Philly Workers March for Palestine Protests Against Israel, Militarized Robots

  • April 15, 2024 1:04 am

from Unicorn Riot

Philadelphia, PA — On Saturday, April 13, local groups protested Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed 33,000 Palestinians according to the latest figures. The march gathered in Clark Park.

Organizers say that workers and unions are sending the message today. The Philly Palestine Coalition says groups involved include the Labor for Black Lives Coalition, Healthcare Workers for Palestine, Philly IWW, TNG Local 10/CWA Local 38010, SEIU Healthcare PA, Unity Caucus, Philly Tenants Union, & Workers World Party. According to the post, “Our goal is clear: to stand in unwavering solidarity with Palestinian workers and communities. Together, let’s demand more than just a ‘ceasefire now’ – let’s demand justice and equality for all.”

See this livestream on YouTube, Facebook or X (Twitter)

One key focus of Saturday’s march is the company Ghost Robotics which makes what organizers call “killer robots” for Israel’s military; the company’s Vision 60 “dog robot” was reportedly used for IDF experiments in the Gaza Strip.

On April 4 a rally at the University of Pennsylvania kicked off the “Shut Down Ghost Robotics“ campaign. Pics below from the April 4 event:

Since the April 4 event we have been checking more into Ghost Robotics and have some additional information to release later. We also have a report from a March 28 protest at Day & Zimmermann, a munitions manufacturer for the IDF headquartered in Philadelphia.

An Introduction to the Ghost Robotics Corporation

  • March 6, 2024 1:57 am

Submission

Ghost Robotics Corporation is a Philadelphia-based robotics company. They are located in the Pennovation Works compound in the Grays Ferry neighborhood in South Philly. They specifically cater to the military and “defense” markets. This article will go over some basic information about the company that readers opposed to colonialism, militarism, technological advancement, or gentrification may find interesting. Others are encouraged to verify this research and supplement it with their own.

Ghost Robotics is best known for their robot dogs. The robot dog, officially known as the VISION 60 Q-UGV, is billed as a “mid-sized high-endurance, agile and durable all-weather ground drone.” It is being used by US and foreign militaries, border security, and commercial companies. The robot is able to operate autonomously to some degree or accept real time instruction from a human operator via remote control. The dog has the capability of accepting add-ons, the most controversial of which have been weapons such as SWORD’s SPUR (basically an unmanned sniper rifle). Researchers have also put together a “guide to combat robot war dogs” that addresses dealing with Spot, a very similar robot dog developed by Boston Dynamics, which is linked below.

Those opposed to the war on Gaza, and Israeli colonization generally, may be interested to know that Ghost Robotics Corporation partners with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Rafael is Israel’s national R&D defense laboratory, developing and producing weapons for the Israeli Occupation Forces. The Ghost Robotics website touts its “cutting edge solutions addressing defense, homeland, and enterprise customer needs.” In an article on The National Interest a journalist covers a demonstration of Rafael using a robot dog from Ghost Robotics alongside a Raven drone to “clear nine rooms and identify the threats there.” An archived version of the article is linked at the end.

In addition to the roboticization of war and policing, and assistance in the genocide of Palestinians, Ghost Robotics Corporation is also part of the Lower Schuylkill Master Plan. The master plan is a scheme concocted by University of Pennsylvania, the City of Philadelphia, and corporate interests to develop the lower Schuylkill River into an “Innovation District,” a “Logistics Hub,” and an “Energy Corridor.” The Pennovation Works compound that Ghost Robotics is located in is an early step in creation of the “Innovation District” along the Schuylkill in South and South West Philly. This same district threatens the Bartram’s Garden area with a bio-technology campus. Also of note is that the master plan’s “Logistics Hub” is responsible in part for the destruction of South Philly’s FDR meadows, building an artificial wetland in FDR Park to offset having destroyed wetlands by the Philadelphia Airport. The Lower Schuylkill Master Plan and the zine Fuck A “Cellicon Valley” are linked below.

Links and Information

Ghost Robotics Corporation

Address
Ghost Robotics Corporation
3401 Grays Ferry Ave, Bldg 200, 2nd Fl
Philadelphia, PA 1914

Website
ghostrobotics.io

Contact
sales@ghostrobotics.io
vendors@ghostrobotics.io
careers@ghostrobotics.io
press@ghostrobotics.io

Social Media
instagram.com/ghostrobotics
linkedin.com/company/ghostrobotics
twitter.com/ghost_robotics

Staff
CEO and co-founder Gavin Kenneally
CTO and co-founder Avik De
President and chief executive Jiren Parikh (died March 2022)

Guide to combat against robot war dogs
https://www.jwz.org/blog/2021/02/guide-to-combat-against-robot-war-dogs/

Archived News Article Regarding Relation With Israeli defense company Rafael
https://web.archive.org/web/20230206160050/https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/how-israel-brings-together-robots-and-ai-lethal-combo-175518

More Information About Rafael
https://web.archive.org/web/20130514133537/http://duns100.dundb.co.il/ts.cgi?tsscript=comp_eng&duns=600024863
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Advanced_Defense_Systems
http://www.rafael.co.il/

Pennovation Works
https://pennovation.upenn.edu

Lower Schuylkill River Master Plan
https://www.design.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/LSMP_Exec.pdf

Fuck A “Cellicon Valley” zine

Fuck A “Cellicon Valley” Zine

When the Hood Comes Off: Racism and Resistance in the Digital Age

  • August 13, 2023 1:02 am

from Making Worlds Books

Advanced registration is encouraged. Please click here to RSVP.

