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100+ Musical Acts Boycott SXSW Over US Army, Defense Contractor Ties
"That the organizers of SXSW have taken the decision to mix the arts with the military and weapons contractors is unforgivable," said one band from Northern Ireland.
Mar 14, 2024
More than 100 musical acts have pulled out of the music and cultural festival South by Southwest in protest of the event's close ties to the U.S. Army and numerous defense contractors which have displayed exhibits at the week-long gathering, with one hip hop trio from Northern Ireland saying they would face a "significant financial impact" due to the decision.
The financial loss, said the Belfast-based band Kneecap, "isn't an iota of hardship when compared with the [unimaginable] suffering being inflicted every minute of every day on the people of Gaza."
The Austin For Palestine Coalition (AFPC) has been campaigning in the Texas state capital for several weeks to push bands and speakers to boycott the festival, which is commonly known as SXSW and has been based in Austin since 1987.
Out of at least 105 performers that had announced they are boycotting this year's event as of Wednesday, 60 were from the United Kingdom. All 12 Irish bands that had been scheduled to participate have canceled their appearances.
"That the organizers of SXSW have taken the decision to mix the arts with the military and weapons contractors is unforgivable," said Kneecap in a statement posted to social media. "That they have done so as we witness a genocide facilitated by the U.S. military and its contractors is depraved."
The U.S. is the largest international financial backer of the IDF, providing Israel with nearly $4 billion per year. The Biden administration has also approved numerous weapons sales to Israel since the current escalation began in response to a Hamas-led attack on the country on October 7.
The American musician Ella Williams, also known as Squirrel Flower, noted in her announcement that the International Court of Justice said in January that Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in Gaza.
"A music festival should not include war profiteers," said Williams. "I refuse to be complicit in this and [withdraw] my art and labor in protest."
AFPC condemned the Army's sponsorship of SXSW as well as festival organizers' decision to welcome defense contractors including RTX, also known as Raytheon; Collins Aerospace; and BAE Systems as participants.
RTX and Collins Aerospace, its subsidiary, make missiles, bombs, and aircraft components that are used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which has killed at least 31,341 Palestinians in Gaza since beginning its U.S.-backed bombardment of the enclave in October.
Rania Batrice, a Palestinian American progressive advocate, also announced Wednesday that she was canceling a speaking engagement at the festival.
"As a Palestinian and a human," said Batrice, "I cannot be part of such a callous convening that platforms and celebrates an entity like RTX, which has caused so much death and destruction, and is now complicit in the genocide of my people—including far too many children."
As the boycott grew, SXSW organizers this week defended the contractors, which have participated as exhibitors and sponsored events at the festival, as "leaders in emerging technologies" who "bring forward ideas that shape our world."
They added that "the situation in the Middle East is tragic" and said the festival supports "human rights for all"—a response AFPC called "empty" and "performative."
"These empty words touting 'justice' did not do a great job hiding the fact that SXSW IS forcing musicians to be in bed with warmongers," said the group.
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Snowden SXSW Talk a 'Call to Arms' to Tech World
Whistleblower chose technology conference platform to urge the 'innovators, makers, hackers, geeks' to build a more secure system
Mar 10, 2014
In his first live video appearance since his earth-rattling disclosures, National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden spoke before audiences at the South by Southwest (SXSW) technology, music and film conference in Austin, Texas on Monday.
Edward Snowden and ACLU at SXSW (non-optimized audio version)Take Action: https://www.aclu.org/immunity4snowden More information: https://www.aclu.org/nsa-surveillance Edward Snowden ...
With a live stream provided by the Texas Tribune, the world was able to witness the conversation between Snowden and Christopher Soghoian, the American Civil Liberties Union's principal technologist. The talk focused specifically on the impact of the NSA's vast dragnet operations on the technology community and ways in which users can protect themselves from mass surveillance.
According to the event program, the whistleblower will use this platform to "urge the entrepreneurs, innovators, makers, hackers, geeks, founders, investors and leading-edge thinkers who attend SXSW Interactive to build better systems that better protect user privacy."
The conversation was moderated by Ben Wizner, Snowden's legal advisor and director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy & Technology Project.
In an interview published Sunday, Wizner told Kashmir Hill at Forbes Magazine that Snowden had chosen SXSW as a means to "reintroduc[e] himself," specifically to the community of people who are interested in--and potentially carry the solution to--the ways in which security has been compromised by intelligence agencies.
"The tech community, particularly people worried about security, has been radicalized by these disclosures. They now see that their threat model needs to include the NSA as an adversary if they are going to protect their systems," Wizner said. "We were hoping that here we could have a more elevated conversation about the technology side [of debates regarding NSA surveillance]. What does the technology community need to know? How should they respond? Is it a lost cause or not? Are there things we can do at the technological level that will not require us to wait for dysfunctional legislatures to fix the problem for us?"
"I think this is a community that will welcome this chance to have a conversation with Ed Snowden," Wizner continued. "Ed can still do the Oprah interview one day if that's what he wants to do. But we're not here to talk about his personal life, or what he does every day, or what any network journalist would have to ask. We're here to talk about the issues. It's a call to arms."
Ahead of the talk, the ACLU released an online petition calling on President Obama to grant Snowden "full immunity for his patriotic acts."
"When Snowden blew the whistle on the NSA, he single-handedly reignited a global debate about government surveillance and our most fundamental rights as individuals," reads the statement attached to the petition which, as of Monday morning, had garnered 44,582 signatures.
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