Apartheid Technology

Apartheid Technology:
Hewlett-Packard’s Role in
Oppression, from South Africa
to Palestine to Massachusetts
Apartheid Technology: Hewlett-Packard’s Role in Oppression, from South Africa to Palestine to Massachusetts
2016
Page 1
Table of Contents
SummaryPage 1
Hewlett Packard, South Africa, & Israeli Apartheid:
“The Polaroid of Our Times”Page 2
HP in Israel-PalestinePage 3
HP in the United StatesPage 4
HP WorldwidePage 5
HP in MassachusettsPage 6
HP in CambridgePage 7
Appendix
Page 8
Photos from Left:
The Harvard Crimson
Active Stills
National Day Laborer Organizing Network
Summary:
O
n May 18, 2016, in Cambridge, MA, a new coalition called
Massachusetts Against Hewlett Packard (HP) launched a
campaign to end local and state spending on HP until the
company agrees to end its corporate complicity in Israeli apartheid,
U.S. deportations and mass incarceration. This report documents
the rationale for the campaign, including HP’s record of corporate
complicity in institutionalized racism and violence, as well as the
details of HP’s local and state contracts.
The report answers the following questions:
1. Why boycott HP?
2. Why focus on Massachusetts and on Cambridge?
3. How will ending these contracts influence positive change?
For more information and updates, please visit MassAgainstHP.org.
Hewlett Packard, South
Africa, & Israeli Apartheid:
“The Polaroid of Our Times”
F
orty-five years ago, in one of the inaugural
actions of the boycott-divestment movement against apartheid South Africa, over
100 Cambridge students, workers, and community members rallied at Polaroid headquarters in
Tech Square to launch the National
Movement Against Apartheid.1 The
rally was called to commemorate the
1960 Sharpeville Massacre and defend Polaroid Revolutionary Workers
Movement (PRWM) leaders Caroline
Hunter and Clyde Walton, who had
been fired by Polaroid for denouncing the company’s complicity in racist
oppression — from South African
apartheid to “Jim Crow practices” in
Massachusetts.2
ID card debates) to Israel, to South Africa.3
In November 1979, Cambridge residents voted
overwhelmingly to support divestment from
apartheid South Africa in a city-wide referendum;
the City Council followed by ordering the City
Treasurer and Retirement Board to divest from
companies doing business in South Africa —
including Hewlett-Packard, which sold computers to the racist apartheid regime.4
The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement — a global
movement against Israeli apartheid
and in solidarity with the Palestinian people, formed in response to
a call by Palestinian civil society in
20055 — has taken up the mantle of
nonviolent resistance to oppression,
inspired by the anti-apartheid movement. Like Polaroid in 1970, Hewlett-Packard develops and maintains the ‘nervous system’ of state
Caroline Hunter and Ken Williams
oppression: population registration
PRWM co-founders Caroline Hunter, (Photo: Caroline Hunter)
and surveillance. Polaroid created
a Polaroid chemist, and Ken Wilthe passbooks allowing white South
liams, a company photographer, beAfricans to confine and control black
gan their historic campaign after disSouth Africans, and HP creates the
covering that Polaroid ID-2 instant
biometric ID equipment (including ID
photograph technology was the
cards, fingerprinting, iris scans, and
linchpin of the apartheid regime’s
facial recognition) allowing Israelis
passbook system, used for registo confine and control Palestinians.
tration and control of black peoPolaroid’s 1977 withdrawal from
ple. After being fired from Polaroid, (Photo: Caroline Hunter)
South Africa marked a turning point
Hunter launched the People Against
in the international effort to end apartheid6. If HP
National ID Cards (PANIC) campaign to link Powithdraws from Israeli oppression, they impede
laroid ID systems to worldwide surveillance and
Israel’s ability to enforce a system of segregation.
repression enabled by high technology: from the
US (in the throes of COINTELPRO and national
3 Brenda Gayle Plummer (November 2012). In Search of Power: African
Americans in the Era of Decolonization, 1956–1974. Cambridge University
Press. 280–285
4 Knight, Richard (1986). US Computers in South Africa. The Africa Fund.
http://richardknight.homestead.com/files/uscomputers.htm
1 Science for the People Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 2 (May 1971). http://science-forthe-people.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/SftPv3n2s.pdf.
