rabble.coop news...
Supporting social movements
We’re delighted to launch our new website today. The site will provide information on our products & services and showcase our work with clients. We will also be blogging on all things tech-related: news, tutorials and guides, opinion pieces and the odd venting when the situation demands it. Give it a visit and get in touch with us if you have ideas for a project!
In 2024 rabble.coop worked with scores of trade unionists across Ireland to develop a Boycott Teva platform with Trade Union Friends of Palestine. Teva is an Israeli pharmaceutical company that benefits from apartheid and supplies chemists across Ireland. If you live in Ireland you can use it to contact your local pharmacy, health service officials and government ministers to call for a boycott of Teva products.
Over the New Year, we had the privilege of working with Conradh na Gaeilge, Ireland's language rights movement, to build a new campaigning platform - gníomh.ie. The action mobilised Irish speakers, learners and supporters across the island to push for strong commitments in the newly formed Irish government's Programme for Government.
Big Tech news...
“There has been a systematic campaign of intimidation and silencing of Arab and Palestinian voice”
Tech workers are continuing to disrupt the relationship between Big Tech and Zionism.
In October, Microsoft sacked 2 workers who organised a vigil at the company’s HQ in solidarity with people killed and wounded by the Israeli military. One of the sacked workers, Hossam Nasr said:
“There has been a systematic campaign of intimidation and silencing of Arab and Palestinian voices... Microsoft leaders and executives, if you think that firing us will in any way disrupt our movement or decelerate our campaign you could not be more mistaken."
This latest action was preceded in April by Google sacking 28 employees for protesting the company’s joint project with Amazon called Project Nimbus – an Articial Intelligence (AI) initiative with the Israeli government and military.
Speaking of AI, the emergence of DeepSeek as an open source alternative to proprietary AI models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT has shaken Big Tech’s model to the core. A relatively small Chinese startup, operating under Western sanctions, has managed to produce a publicly accessible AI model at a fraction of the price of those models financed by Western tech oligarchs. You can almost feel the sweaty panic in Silicon Valley and Wall Street. And what is more, unlike the Western models, DeepSeek is open source and freely available for innovation across the globe. Of course many of the ethical problems concerning the use of AI have not gone away, but ensuring that AI is not the preserve of a wealthy elite can be no bad thing.
Government news...
Public sector ditching Microsoft for digital sovereignty
30,000 German public sector workers in the state of Schleswig-Holstein are making the switch from Microsoft Windows to the free software operating system Linux. Officials cited IT security, cost efficiencies, greater flexibility and enhanced collaboration as reasons for the switch to Linux and open source. This move comes on the back of a finding by the European Data Commissioner that the use of Microsoft 365 by the European Commission breaches data protection laws.
The city Munich has also decided to switch its systems to Linux by 2026. Munich previously pioneered this approach in 2006, but subsequently changed their minds as Microsoft moved their German headquarters to Munich in 2016. The lengths Microsoft went to to retain the contract have been outlined in an interview with a former Munich Mayor.
rabble.coop has successfully supported non-governmental organisations and social movements to use Linux and other free software. If you are interested, give us a shout.
Movement news...
‘boycat’ - your friendly boycott tool
Boycotts can be problematic for participants. Figuring out which causes are worthy of support requires both ethical and practical considerations at the personal, family and community level. Deciding which products to prioritise in your boycott, particularly when you realise brands are owned by parent companies who control global supply chains, can be overwhelming. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has produced guidance differentiating targets and assisting people in their boycott priorities.
But it sounds like tech could help us a bit more...
The inspirational folk at Tech for Palestine have produced boycat – a barcode scanner app and browser extension that notifies you when you are considering purchasing products produced by companies benefiting from Israeli apartheid, occupation and genocide. Get it in any app store and download the extension to your browser.
Free Software: Pick of the Month…
OpenTalk - an open source Zoom alternative
Looking to ditch Zoom? You have good reason: they have censored pro-Palestine activists and seem to be morphing into a dystopian AI product aiming to create your "digital twin". But if you feel stuck on Zoom because of its dependability - you should check out OpenTalk.
OpenTalk is an emerging video conferencing platform based in Germany. They have all the features you’d need (conferencing, chat, polls, breakout rooms, screen sharing, etc), you can access it through your browser, their pricing structure is very reasonable and their servers are based in the EU and are GDPR compliant.
No piece of software is perfect in terms of its ownership model or performance, but if you want a video conferencing tool which more aligns more with your values – or at least doesn’t offend them – give OpenTalk a blast.
That’s us for now. If you haven’t done so already, sign up to our occasional (no more than quarterly) newsletter. As ever, if you have an idea for working with us, tell us about it!