As the U.S. and Israel wage a new war of aggression on Iran and Lebanon, SXSW still refuses to fully cut ties with the U.S. military and the war industry.

In 2024, after large scale organizing efforts and an artist boycott, SXSW agreed to end its ties with the U.S. military and the war industry. However, the festival refused to fully explain its decision, and refused to answer our basic questions about its new policy. During the 2025 festival, war contractors and the military still orbited the official festival.

Now, as the latest U.S.-Israeli war rages across the Middle East, SXSW continues its connections with Capital Factory, the "startup hub" that hosts the US Army, US Air Force, Palantir, and a host of weapons manufacturers and military tech companies. Capital Factory pages feature official SXSW branding for their events, and SXSW badge holders are being granted full access to Capital Factory events. Last year, Capital Factory's Director of Government Programs, Brance Hudziez, was an official SXSW speaker.

This all comes in addition to SXSW already hosting a keynote speech from the new CEO of Spotify—which was recently targeted by the BDS movement for its complicity with Israeli apartheid and genocide — and a panel featuring executives from a the Israeli-based AI surveillance company Realsense.

UMAW and Austin for Palestine Coalition call on SXSW to keep its promises and immediately sever its connections to the war industry — including its collaborations with Capital Factory — and fully commit to a policy of ethical screening, rejecting sponsorship and speakers from the war industry and those that are otherwise complicit in, that advocate for, or that whitewash grave violations of international law anywhere, including crimes committed against Palestinians. This echoes last year's call from the BDS movement. Until SXSW publicly commits to this, we call on all artists offered performances at any SXSW event to privately and publicly echo this demand.