5 Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS, BDS Movement Website, https://bdsmovement.net/call, accessed on 5/12/16.
2 Baker, Jeffrey L (3/23/71). 100 Demonstrate Against Polaroid. The Harvard
Crimson. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1971/3/23/100-demonstrate-against-polaroid-pover-100
6 Houser, George M. (April 1978). Polaroids Dramatic Withdrawal from South
Africa. The Africa Fund. http://africanactivist.msu.edu/document_metadata.
php?objectid=32-130-C50
Apartheid Technology: Hewlett-Packard’s Role in Oppression, from South Africa to Palestine to Massachusetts
Page 2
However, just like Polaroid they won’t withdraw
without significant public pressure.
HP’s violence is not limited to Palestinians who,
like black South Africans during apartheid, are
often targeted for the development and testing of repressive technology.7 HP information
technology is used by US prison and immigration
officials, as well as militaries around the world, to
track and contain vulnerable populations.
Here in Massachusetts, HP holds a multi-million
dollar contract with the state to sell computers, printers, and servers to public institutions and municipalities, including the city of
Cambridge and it’s public school system.These
institutions may legally opt out of the contract at
any time and replace HP products and services
with comparably-priced alternatives. By ending
their contracts with HP, Massachusetts and its
voters can create an economic incentive for the
corporate giant to end its complicity with institutionalized racism and violence.
HP in Israel-Palestine
I
n Israel-Palestine, HP builds and operates the
basic information technology (IT) infrastructure for the Israeli occupation and blockade
of the West Bank and Gaza, and is a key partner
in the continuation of the apartheid regime.
HP is vital to the daily operation of Israeli apartheid in four key domains8:
• Checkpoints: HP company, Electronic Data
Systems (EDS), now Hewlett Packard Enterprise, is the prime contractor of the Basel system, an automated biometric access control
system employed within Israel’s checkpoint
and ‘Separation Wall’ apparatus. A small
portion of Israeli checkpoints separate
Palestinians from Israelis; most separate
Palestinians from other Palestinians. They
fragment and segregate the occupied Palestinian territories and populations through
electric fences, watchtowers, sensors, and
concrete barriers. Israel obtains the full biometric profile of virtually every Palestinian
over the age of 16, including fingerprints,
retinal scans, and facial recognition.9 The
checkpoint system separates Palestinian
workers from their jobs, farmers from their
land, students from their schools, patients
from hospitals,
and families
from each other.
Israeli authorities can revoke
work and travel
credentials at
any point.10
• ID Cards: Israel’s
system of biometric identification cards for
citizens and residents of Israel
lays the technical foundation
for the country’s ‘ethnocratic’ system of tiered
citizenship, which assigns rights and privileges by “nationality” (e.g. Jewish, Arab, or
Bedouin). Jewish Israelis’ IDs permit them to
live and travel throughout all of Israel proper,
and 60% of the West Bank. Palestinians are
split between four categories of identification: Citizen of Israel, East Jerusalem, West
Bank, and Gaza. These IDs form the basis
of rampant, de jure and de facto discrimination in housing, employment, marriage,
healthcare, education, and policing.
7 Israel’s Worldwide Role in Repression, International Jewish Anti-Zionist
Network. http://www.ijan.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/israels-worldwide-role-in-repression.pdf. accessed 5/12/16.
9 Lee, Thomas (6/29/14). HP’s Role in Israel Could Lead to Political Pressure, SF
Gate. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/HP-s-role-in-Israel-could-leadto-political-5588387.php#photo-5819368
8 Technologies of Control, Who Profits from the Israeli Occupation. http://www.
whoprofits.org/HP. Accessed 5/12/16.
