Kick Google out of the hood

Manifestation on june 14, 2018 - 20:00 p.m.

Kick Google aus dem Kiez (14.06.2018)

Kicking Soccer-balls and hosting half-time interviews

 

Since we had decided to hold our manifestation with the slogan “Kick Google out of the hood!“ on the first match day of this years soccer world-cup, we thought to integrate soccer into it as well. We had the idea to furnish the Letters of the Google-logo, and to have them shot down with a soccer-ball. This way, we would be able to demonstrate our position against Google’s plans to open up a Google Campus in a playful manner. That worked out nicely, as you can see in the video (turn on the sound!).


Übrigens werden wir das daraus entstandene Spiel "Kick Google aus dem Kiez!" auch auf dem Reichenberger Straßenfest dabei haben. Dort könnt ihr Euch ausprobieren und sehen wieviel Spaß das macht!

Turning to politics now, it was important for us to not only give to neighbors and owners of small shops the possibility to speak up on our half-time-interviews, but also to other initiatives of the protest against the planned Google Campus and Google as a company, such as the “Counter Campus Project“ and “FuckOffGoogle!“.

 

Nice ideas of how to use the old power-station, Google wants to move into (called Umspannwerk in german), as a common, were also expressed on the mic: it could be made a space for social initiatives and services, with room for the development of visions, for Friedel 54 (a leftist social center that was evicted a year ago not far from the Umspannwerk), room for self-organization…


Screenshot der Webseite
Screenshot der Webseite

GAlts: Alternatives to Google Products

 

We also premiered our “Tech-booth“ on the manifestation. There, we presented the MAZI-Project: a so-called “DIY-network“, a local “mini-internet“ with limited reach and memory, which is independent of the “big“ internet and completely self-hosted and self-managed. It runs on a small and quite affordable mini-computer called Raspberry Pi, running on free/libre software. MAZI-Project aims at providing local communities with their own digital space. On the manifestation we used it as an “interactive flyer-distributer“: Users could log in and download our flyer, banner-motives of our fellow-campaigners in San Francisco and San Jose to print out or post within social media, a list of interesting links such as the website of the Deliverunion of the FAU in Berlin (which is a project aimed at organizing as a union bicyclists driving for the gig-economy of food-delivery), a questionnaire for determining the social value of small local shops and some more stuff.

 

You can see a screenshot of our “interactive flyer-distributer“-page on the right (german only).

We also distributed flyers with a list of providers of alternatives to Google products to encourage their usage - for example posteo or mailbox.org instead of Googlemail etc. The Alternatives on our list contain mainly commercial providers, but at least they take privacy seriously and your data is protected from getting used by Google to further the companies digital monopolies.

 

You can download our list here (german only for now...):

 

Download
Alternative Produkte
Alternativen.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Dokument 242.5 KB

(of course, this list ist not exhaustive. It contains products and services with which we have had good experiences ourselves. If you know other alternatives, write us)


We also got unexpected support by an activist of the Free Software Foundation Europe, who visited the manifestation out of personal interest, and seemed to make himself at home at our tech-booth, after loosening up. The Free Software Foundation Europe - in short: FSFE - runs the very interesting campaign “Free your Android!“, which is about freeing the operating system for smartphones “Android“ from Google products, replacing them with non-proprietary alternatives. Flyers of this campaign were laid out on our tech-booth as well to complement our flyer with Google Alternatives and the MAZI-Project.

 

Finally, a statement from “Larry Pageblank“, speaker for “FuckOffGoogle!“, who was also present at the manifestation:

 

“Let’s kick Google and its world out of our lives and spaces! By refusing a ‚Google Campus‘ in Kreuzberg we have an occasion - not only to say “Fuck off Google!“ - but also to organize in a decentralized way, to define what we want for the future of our lives offline and online. And by the practice of the kind of tools and communications that empower people, rather than surveil and control them: through free/libre software, decentralized digital services and end-to-end encryption. For instance, everyone in the neighborhood and beyond can start using https://search-fuckoffgoogle.net and immediately get unfiltered search results while being protected against surveillance of the searches and profiling.“

 

Authors note: You can change the language of your search under the “preferences“-tab in the upper right corner.

Press-realease of the NoGoogleCampus-Alliance

 

June 14, 20018, the NoGoogleCampus-Alliance will hold a manifestation in front of the Umspannwerk at Ohlauer Straße in Kreuzberg. The manifestation takes place as part of the protest against the establishment of a Google Campus in the building. The slogan of the manifestation, which is being held at the day of the first match of the soccer-world-cup, is “Kick Google out of the hood!“, and will contain soccer-elements. “We are thrilled to give our neighbors the opportunity to get sporty against Google after the first match of this years world-cup“, says Konstantin of the neighborhood-initiative Bizim Kiez, which is part of the alliance.

 

The protest against the Google Campus in Kreuzberg is directed at the establishment of business-structures of big tech-corporations within the residential areas around Görlitzer Park.

 

The manifestation starts at 20.00 Uhr in front of the Umspannwerk, Ohlauer Straße 43.

  

Find the link to our FB-Event (we are aware of the ambiguity of using FB. Unfortunately we have to rely to it for purposes of mobilisation.)

Download
Aushang "Kick Google aus dem Kiez"
181006_Kick-Google_farbig.pdf
Adobe Acrobat Dokument 1.7 MB


Panel-discussion

“Why Google is a bad neighbor“ on may 16, 2018

The pictures were provided by Freundeskreis Videoclips.


Video of the panel

 

We thank Freundeskreis Videoclips for filming the event.

 

Note: We are aware of the fact that youtube belongs to Google. Because of the content of the video, we still decided to embed the clip on our website.



Manifestation

"Google is a bad neighbor" on 18 December, 2017

Google is no innocent enterprise that moves to Kreuzberg by coincidence. The company chose the old power station (Umspannwerk in German) deliberately, as the neighborhood around it has been discovered as a resource for the Tech-Industry: After exploiting and gentrifying liberal San Francisco, its no liberal Kreuzberg’s turn. This development is just starting, and it will affect all those, who can still afford to live here, but will not accept the change of their neighborhood or cannot afford to live in gentrified Kreuzberg. That’s why we protest against Google moving to Kreuzberg.

Kundgebung: Google ist kein guter Nachbar (18.12.2017)

More than 200 people joined us for a video-manifestation in front of the Umspannwerk in Kreuzberg.

 

Combined with inputs by different speakers, we showed how rents (and evictions) developed in San Francisco after Tech-Companies moved into the city. We also played a solidarity-statement from John Anderson (ACORN, Toronto). See the video below in English.

 

Shoutouts to Beamaround who supported us with their equipment and practical help! 

 

Below you can download our leaflet, if you want to join our camapaign “Google is a bad neighbor“:

Download
Campaign-Flyer
google-is-a-bad-neighbor_campaign_eng.pd
Adobe Acrobat Dokument 202.8 KB

John Anderson (Toronto ACORN head organizer) sent us a solidarity-statement for our manifestation.

ACORN stands for “Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now“.

 

ACORN Canada is an independent organization with more than 100.000 members and over 20 neighborhood-chapters in 9 cities all over Canada. You can find more infos on ACORN Canada and on Twitter.

Grußbotschaft anlässlich der Kundgebung "Google ist kein guter Nachbar"