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Wednesday, Jan 22, 2014 9:50 PM UTC
(Credit: AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
In defense of militant anti-Google protests
Activists in the Bay Area have raised the stakes and targeted Google employees. Good for them
Topics: Google, Protests, google buses, Silicon Valley, militancy, NSA, Surveillance, Activism, Technology News, News, Politics News
(Credit: AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez)On Wednesday, my colleague Andrew Leonard wrote a sharp criticism of the latest wave of anti-Google protests in the Bay Area. Actions against the tech giant — both in response to its role in maintaining and upholding a surveillance state, and the gentrifying force of its employees in San Francisco — have escalated. Unlike my esteemed colleague, however, I support this escalation.
Building on demonstrations that blocked Google buses — the private shuttles that usher employees from their Bay Area homes to Google’s gleaming Silicon Valley compound — anti-Google protests have taken an ad hominem turn. On Tuesday an activist group, “Counterforce,” rallied in front of the Berkeley home of a high-level Google engineer. The militancy amounted to little more than ringing his doorbell at an early hour and passing out fliers in the neighborhood. Hardly terror tactics, but the message was clear: Google employees are now targets.
“All of Google’s employees should be prevented from getting to work. All surveillance infrastructure should be destroyed. No luxury condos should be built. No one should be displaced,” Counterforce stated in a manifesto accompanying Tuesday’s protest.
Writing in opposition to the demonstration, Leonard commented, “This is bullshit … slashing the tires of Google buses, confronting individual employees at their homes, and engaging in ludicrous character assassination is not how a civil society operates.”
Respectfully, I disagree. Intimidation tactics targeting the employees of major corporations are nothing new and have a history of success: Indeed, animal rights activists achieved some major victories in securing the closure of animal testing facilities in the ’90s and early 2000s through the intimidation of key investors. This intimidation was deemed terrorism, but, hey, it worked. The Google protesters appear to be paying homage to this model. Their manifesto ends, “We’re coming for you next,” and echo the Animal Liberation Front’s haunting slogan, “We are everywhere.”
Success in terms of protesting Google can’t be measured by the frameworks used by militant animal rights activists and environmental activists over 10 years ago. The tech giant will not be shuttered by personal attacks. Beyond this, even if a number of Google employees were driven to quit, or if Google buses stopped running, the surveillance state would prevail unhindered — it is inscribed and supported in the very fabric of life under late capitalism.
Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com.
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