The protests on American university campuses are bringing Gazans hope. They are tired of likes and shares on their videos of the atrocities they are experiencing; sternly worded letters to their elected leaders, most whom are complicit, does absolutely nothing. The fact that young people half a world away are making headlines by being willing to take a stand and force people in power to decide whether or not to denounce Israeli occupation gives Gazans something to hold on to in a land where hope…like food, water, and medicine…is in short supply.
If trashing a library is what it takes to give them that hope, then so be it. It’s only property. If people are more upset about property damage than they are the continued genocide of indigenous people by occupiers funded by their own tax dollars, then they are morally bankrupt.
I’ll join you. If you haven’t already, random fediverse user, boycott YouTube Music as well. They laid off 43 workers last month. Here’s how it went down:
-
Google hired them through a subcontracting company called Cognizant as a way to pass the buck with regards to employee needs like pay and benefits (“But you aren’t employed by us! Take it up with your agency.”), a common and shitty tactic.
-
They had shitty benefits and didn’t get paid enough to live on in Austin, an expensive city, so many had to take second jobs.
-
They went on strike last February to protest Google’s “Return-to-Work” mandate, as it would cause them all to incur the extra costs of commuting and child care, as well as the fact that some employees didn’t live anywhere near the office and even across state lines (those employees ended up getting laid off).
-
The National Labor Relations Board ruled that…as a joint employer to those workers since the entirety of their work experience was in Google offices…Google must negotiate with the workers and bargain with them regarding their pay, benefits, and working conditions.
-
Google went against the ruling refused to bargain with the workers.
-
The workers successfully unionized with Alphabet Workers Union-CWA in a 41-0 vote in April 2023.
-
Immediately afterward, the management of their office instituted union-busting practices, including disallowing personal devices, laptops, and even pen and paper in the office.
-
At every turn, Google stalled and hemmed and hawed and postponed any attempts by the NLRB to force them to negotiate with thee workers.
-
The workers were successful in getting the Austin City Council to add a resolution calling on Google to listen to their requests.
-
A Google Austin exec successfully got the Council to agree on 02/28/24 to postpone the vote on the resolution for three weeks in order “to give Google, and the City Council, time to fully understand the direction of this item and potential local outcomes.”
-
Two union members spoke at the meeting on 02/29/24 to voice their concerns about Google’s stalling tactic and one was in the middle of speaking when his colleague informed him they’d just been fired, just one single day after requesting and bejng granted a postponement to the vote by the Council. Their reason? “Contracts were up…decided to not renew them.”
It’s absolute horseshit, and I’m so fucking tired of this becoming the norm. BILLIONAIRES GET FUCKED.
Why are you still talking to me, man? This is wasted energy. If you are so indignant about the opinion of one person on the internet that you’d waste the valuable time you could be spending speaking up on behalf of genocide victims, then your priorities are seriously fucking out of whack. I don’t care about your opinion.
If you are more upset about property damage than you are the continued genocide of indigenous people by occupiers funded by your own tax dollars, then you, specifically, are morally bankrupt.