We are Google and Amazon workers. We condemn Project Nimbus | Hacker News Reader

We are Google and Amazon workers. We condemn Project Nimbus

theguardian.com

7 pointssph6 comments

Because it is Israel in this case of course.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Israel_and_Arab_stat...

The blue dot is clearly the oppressor here. There is much valid criticism about the policies of Israel. But I think most of these issues are just due to plain antisemitism. I doubt we would see protest against a Hamas cloud infrastructure from those workers.

Maybe it is wrong to condemn them here, but what would follow is that they are against supplying any cloud technology for military purposes. If that is the case, I would believe their conscience. At least the article says this:

"To build that brighter future, the companies we work for need to stop contracting with any and all militarized organizations in the US and beyond."

I think the focus on Israel isn't helpful to make that case.

I disagree.

I'm reminded of the position people took with apartheid South Africa. People condemned and boycotted SA due to the extreme problems there.

That didn't mean that they were hypocrites then because so many other terrible problems existed then around the world and many continue to this day. It was a particular inflammatory problem that captured the mindshare at that time.

Using antisemitism as the go-to reason here seems like a cop-out.

Fully expect and welcome downvotes for this comment.

That is a shallow way to look at conflicts if you think the issues are comparable. Some things are, but the overall conflict is not.

In the middle east the threat to Israel is of existential nature, even if that changed to the better in recent years.

If you say so.

Maybe you have a different definition of "existential" to me, but whatever.

What is your definition of existential? To me if a country like Iran reaffirms it's commitment to destroy Israel every few months then yes Israel has existential issues.

Does Google or Amazon have an employees union yet? Should we expect that it would be the unions to speak out on these issues instead of a group of individuals? Additionally, can unions direct the activities of its members to stop any independent actions which they might seem to be problematic?

I look forward to more tech unions with actual bite, would we see more or less of these articles I wonder?

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Secondly the issue appears to be selling the cloud to a state. Then the state does something bad. Seems similar to complaining about selling cloud to the US govt, then they go to war with a middle east country. No state would be blameless. It doesn't seem like it's directly selling specific tech (equiv, arms) so has the use of these cloud products in this project been determined? The letter was vague on this point.

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