10 Restrictions of Movement, B’Tselem. http://www.btselem.org/freedom_of_
movement/checkpoints_and_forbidden_roads. Accessed 6/12/16
Apartheid Technology: Hewlett-Packard’s Role in Oppression, from South Africa to Palestine to Massachusetts
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Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza need
special permits to leave that territory.11
• The Blockade of Gaza: HP provides broad IT
infrastructure and support services for the
Israeli Defense Forces, and the Israeli Navy
in particular. The Navy enforces the land and
sea blockade of the Gaza strip, a siege that
prevents adequate food, construction, and
medical supplies from entering the “open-air
prison.”12 Israel denies Palestinians in Gaza
the supplies necessary for repairing critical
power, water, and agriculture infrastructure damaged by periodic Israeli bombing
campaigns. Import, export, and travel restrictions have resulted in a collapse of economic
activity. High infant mortality and incidences
of otherwise preventable disease are direct
consequences of this blockade.13
• Illegal Settlements: HP directly contracts
with the municipal governments of Modi’in
Ilit and Ariel, two of the largest Jewish-only
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, piloting
a “Smart City” project that includes a settlement data storage system. Several of HP’s
close partners and subcontractors, including Matrix and Tact Testware, are based in
the settlements. Israel’s network of over 125
government sanctioned (but illegal under
international law) Jewish-only settlements
are home to about 550,000 residents, and
strategically constructed to annex maximum
Palestinian land, eliminating the feasibility
of establishing a geographically viable
Palestinian state.14
HP has become the target of boycott campaigns
around the world due to its complicity in Israeli
11 Identity Crisis: The Israeli ID System, Visualizing Palestine. http://visualizingpalestine.org/visuals/identity-crisis-the-israeli-id-system. Accessed 5/12/16.
12 Khalidi, Rashid (7/29/14). Collective Punishment in Gaza, The New Yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/collective-punishment-gaza
oppression of Palestinians, in response to the
BDS call. The Presbyterian Church divested
from HP in 201415, and dozens of student governments have called on their academic institutions to divest from HP. Campaigns against HP
are active in Los Angeles16, San Francisco17, and
London.18 In 2014, 1,000 activists with the Boston
for Palestine coalition marched on an HP conference.19
HP in the United States
I
n the United States, HP acts as a private
extension of the military and police, profiting
from the expansion of prisons, deportations,
surveillance, and military:
• Mass Surveillance: In the wake of September
11, HP CEO Carly Fiorina donated servers to the Bush National Security Agency
(NSA) that formed the basis of its illegal
domestic surveillance (“warrantless wiretapping”) program. Files
released by whistleblower
Edward Snowden in 2013
demonstrate HP’s crucial
collaboration with the US’
global surveillance dragnet.20
• Mass Incarceration: HP is a major player in
the US prison-industrial complex, providing
essential infrastructure for state and private prison systems that form the basis of a
15 Goodstein, Laurie (6/20/14). Presbyterians Vote to Divest Holdings to Pressure
Israel, The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/21/us/presbyterians-debating-israeli-occupation-vote-to-divest-holdings.html?_r=0
16 Welcome to the HP Boycott Campaign, The HP Boycott Campaign of Southern California. http://www.hpboycott.org/. Accessed 5/12/16.
17 Hewlett Packard: Join Us, Global Exchange. http://www.globalexchange.
org/economicactivism/hp/joinus. Accessed 5/12/16.
18 The Case Against Hewlett-Packard, Palestine Solidarity Campaign. http://
www.palestinecampaign.org/case-hewlett-packard/. Accessed 5/12/16.
13 Gaza Strip, B’Tselem. http://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/siege. Accessed
5/12/16.
19 Jewish Telegraph Agency (8/14/14). 1,000 Attend BDS Rally Outside Boston
HP Conference, The Times of Israel. http://www.timesofisrael.com/1000-attend-bds-rally-outside-boston-hp-conference/
14 Settlements, B’Tselem. http://www.btselem.org/settlements/statistics.
Accessed 5/12/16.
20 Hackett, Robert (9/30/15). Carly Fiorina: No Regrets Enabling NSA Spying,
Fortune. http://fortune.com/2015/09/30/carly-fiorina-nsa-spying/
Apartheid Technology: Hewlett-Packard’s Role in Oppression, from South Africa to Palestine to Massachusetts
Page 4
race-based caste system. Attorney Michelle
Alexander refers to this system as “The
New Jim Crow”: the targeting of black men,
through the war on drugs and the decimation
of communities of color, as a form of racial
control. Addressing racism in this country
means addressing the disproportionate rates
at which black people, as well as latinos, lose
their livelihoods, families, and freedoms to
incarceration.21 A growing movement calls on
institutions to divest from companies profiting off of mass incarceration, as a strategy
to reel in a prison system that continues to
expand while making Americans less, not
more, safe.22 HP’s largest, but by no means
only, prison contract is with the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation for the design
and maintenance of the Strategic Offender Management
System — technology that
tracks prisoner data, and is
essential not only for the
continued incarceration of
millions of Black and poor
people, but also for widespread legal discrimination
against former prisoners.23
• Mass Deportation: HP developed technology used by the Obama Administration’s
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
to track, raid, detain, and deport millions
of immigrant families, on a scale unprecedented in US history. HP automates “status
determination” and “criminal alien tracking”
for ICE’s Law Enforcement Support Center,
used by local and state police to profile and
21 Alexander, Michelle (2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the
Age of Colorblindness. New York, New York: New Press.
