South by South-Which Side Are You On?
by Gumbo V.
Over two dozen artists who were scheduled to perform at South by Southwest in Austin, TX have announced that they are boycotting the festival in solidarity with Palestine and in protest of SXSW’s ties to military contractors. The artists include Squirrel Flower, Eliza McLamb, Proper, TC_Superstar, Mamalarky, The Curls, and many others, as well as author Dr. Devon Price.
The boycott announcements began flooding social media on Tuesday, 5 March 2024, just days before the festival was scheduled to kick off. The day before, the United Musicians and Allied Workers, a non-profit organization consisting of musicians and fellow travelers struggling for better pay and working conditions, announced their own demands of SXSW in solidarity with the Austin for Palestine Coalition’s “War Mongers out of SXSW” campaign. The Austin for Palestine Coalition consists of Austin-based organizations including Austin Democratic Socialists of America, the Party for Socialism and Liberation – Austin, Jewish Voice for Peace – Austin, the Palestine Solidarity Committee at UT Austin, and Austin With Palestine.
Austin for Palestine Coalition’s “War Mongers out of SXSW” campaign began on 21 February 2024 with an instagram post articulating a list of demands and a call to action:
We are protesting the inclusion of Raytheon (RTX), its subsidiary Collins Aerospace, and BAE Systems at the South By Southwest festivals and conference. Raytheon (RTX) manufactures missiles, bombs, and other weapon systems for the Israeli military to use against Palestinians. Collins Aerospace provides crucial components for military aircraft used by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). BAE Systems has supplied weapons and equipment used in the occupation of Palestinian territories. We urge that SXSW take the following actions:
We are protesting the inclusion of Raytheon (RTX), its subsidiary Collins Aerospace, and BAE Systems at the South By Southwest festivals and conference. Raytheon (RTX) manufactures missiles, bombs, and other weapon systems for the Israeli military to use against Palestinians. Collins Aerospace provides crucial components for military aircraft used by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). BAE Systems has supplied weapons and equipment used in the occupation of Palestinian territories. We urge that SXSW take the following actions:
1. Disinvite Raytheon, Collins Aerospace, and BAE Systems from the festival
2. Reevaluate the inclusion of agencies in the Department of Defense in events and discussions hosted by the festival.
3. Use its platform to raise awareness about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and advocate for peace, justice, and the protection of human rights.
The campaign began as a targeted email campaign directed towards the SXSW board of executives, including Co-President and Chief Programming Officer Hugh Forrest, Co-President and Chief Brand Officer Jann Basket, Chief Logistics Officer Michele Flores, Vice President of Film & TV Claudette Godfrey, and Chief Culture & People Officer Autumn Nicole Amuesca.
A material analysis of the festival’s conditions included understanding whose labor SXSW profits from, and how that labor might be wielded to amplify demands. Members of the Austin for Palestine Coalition representing Austin DSA and the Austin chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation thus reached out to United Musicians and Allied Workers and the Austin Federation of Musicians local 433 to determine how organized labor could stand in solidarity with Palestinian liberation.
This is far from the first time that artists have protested SXSW. Just last year, UMAW and AFM 433 began their Fair Pay for Fair Play at SXSW campaign due to stagnant pay rates for artists for over a decade. The stakes are even higher in 2024, as the entire world watches a genocide be livestreamed in real time and the companies that manufacture weapons to perpetuate it are invited to speak about their “innovations” at SXSW’s opening Startup Crawl on 8 March. In April 2021, SXSW was acquired by mass media conglomerate Penske Media Corporation, and the organized labor behind SXSW’s cultural legacy have drawn direct connections between the corporatization of SXSW, the festival’s refusal to pay artists a fair wage and provide labor protections, and its platforming of genocidal military-industrial companies.
Penske Media Corporation (PMC) is owned by founder Jay Penske, heir to father, Roger Penske’s, transportation company Penske Corporation, Inc. known for its truck rentals service and racing investments. Jay Penske has been compared to Rupert Murdoch and William Randolph Hearst for his amassing of media holdings, including Rolling Stone, Variety Magazine, Deadline, IndieWire, and over two dozen other brands. The comparison is especially prescient as both media moguls are notorious for their mass accumulation of capital at the direct expense of their workers, Murdoch for his forced displacement of the working class Wapping neighborhood of London and Randolph Hearst for being the target of the 1899 Newsies Strike
There is no small irony in the corporatization of South by Southwest. The shift towards being a “capitalist carnival for the young and energetic” has been decried for many years and is part and parcel with Austin’s rise as the so-called Silicon Valley of the South. Regardless of its corporatization, however, one is left to wonder: what place do military contractors and the U.S. Department of Defense have at a music and film festival?
As stated above, the musicians’, cultural laborers’, and Austin for Palestine Coalition’s demands are quite simple:
- Remove and deplatform the companies with public and explicit ties to the Israeli genocide in Gaza;
- Reflect on what the festival has become such that the U.S Army, DoD, CIA, NSA, and many others have decided to make it a vessel for cultural warfare; and
- Use the global platform of SXSW for moral and material good
To contact that SXSW board with these demands at the click of a button, please visit: https://tinyurl.com/WarMongersOutSXSW
For more information about the Austin for Palestine Coalition, please visit https://austin4palestine.org/ and come to the Falasteen Street Museum during SXSW outside of Austin City Hall from 5pm-9pm on 8-10 March and 15-17 March!