Standing Up Against a Corporate Take Over of San José

Support Grows Against San Jose Google Campus

SV De-Bug - SV De-Bug - February 5, 2019 - 2 minute read

Editor's Note:

The #Google8 were arrested and detained on Dec 4th in protest of the public land sale to Google for a new downtown San Jose campus. Two months later they marched into their court date with community support and the message that opposition to this campus is not a crime and the land should be donated back to the community.

On December 4, 2018 eight people were arrested at San Jose City hall for protesting the 6.8million sq. ft. Google Campus set to be built next to Diridon Station in downtown San Jose.

The process for the proposed Google campus has been shrouded in mistrust, stemming from San Jose city staff and councilmembers signing NDA’s with Google – that although the city continues to defend and say have expired – it is Google who determines what information becomes public.

Two months later, the #Google8 marched to the courthouse with great community support against a corporate take over of San Jose.

Although the DA decided not to file charges against the 8 for now, charges can still be brought forward within a year - a tactic to intimidate others against speaking out about the project. But, this fight is not over.

Google and the larger tech companies expanding their reach into San Jose do not want to share – they are here to take over and push people out without consequence or a responsibility. We must push back!

Video by Samuel Tomsing
Image by Adrian Avila
Photo by Xanh Tran