22 About, Prison Divestment Campaign. https://prisondivest.com. Accessed
5/12/16.
23 Hewlett-Packard (10/28/14). HP Awarded $116 Million Contract Extension to
Enhance California Offender Management System [Press Release]. http://www8.
hp.com/us/en/hp-news/press-release.html?id=1827213
deport immigrants through programs such
as Secure Communities.24 This technology
allows ICE to deport immigrants faster,
thus streamlining a system that separates
people from their livelihoods and families,
and often puts them in physical danger.
• Mass Murder: HP sits alongside war profiteer peers such as Raytheon, Boeing, and
Lockheed Martin as a top-20 US ‘defense’
and ‘homeland security’ contractor.25,26,27
HP technology is employed by every branch
of the US Armed Forces — Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.’s “the greatest purveyor of
violence in the world” — for logistics, propaganda, recruitment, vehicle and weapon systems integration, and battlefield computers.
HP Worldwide
I
n addition to the US and Israel, HP caters to
repressive governments around the world,
which use network surveillance to identify
and suppress dissidents and censor information.
HP directly developed the “Peaceful Chongqing” system of networked cameras in China.28
HP provided Iran and Syria with the surveillance
technology used to crush the Green Movement and Arab Spring in 2011,29 bypassing
24 Hewlett-Packard (5/24/10). HP Awarded Department of Homeland Security
Contract to Provide Application Services [Press Release].
25 Top 20 Defense contractors in 2014, Professional Overseas Contractors.
http://www.your-poc.com/top-20-defense-contractors-2015/. Accessed
5/12/16.
26 Top 100 Defense Contractors 2015, AeroWeb. http://www.bga-aeroweb.com/
Top-100-Defense-Contractors-2015.html. Accessed 5/12/16.
27 Top 100 Contractors of the U.S Federal Government, Wikipedia. https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_100_Contractors_of_the_U.S._federal_government. Accessed 5/12/16.
28 Jennings, Richi (7/6/11). Cisco and HP in “Peaceful Chongqing” China
Surveillance Deal, Computer World. http://www.computerworld.com/article/2470362/government-it/cisco-and-hp-in--peaceful-chongqing--chinasurveillance-deal.html
29 Silver, Vernon (11/18/11). Hewlett-Packard Computers Underpin Syria
Surveillance Project, Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-11-18/hewlett-packard-computers-underpin-syria-electonic-surveillance-project
Apartheid Technology: Hewlett-Packard’s Role in Oppression, from South Africa to Palestine to Massachusetts
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(Photo: Greenpeace via AFP)
sanctions through third party resellers.30 HP has
also engaged in corrupt activities: Subsidiaries
in Russia, Poland, and Mexico have admitted to
bribery and other forms of misconduct.31
HP in Massachusetts
T
he Commonwealth of Massachusetts
contracts with HP — and HP subsidiaries,
partners, and resellers — for consumer office technology, servers, and information
systems. From fiscal years 2010–2016, the Commonwealth spent $147 million on HP goods
and services, divided across several major areas:
office computing hardware and software; e-payment processing; the MassHealth card and database system, and agency information systems.
The following demonstrates that HP’s operations
in Massachusetts are consistent with its modus
operandi of building the infrastructure for state
repression, surveillance, and privatization.
