No Tech for Apartheid: Google Workers Arrested for Protesting Company’s $1.2B Contract with Israel

several Google employees at least nine were arrested Tuesday evening after staging stins at the company's offices in New York and in California to protest the tech Giants work with the Israeli government the Sittin organized by the activist group no tech for a parate took place at Google Cloud CEO Thomas kuan's office in Sunnyville California and the 10th floor Commons of Google's New York office which is right around the corner from rcy now protesters are calling for Google to withdraw from a $1.2 billion contract to provide Cloud Computing Services to the Israeli government known as project Nimbus last week Time Magazine reported Google's work on the project involves providing Direct Services to the Israeli military the cens were accompanied by outdoor protests at the Google offices here in New York and in Sunnyville San Francisco and Seattle Washington workers and outside activists have opposed the contract since it was signed in 2021 but protests have ramped up over the past several months since Israel's latest bombardment of Gaza no tech for apate says Google is enabling and profiting from Israel's use of artificial intelligence to develop a kill list to Target Palestinians in Gaza for assassination with little human oversight the Israeli military is also using Google photos for facial recognition across Gaza and the West Bank to identify and detain Palestinians on mass no tech for apartate has published an open letter co-signed by 18 other groups that demands Google and Amazon immediately cancel their work on Project Nimbus the letters gathered more than 94,000 signatures from the general public for more were joined by two of the arrested Google workers Ray westrick is with us she's a Google worker organizer with no tech for a partake campaign among the workers who occupied Google Cloud CEO Thomas cryan's office in Sunnyvale California she's joining us from Sunnyville and here in New York we're joined by Muhammad katami a Google software engineer who was arrested at the sit in at Google's office in New York he's joining us along with Gabriel schuer a former software engineer at Google research and an organizer with the not tech for a partake campaign and before that uh he was with Jewish diaspora and Tech we welcome you all to democracy Now um Muhammad let's begin with you uh you were uh just hours ago in the jail in the local police precinct talk about why you were willing to get arrested yeah um well rather than you know consider the demands that we've been raising for you know years now um and you know listening to workers and considering the the things that we've been raising um Thomas giran andle Google exx basically chose to arrest workers for speaking out um against our the use of our technology to power uh the first AI power genocide um so we were willing to get arrested for that because at this point we aren't willing to be lied to by our higher-ups anymore we aren't willing to be disrespected by our hups anymore um and we wanted to take that to the offices and make sure it was understood by them yeah how do you sense is a that you have among other Google workers uh uh the degree of the dissatisfaction with the policies uh of Google yeah I mean Google has done a really good job at creating a culture of fear and retaliation um against workers in general um but what we noticed was beautiful so many people came up to our sit in and basically showed support um and felt that they were inspired by the work that we were doing um and felt inspired to speak out which is exactly what we were going for um we want workers to feel like we have the power to CH choose uh where our technology is going and who we're we're contributing to um so I I felt really happy to see that yeah Ray westrick you're on the west coast uh you were arrested in California um talk about this um project Nimbus um and why you were willing to get arrested and what the response were you in the offices of the GL Google Cloud CEO yes um we sat in um at the office of Thomas curian the Google Cloud CEO um to protest project Nimbus which is a $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and Military between Google and Amazon um we also were demanding the protection of our co-workers um especially our Palestinian Arab and Muslim co-workers who have been consistently retaliated against harassed um and doxed for speaking out about project Nimbus and you know the humanity of Palestinians um so we were there and solidarity with them we were there to protest the contract um which um is being directly sold providing technology directly to the Israeli military as it um inflicts a genocide on Palestinians in Gazza um and yeah that is why we chose to set in sit in Thomas cryan's office and Ray could you was there any response from the CEO or or his office and are you concerned about losing your job what why would did you decide to take this action yeah um we did not receive any response from the CEO and I think it's really telling that they would rather um let us sit there for 10 hour over 10 hours and arrest us um for peacefully sitting in his office then have leadership engage in our demands at in any way at all um so we've received no no response from the CEO um and we were forcibly removed by the police um and I I working at Google has been you know an honor I really love my team I love the work I do but I can't in good conscience not do anything while Google is a part of this contract while Google is selling technology to the Isel military or any military um and so it was a risk I was willing to take and I think it's risk a lot of my co-workers willing to take because a lot of people are really agitated about this and um have consistently made their um demands clear and have face retaliation for it so um I chose to sit in knowing the risks out of care for um the use of our technology out of care for um the the impact of our technology and care for my co-workers for a radio audience I wanted to let people know that Ry is wearing a t-shirt that says googler against genocide with genocide and the famous uh multicolor of uh Google that it's so well known for I wanted to bring Gabriel schuer into this conversation a former software engineer at Google research and organizer with the not tech for parate campaign um and ask you you know we had you on more than a year ago this is before Israel's latest attack on Gaza um talking about exactly this um and you were um with a Jewish organization of Google workers at that time speaking out um talk about the whole history of uh project Nimbus yeah and the resistance against it yeah thank you so much um so project Nimbus was signed in May of 2021 um while bombs were being dropped on Gaza while uh Palestinians were being evicted from shik J and beating it at Alexa mosque um that was really a point when we found out about project nimbus um personally for me it was a turning point where I no longer felt able to uh continue doing my work without engaging and organizing um there was a group of people that felt very similarly so we um started a petition we were connected