The Download: protecting tech workers, and Canada’s wildfire emissions
—Stephen McMurtry is a Google Software Engineer and Communications Chair of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA
Tangled up in the contest to be the next US president, there is another battle brewing: Silicon Valley vs. Silicon Valley. In Donald Trump’s corner are venture capitalists like Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel, along with executives like Elon Musk. In the other are execs like LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and SV Angel investing mogul Ron Conway, who are backing Kamala Harris. Democracy appears to be at stake, and the weapon of choice is cold hard cash.
Yet as an elected board member of the Alphabet Workers Union, an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America, I urge Americans to take a step back and look critically at the picture in front of us. No matter who wins in November, Silicon Valley’s bosses are positioning themselves for victory.
Tech’s elite have long been the biggest winners in the US economy, and the movement to organize tech workers seeks to hold that elite accountable. If the next president favors our bosses’ interests over our own, the consequences could be dire for all working people in this country and many others.
We know how to fight back against a future Trump administration because we have been there before. What’s less clear is whether and to what extent we can count on a Harris administration to be our ally. Read the full story.
Canada’s 2023 wildfires produced more emissions than fossil fuels in most countries
Last year’s Canadian wildfires smashed records, burning about seven times more land in Canada’s forests than the annual average over the previous four decades. Eight firefighters were killed and 180,000 people displaced.