Of the $147 million spent on HP goods and services at the state level from FY2010–2016, at least
$14 million, or about 1%, was spent by law
enforcement and homeland security agencies
(the “Security State”). Because of MA law enforcement agencies’ evasion of public records
law, as well as the private (regional police foundations) and federal (the military 1033 program)
30 Stecklow, Steve (3/22/12). Special Report: Chinese Firm Helps Iran Spy on
Citizens, Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-telecoms-idUSBRE82L0B820120322
31 US Department of Justice (4/9/14). Hewlett-Packard Russia Agrees to Please
Guilty to Foreign Bribery [Press Release]. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/hewlett-packard-russia-agrees-plead-guilty-foreign-bribery
donation of high-tech equipment, this is probably only the tip of the iceberg. ‘Security State’
agencies that consistently buy HP products
include the State Police, Department of Corrections, County Sheriffs, Chief Medical Examiner,
and District Attorneys. In contrast, Commonwealth public health agencies spent only $2.5
million on HP products during this during this
same period.
Israeli firm Electronic Data Systems (EDS), now
HPE, built the basic infrastructure for the Commonwealth’s centralized electronic payment
(E-Pay). EDS/HP also implemented E-Pay processing for agencies such as the Department of
Criminal Justice Info Services, which generates
revenue via its controversial Criminal Offender
Record Information (CORI) online system. HP
thus enables MA law enforcement agencies
to engage in predatory revenue-generation
(most recently exposed in Ferguson, MO) and
legalized racial discrimination in employment,
housing, and public services (via criminal records
as a proxy for race).
HP’s recent $50 million contract extension for
MassHealth information systems in MA is a
prime example of the corporate ‘feeding-frenzy’
around the Affordable Care Act (ACA), legislation widely considered a ‘gift’ to insurance companies.32 While ACA has expanded healthcare
coverage to millions in the US, its implementation in MA has actually lowered coverage quality in MA. HP has helped the Commonwealth
implement subtle austerity measures by creating
a MassHealth membership/ID system that automates eligibility enforcement, removing residents from MassHealth rolls in order to reduce
costs.33
32 Bartlett, Jessica (10/20/14). State Signs $50M, five-year contract with HP for
Medicaid Program, Boston Business Journal. http://www.bizjournals.com/
boston/blog/health-care/2014/10/state-signs-50m-five-year-contract-withhp-for.html
33 Freyer, Felice (5/15/15). MassHealth on Massive Hunt to Verify Eligibility,
Boston Globe. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/05/14/mandateenroll-all-masshealth-members-strains-system/Chb1qhiWZ7uwEvX8eAU2WJ/story.html?p1=Article_Related_Box_Article
Apartheid Technology: Hewlett-Packard’s Role in Oppression, from South Africa to Palestine to Massachusetts
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HP spinoff Agilent Technologies is a major
provider of equipment and services for the infamous Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab,
the center of an evidence-falsification scandal
that cast doubt on tens of thousands of drug
cases and convictions. Far from independent
agencies that check police claims, forensic crime
labs have a mandate to support police investigations and theories, creating a strong incentive
for the manipulation of evidence. From 2003–7,
HP installed 2,000 laptops in patrol cars for the
Massachusetts State Police, one of the most
racially discriminatory law enforcement agencies
in the United States according to ACLU data.34
HP also sponsors private police organizations like
the New England High-Tech Crime Investigation Association, providing free equipment and
training. It is no surprise, then, that quasi-private,
militarized police agencies like The Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council
(NEMLEC), a private nonprofit front for regional police SWAT teams, own a great deal of HP
equipment, often received through corporate
donors.35
On Track Innovations (OTI), the Israeli HP
subcontractor that supplies biometric ID cards
for Israel’s BASEL system, also built the MBTA’s
CharlieCard system, supplying card readers and
support software for the MBTA’s 2006-7 ticketing overhaul.36 HP is constantly searching for
new Commonwealth contracting opportunities.
Recently, it has expressed interest or submitted
proposals for running a Raytheon cyber-defense
product pilot and providing IT services for the
MA National Guard.
Beyond procurement, HP maintains a considerable presence in Massachusetts, much of it
34 ACLU of Massachusetts v. Evans, ACLU of Massachusetts. https://aclum.
org/cases-briefs/aclu-of-massachusetts-v-evans/. Accessed 5/12/16.
35 NEMLEC SWAT Team Documents, ACLU of Massachusetts. https://aclum.
org/nemlec-swat-team-documents/ Accessed 5/12/16.
