September, 21 2018, 12:00am EDT
Protests Planned for Dreamforce Conference
Human and digital rights groups are planning on demonstrating at next week’s Dreamforce conference as Salesforce refuses to drop contract with US Border Patrol
WASHINGTON
Organizations including Fight for the Future, Color of Change, Demand Progress, Defending Rights and Dissent, Mijente, Presente.org, RAICES, and Sum of Us have all launched petitions totaling in more than 300,000 people asking Salesforce co-CEOs Marc Benioff and Keith Block to cancel their contract with border patrol. Now these same organizations intend to organize protests at Dreamforce, Salesforce's flagship conference next week.
Salesforce executives have continually refused, made excuses, and attempted to sweep the issue under the rug. In response, RAICES, one of the nation's leading immigrants rights groups, recently refused a $250,000 donation from Salesforce, and Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters pulled out of catering their flagship conference, Dreamforce.
The Dreamforce demonstrations are planned for September 25th. More information will be released soon. See DropSalesforce.com for more on the campaign.
Leaders from the coalition issued these statements:
"Our presence will be known at Dreamforce" said Jelani Drew, campaigner at Fight for the Future, "Big tech companies, like Salesforce, are helping agencies like ICE and CBP make it easier to spy on, target, and strip people of their human rights. We won't be quiet about this."
"You don't get to claim you are a socially responsible corporation while profiting off of human misery," said Sue Udry, executive director at Defending Rights & Dissent. "We will be at Dreamforce to expose Salesforce's hypocrisy, and will continue to call them out until they cancel their contract with CBP."
"While Salesforce is partying at Dreamforce, children separated from their families at the border are having their dreams crushed. We're making our presence known at Dreamforce and inviting their headline speakers Al Gore and Will.i.am, their employees, and their clients to join our chorus and tell Marc Benioff: Cancel The Contract," said Tihi Hayslett of Demand Progress.
"Salesforce, through its contract with Customs and Border Patrol, is complicit in the forcible separation of families and in the racist detentions and deportations of black and brown immigrants. This is unacceptable," said Reem Suleiman, Senior Campaigner at SumOfUs. "Speakers at Dreamforce, Salesforce's annual conference, are in effect endorsing this relationship with CBP by not speaking out against this abuse. Shame on them."
"Salesforce has said many times that they are a socially responsible tech company but their work with CBP is in clear contradiction to their stated value, said Scott Roberts, Senior Campaign Director with Color of Change. Actions speak louder than words. Thousands of family have been torn apart and Salesforce continues to profit in the process. Everyone at Dreamforce this week needs to reflect on their responsibility for ending the cruel punishment, targeting and criminalizing of immigrants."
"CEO Marc Benioff continues to deny Salesforce's role in upgrading Trump's deportation machine as Trump grows his Border Patrol workforce with the help of Salesforce's Community Cloud. Stop downplaying your role in the suffering of our communities, and cancel the contract," said Marisa Franco, co founder of Mijente.
"Salesforce and its CEO Marc Benioff should not be in the business of caging our families and destroying our democracy," said Matt Nelson, Executive Director of Presente.org, the nation's largest online Latinx organizing group. "Salesforce cannot ask for our business by day and help lock up our families at night. We're demanding real leadership -- not just platitudes from the Salesforce cloud -- and our hundreds of thousands of members across the country will only support companies who are not afraid to protect our human rights."
Fight for the Future is a group of artists, engineers, activists, and technologists who have been behind the largest online protests in human history, channeling Internet outrage into political power to win public interest victories previously thought to be impossible. We fight for a future where technology liberates -- not oppresses -- us.
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Anthropic CEO 'Cannot in Good Conscience Accede' to Pentagon's AI Demand
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Amodei's blog post followed CBS News reporting earlier Thursday that "Pentagon officials on Wednesday night sent Anthropic their best and final offer in negotiations for use of the company's artificial intelligence technology."
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CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg said that attacks on the media are "a leading indicator of attacks on other freedoms, and much more needs to be done to prevent these killings and punish the perpetrators," adding that "we are all at risk when journalists are killed for reporting the news.”
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