgFrkbXmaspzEAhB26bc6P7_Np2n8AK-2BlBGvcwADjB-2FUCIP22LApLVR-2F3kxnGkOdp0oDHd8a9dL9hjfZndPqSJVEiw1t4IKT6xvzwmD3I1WA83ssJmBDgBfFBHdjg1afmyVGnXSqrvRksrT-2BMIbVkV3517NoGqKRFw2dnhLdA6HuANOGMntbc5IHIVwbk04Y2M3SD0VDylcK-2BnmtKc3Kwy9ksDbn7CHSobNoTwh4eQZBQrJQ6oQe5MZl9LpWfKCMB5qye1ZbPVoLrHp-2BtjxcedKoDE3ACbOiOGT4RIaalfhTRqLPdyRTCNy9OFMkcNGLZ8kIQ2oEVYEgIce7Mp4gJgWg4sZ-2FS6EbaSCjTdkBb4AtBgZ4dWS-2BZ9WF-2B26Ntt5-2FLdl6p5IKyHL8OUiE6tfNKoHaA0BfT4SZdadIKhGcDXbASQ-3D-3D> at 
Amazon and Google have called on their companies to stop working on 
Project Nimbus 
<http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=As-2BXatcE2qVJbVbpC2SgK6vPFvY68YcUIkMuaLjeRGWaA5Da-2BJOPbE-2BJUKjwTuCh5w2qV0cYZNEEcIKEHfR0sFnj2ekVEapo2gffQn-2BJe2oh3VoMfzD1Ldyc6pR82LaNYgvuKcj01KDMi8g6ibUoSaPBXIo2wt2pNzUKP2Dwbla-2BWkgFrkbXmaspzEAhB26b7Mo-_Np2n8AK-2BlBGvcwADjB-2FUCIP22LApLVR-2F3kxnGkOdp0oDHd8a9dL9hjfZndPqSJVEiw1t4IKT6xvzwmD3I1WA83ssJmBDgBfFBHdjg1afmyVGnXSqrvRksrT-2BMIbVkV3517NoGqKRFw2dnhLdA6HuANOGMntbc5IHIVwbk04Y2M3SD0VDylcK-2BnmtKc3Kwy9ksDbn7CHSobNoTwh4eQZBQqTNaReQalD3X0WjPFw-2F4mucpCJL5fqCdC7RrcCoDMfwq-2BrhMuKxPUzL9X8YPMtI86R0R6JEaGOPUgmnNymnqrCOvlW-2Fr6LtrrGDOgIUMc3J2-2Frn9a7euwers8oZ-2FlY3g4O4IB6I9W-2FYIEnxIZs-2BOrF2ehFw-2BtB7Ycfn84-2F3WB5MNgmLOPfjW6uIVJZXfUPj5Q-3D-3D>, 
based on the potential for this technology to be used to surveil, 
oppress, or commit other forms of violence against Palestinians. Tens of 
thousands of others have joined those workers’ calls 
<http://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=As-2BXatcE2qVJbVbpC2SgK2eNZKZhzOkA3t5bjUJssh8KHUloXS0vlPxvf2o8sfgEjHVQ_Np2n8AK-2BlBGvcwADjB-2FUCIP22LApLVR-2F3kxnGkOdp0oDHd8a9dL9hjfZndPqSJVEiw1t4IKT6xvzwmD3I1WA83ssJmBDgBfFBHdjg1afmyVGnXSqrvRksrT-2BMIbVkV3517NoGqKRFw2dnhLdA6HuANOGMntbc5IHIVwbk04Y2M3SD0VDylcK-2BnmtKc3Kwy9ksDbn7CHSobNoTwh4eQZBQlGbM60-2BWPMzlTj0UhcqcOFkbLWWel7jVJXX1j2oH1KsCppAWuHYWvMOi1E8BPqDn-2FM7ennIWPT9qGHTsNqkveFIRQ6ad3XxJd0PNrMQ5qhuuwwByqkvcmN-2BVVgG-2FVHcl9N-2BU6vtbA2AG-2Fu-2FNMnmPHLViNkdLUdmfRx-2FZ6j9nu62MDR-2BnhQahvCLCuWbEd6BGw-3D-3D>.

"/We are being forced to escalate to demand action and answers from 
Google. Years of due diligence, appealing to management, and taking to 
the media have only gotten us small gestures at transparency,/" 
says* Josh Marxen, a Google Cloud worker* participating in the action by 
flyering and having conversations about Project Nimbus with 
conference-goers and fellow Google workers. "/Google Cloud leadership 
has sacrificed ethics and worker wellbeing in pursuit of this contract 
with an apartheid state. We want Google Cloud to grow and prosper, but 
we cannot accept that Cloud's profitability has come on the back of 
genocidal use of our technology./"

To date, Amazon and Google executives have ignored their workers’ 
demands. Workers describe the contract as “part of a disturbing pattern 
of militarization, lack of transparency and avoidance of oversight.”

###
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20230830/e7c38d2a/attachment.htm>