Boycott Hewlett Packard Toolkit

In 2016 BDS Italy organized a campaign aimed at well-known Italian pop star Fedez, who was involved in an HP Lounge contest. Activists hijacked the contest hashtag and HP’s complicity was raised during a public event, where Fedez asked for more information giving activists a chance to elaborate before a large audience.

• Create Google alerts using keywords “Hewlett Packard,” “HP Inc.,” or “HPE” + your city or area to get news delivered to your inbox
• Follow HP social media channels and the hashtag #HPLounge for information on events.
• Reach out to artists, venues or other sponsors involved.
• Create social media campaigns.
• Show up, distribute information, or organize direct actions.

In November 2016, the UK’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign staged a novel form of protest at HPE’s showcase Discover Event. Approximately 30 well-dressed campaigners mingled with delegates as they arrived, or returned from a coffee or cigarette break.

Delegates were presented with fake ID Cards summarizing HP’s key human rights violations, which they read — perhaps expecting a special conference pass! Conversations ensued about HP’s corporate ethics and responsibilities, with campaigners emphasizing that as a signatory of the UN Global Compact, and under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, HP had an obligation to remedy the situation. Many corporate customers indicated they would raise the issues with their HPE account managers.

As a result of this successful action, BDS Italy succeeded in having HP removed from the program of a subsequent conference on ethics in information technology.

Find local events by searching using HP Inc.’s & HPE’s events calendars. On the event day(s):

• Blend with the attendees, dress smart, be friendly, and hand out glossy conference-style factsheets that list key violations and weblinks.
• Answer questions and elaborate on the information provided.
• Prominent banners displaying HP logos/complicity and a banner showing disappearing Palestine help set the tone visually. Broadcast far and wide on social media. The International Boycott HP Network can help with this!

In November 2016, over 100 cities participated in the first ever HP Boycott Global Week of Action, with many actions targeting vendors of HP products. There were more than 150 creative actions in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Peru, Sudan, and across the Middle East, Europe, and North America.

• Deliver a letter to the manager of a local or national retailer urging them to stop stocking HP products.
• If they refuse, picket the store holding signs and flyering outside to escalate pressure and calmly educate shoppers about HP and Palestine. Distribute customer feedback cards to shoppers asking them to hand them in to the manager.
• Use creative tactics to continue to build pressure. Evaluate your leverage and power as you go, and re-approach the retailers with your demands.

To give just a few example tactics from the 2016 Boycott HP week of action:

• In Hamburg, Germany, activists projected a video about HP’s crimes in a spirited protest outside a major electronics store.
• In Osaka, Japan, activists held a 22-meter-long mock wall outside a large HP retailer.
• In New York City, activists sang Boycott HP carols outside the stores of settlement mogul Lev Leviev.
• In Rome, activists dropped a Boycott HP banner near the Colosseum.
• In Seattle, activists held mic-check flash mobs inside stores selling HP products, lifting up the connections from Palestine to Standing Rock.
• In Khartoum, Sudan, activists held a lively action in a park distributing stickers and flyers encouraging passersby to boycott HP wherever they shop.
• You can see inspiring photos here, here, and here.

The first HP–Free Church win occurred in December 2016 and many others have joined since. This is a very winnable campaign model. You can read Pastor David Grishaw-Jones’ sermon in advance of his church’s vote to become HP-free here and his article in the local paper after the vote here.

FOSNA provides a HP-Free Campaign kit including a church slideshow presentation, sample sermon, fact sheets, and more on why and how to become an HP-Free Church. Sign up to receive resources and discuss strategies for success on the HP-Free Churches webpage. Different churches are approaching the decision in different ways.

In most cases, congregation members learn about HP through the PowerPoint presentation and then approach church leadership about how they can become HP-free. Some will simply take a vote then and there; others have asked for a 3-month moratorium on purchasing HP products until a permanent decision can be made; some have laid out an educational plan including an after-church service forum, a table on Sundays, a presentation to church leadership, bringing in outside speakers on HP’s complicity, etc.

The first church to become HP-free held numerous educational opportunities and then the church council voted unanimously to sign the pledge and become HP-free. In the US, folks nearing a win should reach out to FOSNA to make a plan for publicizing the good news (if you wish) and next steps. Once there are a significant number of wins, there will be the potential for strong media attention.

In June 2018, the Students Federation of India (SFI), which is more than 4 million members strong, joined the global campaign to boycott HP. This means that Hewlett Packard companies now risk losing millions of potential clients in India because of their complicity in Israel’s gross violations of Palestinian human rights.

In Italy, organizations as diverse as the Italian Forum of Water Movements, the nonviolence research center Sereno Regis, the fair trade shop Ex-Aequo, the 250,000 member-strong trade union USB and cartoonist Zerocalcare have all issued statements in 2017 declaring theirs to be an HP-free workspace.

In Malaysia, 60 organizations representing well over 100,000 people have pledged to become HP-free, and organizers are working to raise the number of organizations to 100.