Join us as we dive into the profound insights of “When the Hood Comes Off” by Rob Eschmann, in conversation with Desmond Patton. “When the Hood Comes Off” examines the alarming manifestations of online racism and the innovative antiracist tactics rising to combat it. Through rigorous research and captivating personal narratives, Eschmann explores the impact of online racism on communities of color and society at large. Don’t miss this timely opportunity to explore the unexpected power of digital technologies, engage in thought-provoking discussions, and discover how we can respond to the wake-up call of online racism.

About the Speakers:

Rob Eschmann is a writer, scholar, filmmaker, and educator from Chicago. He is Associate Professor of Social Work and a member of the Data Science Institute at Columbia University, as well as Faculty Associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.

Desmond Upton Patton, a pioneer in the interdisciplinary fusion of social work, communications, and data science, is the Brian and Randi Schwartz University Professor, with joint appointments in the School of Social Policy & Practice and the Annenberg School for Communication along with a secondary appointment in the department of psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine.

About the Book:

From cell phone footage of police killing unarmed Black people to leaked racist messages and even comments from friends and family on social media, online communication exposes how racism operates in a world that pretends to be colorblind. In When the Hood Comes Off, Rob Eschmann blends rigorous research and engaging personal narrative to examine the effects of online racism on communities of color and society, and the unexpected ways that digital technologies enable innovative everyday tools of antiracist resistance.

Drawing on a wealth of data, including interviews with students of Color around the country and analyses of millions of social media posts over the past decade, Eschmann investigates the influence of online communication on face-to-face interactions. When the Hood Comes Off highlights the power of the internet as an organizing tool, and shows that online racism can be a profound wake-up call. How will we respond?

  • Sunday, August 20, 2023
  • 4:00 PM 5:30 PM
  • Making Worlds Bookstore & Social Center 210 South 45th Street Philadelphia, PA, 19104 United States (map)

Neo-Luddite Reading Group

  • June 20, 2023 1:03 am

from Victor Gomes

Time and Place:

“Enoch” made them, Enoch shall break them.”

Contact:
neoluddite@victorgom.es
@notnaughtknot 2nd & 4th Tuesday each month 6:30-8:30 @ Iffy Books

Discord: Email neoluddite@victorgom.es for an invite!

Beggining Tuesday, June 27th

You may have played around with chatGPT, or perhaps even used DALL-e to generate images from text. Though Large Language Models have been around since 2018, they’re currently dominanting the news thanks to the public release of these newer, even larger models. While impressive, like many technologies, they come at a cost and introduce new risks. However, there are specific issues related to the sheer scale of these models and they highlight the dangers of machines which allow for the consolidation of labor.

These issues are especially concerning given the lack of regulation in the tech industry generally, and the tendency of productivity-increasing technology to further concentrate power in the hands of the few. This reading group will explore these risks and engage with how they work in the hopes of better organizing to protect the rights of workers and individuals. The goal is to have a better understanding of the costs (data, carbon, human labor) and risks (misinformation, unpredictability, bias) of making these machines, as well as limitations in what they can learn about the world primarily through text. We will begin with “Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence” by Dan McQuillan, with additional optional readings. If you’d like to learn more about me, you can visit victorgom.es for a bio.

Schedule

The only expectation is that you read the chapter(s) of the book that’s listed for that meeting. I tried keeping it around 30 pages on average. Even if you don’t read the assigned chapters, you’re still welcome to participate as long as you are mindful.

For each chapter, I’ve also noted some optional readings for context, so I’d suggest checking those out rather than reading ahead in the book! Optional readings are by no means required, but they may add to and deepen our conversation. They’re a mix of news articles, essays, and journal articles, so you can pick from type of text is most engaging to you. They pull from a range of disciplines and schools of thought, which I hope serves to highlight and survey how many different people conceptualize issues with AI, though it is by no means exhaustive. If you ever find yourself struggling, reach out! Either directly or over discord to the group.

I’d suggest you read this before anything else for some historical context: What the Luddites Really Fought Against by Richard Conniff. The Luddites will also comes up in Chapter 6.

June discussion: Industrial society and its future

  • June 18, 2023 1:54 am

from Viscera

Join us on Sunday, June 25th from 1-3 for our next anarchist reading discussion! In light of Ted K’s passing, we’ll be reading “Industrial society and its future.”

Never forget that the human race with technology is just like an alcoholic with a barrel of wine.

The entire piece can be found here.

