197. The Limits of Tech Inquiry

We discuss recent events of a report by Tech Inquiry about big tech’s military contracts was pulled by its funders — a major union and a major social democratic party — over Tech Inquiry’s refusal to censor its criticism of Microsoft. We offer our own critical analysis of organizations focused on building short-term, self-interested alliances with capital instead of ones focused on building long-term, worker power that is antagonistic to capital. Some references: ••• On the censorship of our report on government purchasing from Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet https://techinquiry.org/?about=UNI-censorship&guard= ••• Labor union censored report criticizing Microsoft’s military contracts https://theintercept.com/2022/09/07/microsoft-military-union-cwa/ ••• German SPD politician justifies murder of Rosa Luxemburg https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/01/18/thie-j18.html Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills Grab TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/ Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)