ILPS protests against San Francisco war profiteers, celebrates 25 years of people’s struggle
San Francisco, CA – On June 1, the International League of People’s Struggle spearheaded an action against two war profiteers in San Francisco, Scale AI and OpenAI. The action drew attention to the complicity that AI tech companies in the Bay Area have with genocide, U.S. warmongering and national oppression abroad.
Scale AI has a $500 million partnership with the Department of War, and OpenAI has a similar contract. Both companies have headquarters located in San Francisco not far from one another, and, due to their considerable ties to American militarism and intervention abroad, they were chosen as the chief targets of the demonstration.
The march and rally served as a conclusion to the weekend-long ILPS conference. There was also a smaller mobilization demanding justice for the Nergros19 outside the Filipino consulate that took place that morning at 8 a.m. The conference and protest marked the 25th anniversary of ILPS's founding.
The march began with a gathering downtown that marched over to Scale AI’s company headquarters. There, activists drawn from across the country spoke on issues from around the world, all tied together by the common thread of U.S. intervention, meddling and violence, and companies like Scale AI willingly aiding and abetting that violence.
Chants included “People of the world get ready to fight, no tech for war, no genocide!” as well as “No more AI for war, we're fired up, won’t take it no more!”
After opening remarks from Brandon Lee, a veteran organizer and International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines chair, the program included speakers representing different parts of the international struggle, from local labor leader Mike Casey to representatives of the struggle in Haiti. All of them attacked AI companies like Scale as complicit in the targeting and surveillance of activists, the repression of people’s struggles, and the perpetuation of U.S. imperialism.
The march continued past several streets over to the headquarters of OpenAI.
There, the program went on with a speech from BAYAN USA member Andan Bonifacio, who stated, “We’re here to protest the war and suffering these tech companies bring upon our people. And we know that this is not a new thing. More than 120 years ago, when the U.S. first landed in the Philippines, they brought new technology with them … waterboarding, cameras to surveil our communities, they massacred our people, and took photos to use as psychological warfare. 120 years later and look at where we are.”
Bonifacio continued, saying that the imperialists “are very good at hiding the severe exploitation, the severe oppression behind capitalism, with words like innovation, and the future. What do we think about that?” The crowd responded with a single word, “Lies!”
Bonifacio ended his speech with a poignant tribute to the martyrs of Negros. “No matter how technologically advanced, no matter how sophisticated, no matter how well funded this imperialist machine is, they mean nothing in the face of the people,” he said. “Remember that today, we must all know that. It is something that our comrade, Lyle, knew, that the Negros 19 knew, that all our people’s martyrs knew.” Bonifacio was referring to the 19 people murdered by the U.S.-backed Armed Forces of the Philippines in Tobosos, Negro, including Filipino-American activist Lyle Prijoles.
Arab Resource and Organizing Center director Lara Kiswani stated, “Companies such as OpenAI and Palantir profit from developing technology that facilitates warfare abroad,” she said. “We understand the struggle of the people of the Philippines is one and the same as the struggle for working people in Haiti, Iran, in Sudan, in Lebanon, in Palestine, and right here in the United States.”
The program closed out with a brief speech from ILPS US’s recently elected chair. Final chants included “Defend, defend, defend the people’s struggle! Advance, advance, advance the people’s struggle!” This closed out the successful three-day ILPS convention with a reaffirmation of their commitment to opposing U.S. intervention and war profiteers in all their forms.