36 Williams, Andy (4/19/07). Boston’s New Contactless CharlieCard Makes Commuting Easier for a Million Daily Riders, Secure ID News. http://www.secureidnews.com/news-item/bostons-new-contactless-charliecard-makes-commuting-easier-for-a-million-daily-riders/. Accessed 5/12/16.
devoted to security and intelligence. HP “Big
Data” division Vertica, whose clients include the
Drug Enforcement Agency37 and Navy, has a
37,000 square-foot facility near Alewife station
in Cambridge. HP Ventures recently invested
millions of dollars into Tel-Aviv/Boston-based cybersecurity firm Hexadite and Cambridge-based
big data firm Tamr — firms that plan to cash in
on government surveillance and cybersecurity
fearmongering.38,39 Massachusetts was also at
the center of the 2006 HP Pretexting Scandal,
in which high-level HP executives directed their
Boston-based private security force, the Global
Security Unit, as well as outside investigators, to
illegally surveil the communications and whereabouts of workers and journalists.40 HP is thus an
unusually bad corporate actor, without respect
for the rule of law or human rights — from Israel’s
illegal settlements to our own backyard.
HP in Cambridge
C
ambridge does not make itemized
spending data available in an “Open
Checkbook” — leaving the city considerably behind the Commonwealth, Boston,
and Somerville Open Data initiatives. From the
limited data available for FY2012–2014, the City
of Cambridge spent an average of $185,000 per
37 Drug Enforcement Administration (10/18/16). $67,622 Contract to Vertica
Systems Inc. for Maintenance, Repair and Rebuilding of Equipment: Automatic
Data Processing Equipment, Procurement ID: DJD13HQP0039. http://government-contracts.insidegov.com/l/959865/DJD13HQP0039
38 Tamr Team (7/19/15), Why the US Government Needs Tamr, Tamr. http://
www.tamr.com/why-the-u-s-government-needs-tamr/
39 Harris, David (2/10/16). Hewlett Packard Helps Fund Boston Cybersecurity
Startup, Boston Business Journal. http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/
startups/2016/02/hewlett-packard-helps-fund-boston-cybersecurity.html
40 Hewlett-Packard Spying Scandal, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Hewlett-Packard_spying_scandal. Accessed 5/12/16.
Apartheid Technology: Hewlett-Packard’s Role in Oppression, from South Africa to Palestine to Massachusetts
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quarter on HP goods and services through the
statewide rate contract for computers and accessories.41 Cambridge likely procures HP products
through other contracts, so quarterly spending
on HP is likely higher. Significantly, as a matter
of procurement and IT policy, Cambridge only
uses HP printers and Dell Computers.42
Under the statewide rate contracts used by
Massachusetts municipalities to purchase and
lease IT goods and services, numerous alternatives to HP products are available. The contracts
are non-binding and allow the municipalities
to purchase any of the equipments listed in the
contracts to satisfy their needs. This means that
Cambridge can choose to purchase from other
41 FOIA Results, ITC47 Itemized Purchases FY2012–2014
42 File No. 6893: Request for Proposals for Parking Management Information System (7/9/15). City of Cambridge. http://www2.cambridgema.gov/purchasing/
documents/2873/Bid2873.pdf
vendors, such as Dell, Apple, and Lenovo for
example, at discounted rates. This means that
Cambridge can change its procurement policy
with little to no effect to the cost, while taking an
ethical stance against racism and oppression.
Cambridge is under no legal obligation to
continue to use HP products; technical and
economic constraints are relatively small from a
budgetary point of view. But a switch to alternative companies would be worthwhile in the face
of HP’s violations of human rights and dignity,
and precedented by Cambridge’s leadership on
fighting South African apartheid in the 1970s and
80s.
Visit www.MassAgainstHP.org for more
information, and updates on the campaign.
Appendix
A note on HP’s corporate structure:
In November 2015, HP split into two firms: HP Inc. (HPQ) for consumer hardware
(PCs and printers), and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) for business solutions
(services, servers, storage, networking). Because the companies share facilities,
management, supply chains, and branding — and collaborate on purchasing and
bidding1 — both remain apartheid profiteers.
1 Burke, Steven (4/7/15). 10 Things You Don’t Know About The HP Split, CRN Magazine, http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/datacenter/300076419/10-things-you-dont-know-about-the-hp-split.htm
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