No Tech for Apartheid Memory: Oral Histories of Google Worker Organizing

Author

Zelda Montes, CUNY Graduate CenterFollow

Date of Degree

2-2026

Document Type

Master's Capstone Project

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Program

Digital Humanities

Advisor

Aránzazu Borrachero

Subject Categories

Digital Humanities | Oral History

Keywords

Digital memory archives, oral history, labor organizing for Palestine, resistance memory, NYC

Abstract

The NOTA Google NYC Digital Memory Archive is a digital memory project centering the worker narrative in tech labor struggles in the wake of the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. Rooted in my dual experiences as a Google Software Engineer and a No Tech for Apartheid organizer, this capstone project, initially created in 2024, seeks to combat the silencing around the nature of labor organizing through expanding upon the existing archive to incorporate oral history testimonies of NOTA organizers (notechforapartheidmemory.com/interviews). After conducting 4 oral history interviews with former Google workers currently based in NYC, the videos were edited and captioned using Final Cut Pro, compressed using HandBrake, uploaded to a private DigitalOcean Spaces bucket, and linked in newly added HTML sub-pages to the archive site. Given the sensitivity of the interviews I was entrusted with, I took precautions to ensure that the tools I used for this capstone project did not compromise the ownership and confidentiality of the data. This project explores the stewardship of oral history, production of long-form resistance media, and development of technological infrastructures of labor cyber-resistance through digital memory archives. Throughout this white paper, I discuss the challenges, successes, and learnings from undergoing the tedious, yet rewarding, editing and captioning process manually, while inviting varied labor perspectives in testimonies from other NOTA Google NYC organizers.

Although NOTA has a presence in Google and Amazon offices throughout the country and internationally, the scope of this project is limited to NOTA Google organizers currently based in NYC, given the pre-existing nature of my relationships with workers here. It is important to note that the experiences of workers in NYC, while being representative of NOTA at-large, do not cover all possible experiences. Nonetheless, the testimonies yield much-needed insights into organizing labor resistance within the tech industry during a time in which technofascism takes new oppressive forms.

Comments

Online componenet: https://notechforapartheidmemory.com/interviews/

Recommended Citation

Montes, Zelda, "No Tech for Apartheid Memory: Oral Histories of Google Worker Organizing" (2026). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6564