As usual, we’ll be meeting in Clark Park near the chess tables. This piece is a bit long, so you might want to get started early!

🎥 Machines in Flames (2022)

  • May 23, 2023 1:51 am

from Iffy Books

May 27 @ 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Promo image for the film "Machines in Flames," a film by Thomas Dekeyser & Andrew Culp, with a photo of an office building at night and the tagline "following the footsteps of a clandestine group of French computer workers from the 1980s...." Text at the top left reads, "Sat, May 27th at 8 p.m. / Iffy Books / 319 N. 11th St. #2I, PHL"

On Saturday, 5/27 we’re screening the film Machines in Flames at 8 p.m., followed by a virtual Q&A with the filmmakers.

Machines in Flames (2022, 50min) finds a secret history of destruction by following the footsteps of a clandestine group of French computer workers from the 1980s.

In 1980s Toulouse, an elusive group began bombing computer companies. ‘CLODO’ disappeared after three years, without ever being caught or ever to be heard of again. Two film makers launch an investigation into CLODO, looking for answers, motivations and identities, but are soon frustrated by a collective that struck in the dead of night, leaving in their tracks only ashes and the sporadic line of cryptic graffiti. The film combines archival traces, a viral desktop choreography, and late-night video recordings of CLODO’s targets into a meditation on computation, destruction, and the lure of archives.

Presented by the South Philly Autonomous Cinema Association.

April discussion: The Technological Society

  • April 9, 2023 1:14 am

from Viscera

Join us Sunday, April 16th from 1-3 in Clark Park near the chess tables for our next anarchist reading discussion! We’ll be reading some excerpts from Jacques Ellul’s The Technological Society!

Technique must reduce man to a technical animal, the king of the slaves of technique. Human caprice crumbles before this necessity; there can be no human autonomy in the face of technical autonomy. The individual must be fashioned by techniques, either negatively (by the techniques of understanding man) or positively (by the adaptation of man to the technical framework), in order to wipe out the blots his personal determination introduces into the perfect design of the organization.

We’ll be reading three sections of Chapter One (Machines and Technique, Science and Technique and Organization and Technique) and a section of Chapter Two (The Autonomy of Technique). Find the readings after the links!

Philly Antifa Mastodon

  • December 6, 2022 1:21 am

from Philly Antifa

We are on Mastodon – cuz fuck twitter! We will remain on twitter but it may not be for long. Mastodon

intro to internet security and tails

  • November 28, 2022 1:10 am

from Instagram

Security Culture for Activists Workshop at FDR Meadows

  • September 22, 2022 1:22 am

from Iffy Books

September 29 @ 6:00 am – 7:30 pm

Flyer image with a rainbow gradient background, a simplified illustration of an index finger covering lips in the "shh" position, and the following text: Security Culture for Activists / free workshop! / Thurs 9/29 6:00 p.m. / FDR Meadows Picnic Grove (behind the big red barn) / 1954 Pattison Ave. at FDR Park / Presented by Iffy Books

At this workshop we’ll discuss strategies for maintaining privacy when working on activist projects. We’ll focus on ways location data from your phone can be used against you, and how to keep you and your friends safe.

➡️ This workshop is part of Meadowfest, a series of events at the FDR Meadows from September 24th to October 2nd. Click here to learn more.

Anti-Computer Discussion Group

  • August 3, 2022 1:17 am

Submission

Here & Now presents:
Anti-Computer Discussion Group

August 18th
6pm
Clark Park by the chess tables

This is a discussion group, come having read the material if possible.

“Our society of “IF… GO TO”, codified, aligned, controlled, this society where we connect like trains in a rail yard, desperately hoping to reduce chance and cancel the revolt, where those in power consider themselves the indispensable designer or analyst, where the binary and the quantitative are supposed to solve the crisis, this society in which we live is unbearable and inhuman.”

Memory Loss: Collected Communiques from CLODO
https://anon.to/U6K7Jq

August virtual anarchist discussion: Cyber-nihilism

  • July 25, 2020 12:10 am

from Viscera

Join us Saturday, August 1st for our next virtual reading discussion and hang-out! We went into the woods with Seaweed last time, and this time we’ll be reading something… a little different.

There is no human nature, whether that be a natural state of “wildness”, or killing each other if there’s no State, or cooperating perfectly in mutual aid in an anarcho-communist society, or whatever. Cyber-nihilists reject all essentialism and are viciously misanthropic, and therefore we also fully support the proliferation of technology. Let it cover the Earth’s surface until there is nothing that is not a part of the Wired, let Nature complete its next metamorphosis into something more sublime than anything to exist yet.

Our next reading is Hello from the Wired and its afterwords by n1x. You can find the essay on the anarchist library here – the afterwords are on their website along with the essay in hot pink text. You can also find it in aesthetic zine form with lots of screenshots from Serial Experiments Lain here.

As usual, we’ll be meeting on jitsi in room Viscerapvd – the password changes each time, so contact us beforehand! Casual discussion from 1:30-2:30, reading discussion until 4!