NOAA (No Azure for Apartheid) In Protest Action at Microsoft SF Ignite Event

Photos: Leon Kunstenaar

(San Francisco, Nov. 18) - No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA) protested outside the conference at the Moscone Center as thousands of attendees made their way in and out of the venue. Protesters marched from Yerba Buena Gardens to Moscone West, while flyering, drumming, and chanting "say it loud and say it clear, Microsoft is a war profiteer," "Microsoft you can't hide, You sell tech for genocide," and "free free Palestine."

At Moscone West, protesters confronted conference-goers while security attempted to lock down the venue, barricade entrances, and blast music to drown out the chanting, which was heard throughout the venue.

Protestors spoke about the need to continue protesting Microsoft's continued complicity in Israel's genocide in Palestine even after the insufficient cut to a few Microsoft services to a single Israeli military unit.

Patrick Fort also joined the protest following his disruption and spoke to the discontent and anger of many employees who have demanded Microsoft completely end its involvement with the Israeli military.

Protesters then chalked the sidewalk outside the entrance to Moscone West, writing messages like "Microsoft kills kids" and "IOF off Azure." Throughout the day, an ad truck circled the conference area, displaying a message that read "Microsoft Ignites Genocide" with a graphic showing Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, with a flame behind his face and a call to action to take action against the company's complicity.

In addition to the protests in San Francisco, activists took their protests to other Microsoft locations throughout the US and the world.

Earlier in the day, Irish activists with the group Your Tech Their Deaths held a protest at Microsoft's European hub in Dublin, Ireland, where they demanded Microsoft fully divest from Israel. Protestors distributed flyers to Microsoft workers, waved Palestinian and Irish flags and held banners and signs highlighting the similarities between the systems of oppression inflicted by foreign occupiers on Ireland and Palestine.

Microsoft’s Dublin office is a central hub for European, Middle Eastern, and African sales and services, which includes services to Israel.

Across the other side of the world, protests targeted Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, WA. Just before lunch hour, NOAA organizers and local Seattle partners began a protest at the Redmond Technology Station near the company's main campus.

Protesters then marched to the pedestrian bridge connecting East and West campus, where they distributed flyers and zines to passing workers, delivered speeches implicating Microsoft in crimes against humanity in Palestine, and raised a banner drawing with a message that read "Ignite the Worker Intifada."

Simultaneously, protesters roamed across campus on bikes, donning Palestinian flags and keffiyehs, chanting in support of cutting ties with Israel.

 - Earlier today, Microsoft worker Patrick Fort resigned in protest during his disruption of Judson Althoff, Microsoft CEO of Commercial Business, who was delivering the keynote speech at the Microsoft Ignite conference. Protests took place outside the conference venue in San Francisco, as well as at Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond and at a Microsoft European hub in Ireland.

Moments before Althoff's keynote was to wrap up, Fort, a Senior Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft, disrupted the address, while he was sharing the stage with Adobe CEO, Shantanu Narayen.

Fort shouted: "Hey, Judson! The blood of the children of Gaza is on our hands, Judson! I worked at Microsoft for seven years and I resign today!" 

Shortly afterwards, Fort sent out a mass resignation email to thousands of Microsoft workers, which read, in part, "To do nothing is to be complicit ... Whatever your situation is, I encourage you to resist what is happening in the way that is best for you."