On Tuesday, December 11 at 7pm in Room 6-120, we will be hosting a conversation about #MeToo and worker power. It'll focus on last month's walkout at Google, and we'll be joined by one of the leading organizers of the walkout at the Google Cambridge office. 

The Google walkout may have been the largest international action in modern labor history. It saw 20,000 employees walk off the job at some 50 offices around the world. The immediate cause of the walkout was the revelation of Google’s cover-up of sexual misconduct by Andy Rubin, a former top executive and the creator of the Android operating system. 

In their statement, the organizers of the walkout called for a workplace free of “the sexual harassment, discrimination and the systemic racism that fuel this destructive culture.” They also put forward five clear demands, including an end to forced arbitration in cases of harassment and discrimination. Google conceded this demand only one week later—although the organizers' other demands remain unmet.

The fight continues. But the lesson is clear: collective action works. The Google walkout marks an important escalation of tactics for workers at Google and within the tech industry more broadly. It also belongs to a wider cycle of tech worker mobilizations that have intensified over the past year, as workers have organized against their companies' contracts with the Pentagon, ICE, and CBP.

This is an important moment to open up the conversation and build connections among workers across companies and across industries. Please join us on December 11, as we explore how to continue building solidarity at Google and beyond.

~~~~

Ben Tarnoff, a tech worker, Guardian columnist, and founding editor of Logic magazine, has partnered with Radius to create important programing around tech justice issues. We met Ben and his wife, Moria Weigel, also an author and activist, when they hosted a workshop during MIT's Day of Action 2018. Listen to this Radio Open Source program from December 6 featuring Ben and Moira.