got connected with Amazon workers with Community organizations at Jewish voice for peace and Empower change and spun a campaign out of that um I want to be clear like the campaign really is driven by worker concerns and worker needs um around our the ethical use of our labor as well as um the direct workplace concerns of the me like health and safety concerns um around working at a company that is facilitating genocide we've known for a long time that this project was directly targeted at the military um it's been reported in press that um Google was giving trainings directly to the iof we know that Google gave trainings directly to mad we know that the iOS when you say iof explain the term because people are used to hearing IDF is Defense Forces yeah it's um Israeli occupation forces just to indicate so we're not repeating their um messaging that their really aggressive repression of Palestinians is an act of Defense we know that it's an act of occupation um so we say iof um and so we've known for a long time that this project was directly um targeted at the Israeli military um but it was only recently through this last um contract that Google signed directly with the io but we recognize that Google is really doubling down um that this contract is directly intended to facilitate uh military use and we know that Google was chosen over other um companies because of the advanced AI technology that they are able to offer so given that we've SE learned how the iof is using AI in this war we really see this uh as like a really critical campaign for Palestinian Liberation um to speak to your point about the resistance against the uh project we've been working against this project as workers for uh since it was signed um 3 years ago we uh have been doing organizing we have uh been doing you know Base building and labor organizing we've had uh protests externally and internally we've had signed petitions we've done Outreach to our Executives through internal forums through chat rooms through uh every available means um because I think you know understanding like this contract really is um like really is an incredible issue for um for our work like all workers labor at Google so many workers labor is contributing directly to this project because all of the technology at Google is like deeply uh intertwined with each other so um yeah so I wanted to ask you the average person who's not a Google worker who might support uh your your understand uh and uh who uses Google multiple times a day around the world what are you calling for them to do right so I mean we're calling for uh everyone around the world to really like help us um with awareness like help us make it known that Google is a war profiteer um I think Google is so deeply embedded in people's lives right that it's hard to ask for a boycott but I think we call Our Calling specifically on people in the tech industry to divest from Google and Amazon Google cloud services and Amazon web services underly vast majority of the internet but there are other options so technology workers actually have a lot of power to shift this Paradigm and to like remove technology from uh this deep complicity with Israeli occupation Muhammad katami can you talk about your own family background and why you so particularly care right now about what's going on in G yeah yes um so I come from a Muslim family I was raised Muslim um and uh it's really hard to to wake up uh seeing the images of children slaughtered and know that you're um uh you know the the work you're doing is contributing to this um I've lost sleep I've um it's it's just been extremely difficult to to focus on work and think that you're working for for something that is contributing to the to the mass SL that's taking place um and for speaking out against that I've literally been called a supporter of terrorism which is something that called by you know by co-workers and and and HR and and and people in the company supporter of terrorism which is you know something is it's like a schoolyard insult it's something I haven't heard since middle school um and that's just an example of the retaliation and and the harassment and the hatred that we face just for speaking up against our work being used are you concerned about losing your job absolutely but um it it doesn't it's it's not even important to me at all compared to working for some something that is is Meaningful and and having a good impact on on the planet I I don't want to have any association with this genocide and um I would hope that Google would change their mind about it as well and finally Ray westrick where do you see this movement going from here and can you talk more about the Jewish Muslim Alliance around this uh among Google workers and former Google workers yeah um I only see this movement growing and continuing to apply pressure um we received so much support during s and I've received so many personal messages from people um you know thanking me for being vocal and asking how they can be more vocal and get more involved um so I think this is absolutely growing I think Google knows that um that this will continue that you know workers are very agitated about this and will continue to speak up and apply pressure and um I think that's why it was important for them to silence us but this this movement is growing and more people are finding out about this and more people are willing to organize and risk um risk their jobs um in order to take a stand against complicity and genocide well I want to and yeah I think this has been a really unifying campaign um for people of all backgrounds and I know um specifically a lot of us came together because we were specifically concerned about how um Google has treated and retaliated against our um Palestinian Arab and Muslim colleagues um especially like Muhammad um mentioned a lot of them have experienced harassment and doxing for speaking out in like the appropriate channels at Google and have been consistently ignored and harassed and retaliated against and so so we had to come together to say that we can't let this happen anymore we have to come together in protection of our co-workers and each other and in protection of you know the ethical use of our technology to make sure that we're not Building Technology that's being used for harm so I think it's been a really unifying campaign that is really grounded in taking care of each other and really grounded in um making a positive impact and not facilitating more harm with I want to thank you all for being with us Ray westrik and Muhammad katami are both Google workers who were arrested yesterday Ry in the offices of the Google Cloud CEO in Sunnyvale California and Muhammad here in New York uh also Gabriel Shiner a former software engineer at Google research and an organizer with the no tech for partake campaign before that with Jewish diaspora and Tech

Channel: Democracy Now!

Views: 174,025

Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, News, Politics, democracynow, Independent Media, Breaking News, World News

Id: rz8Y2NSPpXo

Length: 16min 2sec (962 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 17 2024