And in Philadelphia, Tikkun Olam Chavurah voted unanimously to become an HP-Free Space, becoming the first Jewish institution to do so.

In Malaysia, organizers reached out to supporters to go to their own respective organizations with information on HP and a list of organizations already boycotting HP. Once they took the pledge, each organization was sent a certificate to hang on their wall to publicly display their decision and build the campaign.

In India, BDS organizers were in communication with members of the Students Federation of India regarding BDS and the HP boycott. In the context of the Great Return March in the Gaza Strip, members of the students’ organization raised the proposal in their central committee meeting in June 2018, with success. The resolution to join the HP Boycott campaign became an important step to concretely show solidarity with the courageous protesters in Gaza.

The section above on HP-free churches also offers a good organizing model that can be used for institutions beyond churches. Reach out to institutions in your local community, asking them to sign onto a template HP boycott pledge, which you or they can customize for their context. If possible, suggest they then issue their own statement. Presenting success stories through examples from past HP campaigns can demonstrate the range of organizations endorsing the HP campaign.

In the Spanish State, dozens of cities have declared themselves “Israeli Apartheid-Free Zones,” refraining from contracting services or purchasing products from complicit companies, including HP.

In 2015, Portland’s Human Rights Commission unanimously endorsed placing HP and other human rights violators on a city no-buy list.

Past municipal campaigns targeting occupation profiteers Veolia and G4S have followed a similar campaign model. In April 2018, the city of Dublin, Ireland endorsed BDS and promised to discontinue all its business contracts with HP branded companies and spin-offs.

In the U.S., more than 40 campuses have successfully passed student or faculty divestment resolutions or referenda, many of them mentioning HP. Many campuses have also succeeded in removing products complicit in Israeli oppression (e.g. Sabra hummus) from their campuses. At a university in Jerusalem, students placed stickers that said “When I grow up, I wanna be a checkpoint” on HP products campus-wide to kick off a HP boycott campaign.

• Start by gathering as much information as possible about the university’s investments. Where information is not forthcoming, make a simple, direct FOI request for the remaining detail. If that is not successful, don’t be deterred! Proceed with a campaign highlighting the lack of transparency and demanding divestment if the university indeed holds such funds.
• Depending on your circumstances, you may choose to pursue a resolution or hold a campus-wide referendum. There are examples from previous campaigns that can help you write this—no need to start from scratch! If you’re working on a student council resolution, it’s important to know you have at least one strongly supportive councilor who can champion your resolution.
• Gather support for the campaign from allies (faculty, other social justice organizations for whom you have also shown support, etc.), or better yet, make it a coalition-led campaign from the start, before launching.
• As in all campaigns, set your goals, map your allies and opposition, and lay out a timeline.
• Once you have your ducks in a row, there are many creative ways to launch – from a video and social media splash to an op-ed to an event or mock wall exhibition on campus. Canvass regularly, and hold teach-ins and events. Consider participating in Israeli Apartheid Week, an international week of action in the spring. Use a petition with the same ask as your resolution to build popular support campus-wide.

In the US, the Quaker Friends Fiduciary Corporation (2012), Presbyterian Church (USA) (2014), United Church of Christ (2015), Alliance of Baptists (2016), Unitarian Universalist Association (2016), Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (2016), Mennonite Church (2017) and multiple United Methodist Church regional and church-wide bodies have all divested from HP or companies like it for their involvement of Israel’s oppressive practices. Some campaigns have targeted specific companies, while others have worked to establish a new investment fund or institute an investment screen to avoid profiting from occupation.

• Corporate Engagement: Many churches first engage companies of concern to give them an opportunity to change; boycotts/divestment are a last resort when companies have refused to respond or address the problem.
• Resolution: Look at past resolutions across denominations (example) and get a good writing/editing team. Include documentation, citations, and the history of company engagement.
• Church Leaders: Meet with church leaders, including those responsible for investments, to discuss your goals and what it would take for them to support economic action. They may even choose to divest preemptively, like the UUA did.
• Allies: Build relationships with allies within and beyond the denomination, giving consideration to youth, intersectionality, and how your campaign relates to and shows up for other social justice struggles. Allies can provide public endorsements/letters of support, as well as advocacy efforts.
• Database: Learn about voting delegates and reach out with information about the resolution. Find out what information/support they need to be a strong voice for the resolution.
• Debate: Learn parliamentary procedures used at the assembly, how to work within those, and plan how to deal with diverse situations that may arise. Prepare key speakers and talking points.
• Visible Presence: Have a visible presence with colorful stoles, buttons, a booth, and a strong team on the ground to engage, pass out flyers/stoles, etc. Singing, candlelight vigils, and interfaith prayer circles are some of the many powerful forms of public witness.
• Media: Prepare media kits for press and invite major outlets. Plan in advance what publicity will go out (including social media) and to whom immediately after the vote. Generating op-eds and articles before the vote is great, too.
• Spiritual Grounding: Have a chaplain or spiritual guide to ground you during hard times and open and close meetings with prayer and reflections.