Science’s development is not the enemy. The question — always the question — is who owns it, who controls it, and to what purpose they wield it.
At Trump’s inauguration, the top tech capitalists stood behind him: Nazi and apartheid sympathizer Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX, xAI) — Trump’s closest tech ally, who spent almost $300 million supporting his campaign; anti-worker algorithm boss Mark Zuckerberg (Meta); Amazon sweatshop boss Jeff Bezos; Tim Cook of Apple; and Sundar Pichai of Google/Alphabet. Sam Altman of OpenAI donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.
Today, artificial intelligence is being cornered by the same forces whose only real claim to fame is being ruthless enough to claw their way to ownership — or being born into a class enriched by stolen wealth. These are not innovators. They are parasites
BlackRock is pouring billions into stocks and bonds to profit from the reckless race to build data centers. This is a bubble waiting to burst — and when it does, workers will pay for it with their pensions. All those billions are stolen wages, extracted from workers around the world.
The working class must respond to these capitalist monsters who threaten our communities and commit war crimes abroad. Our struggle must be both immediate and long-term, and our demands must be clear. What follows is a starting point — a set of demands that will grow and change as the struggle develops.
No AI for the military machine
The Department of War, under Pete Hegseth, has announced its embrace of AI-driven warfare. On Feb. 28, 2026, the Pentagon murdered 168 people — 120 of them children — in the bombing of the Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran, assisted by Palantir’s Maven AI targeting system. This “triple tap” strike is not collateral damage. This is murder by algorithm, sanctioned by the government, carried out by machines built by corporations that profit from death. War and the military destroy workers and communities. The capitalist system cannot survive without its military machine.
No AI for ICE and the cops
Palantir is the company most closely associated with ICE’s data-and-targeting infrastructure. Its relationship with ICE goes back more than a decade, and its tools have supported the agency’s Investigative Case Management system. It assists in ICE’s murder of immigrants and their supporters. More recently, ICE awarded Palantir a contract reported at about $30 million to build ImmigrationOS, a system designed to support enforcement and removal operations.
Police departments are employing the AI-surveillance company Flock Safety to intensify their surveillance and control of communities, particularly Black and Brown communities. Flock Safety —especially through automated license-plate readers and its nationwide searchable vehicle-camera network — is another tentacle of this octopus.
Protect workers’ jobs
A job is a right. No one should lose their job because of AI. Workers must control how and when AI is used. Bosses want to automate us out of existence, replacing us with machines that never sleep, never complain, never organize. The gains from AI must benefit those who create wealth — the working class — not those who seized ownership of the machines. The time to demand 30 hours for 40 hours’ pay is long overdue.
Immediate halt to data centers
No tax abatements, non-disclosure agreements, special electricity rates, or other schemes facilitated by local politicians. Roll back utility rates for all communities. Who suffers when the lights go out? We do. We say: halt the data centers. Workers have a right to occupy and prevent the construction of data centers in their communities. Safety and our well-being demand it.
Defend the environment — no to racism
Resistance is already growing. In Boxtown, a majority-Black community in South Memphis founded by formerly enslaved people, residents have fought decades of industrial pollution. In 2025 they learned that Elon Musk’s xAI was powering its supercomputer with 35 methane gas turbines operating without air permits. At an April 25, 2025, hearing, a resident held up her asthma inhaler as she called on county officials to reject the permit. The struggle has since spread across the Tennessee-Mississippi line to Southaven, where xAI has expanded its operations. Around the country, opposition is mounting: state and local governments have adopted more than 300 temporary or permanent bans and moratoriums on new data-center construction.
Memphis. Flint. Cancer Alley. The list goes on. AI data centers and the industries that feed them are being dumped in Black and Brown communities, poisoning our air, our water, our children. This is environmental racism, and we will not tolerate it. We say: defend the environment. End environmental racism.
No dynamic pricing and exploitation of personal data
Dynamic pricing is a scam. It squeezes as much out of workers as possible while exploiting our personal data for profit. We say: no dynamic pricing, roll back prices. No exploitation of personal data. Our lives are not commodities.
No imperialist exploitation — protect workers globally
Poorer countries are being forced to bear the brunt of supplying what the mega tech companies of the United States need and want, while lacking access to and sovereignty over AI’s use and ownership. The same corporations that exploit workers here exploit workers everywhere. Our struggle is international. We say: no imperialist exploitation. Protect workers globally.
Not one of these greedy, parasitic capitalists can be trusted to wield any technology in the interests of workers and our communities. Ultimately, we must wrest it from their hands.
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