It’s early morning, and Zelda Montes walks briskly through the crisp New York air as they head to Google’s headquarters on Manhattan’s 9th Avenue. Montes, who self-identifies as they, fumbles with their ID card at the entrance, blending in with the steady stream of Googlers swiping through the security barriers as if it were just another day at the office.

Armed with an oversized tote bag, Montes pulls back their purple hair and heads to the 13th-floor canteen to order their usual: a dirty chai and an egg, avocado, and cheese sandwich with a bowl of raspberries.

Their hands tremble slightly as they grip the coffee cup.

Locking eyes with two others, they get the signal that the coast is clear, head down to the entrance, and sit. The three Googlers unfurl their banners and begin chanting to demand that Google do one thing: Drop Project Nimbus.

But this will be the last time they sit inside Google’s New York office as Googlers, as Google itself refers to its own employees. “Getting fired felt like a possibility but never a reality,” remarked Montes, one of 50 employees fired by Google for staging a 10-hour sit-in at one of its American offices in April.

For the last three years, Montes has been one of several activists calling for Google to drop Project Nimbus, a partnership Google and Amazon have with the Israeli government reportedly worth $1.2bn.

    • zbyte64@awful.systems
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      9 hours ago

      Grim, but technically accurate, to say nothing of whether such actions are right or wrong.

    • a Kendrick fan@lemmy.ml
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      11 hours ago

      this sounds controversial but is actually the right thing to do, except the mass shooting part, reserve that for the c-suite, not the every day wage slaver

      sometimes i imagine a world in which organized autonomous activists take out these capitalists and it really feels within reach

      • 5dh@lemmy.zip
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        11 hours ago

        Mass shootings are never a solution, also not in C-suites. I don’t think anyone should be ‘taken out’.

              • 5dh@lemmy.zip
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                8 hours ago

                I can’t believe I’m arguing about whether there are people that should be killed or not. Of course not! Killing oil executives is not the only way to stop fossil fuel from being used. You’re a bad person if you’re seriously proposing this.

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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        10 hours ago

        Depends if they are ideologically driven or just replaceable puppets. Most are of the second kind.

        Israel would love to have some martyrs offered for their cause to whine about.

        I recall an article about an Amazon employee going mad about his working conditions and shooting other workers in the warehouse. Don’t think he directed his anger correctly.