Global Justice Sheffield are holding a public meeting:
“Palentir Out: Stopping the corporate capture of public services worldwide”
Speakers: Rory Gibson (Medact Sheffield) and Daisy Pearson (Global Justice Now)
Date: Thursday, October 22nd, 7.15 pm.
Venue: Central United Reformed Church (Norfolk Room), Norfolk Street, Sheffied S1 2JB (corner of Chapel Walk).
To book your place, go to https://buytickets.at/globaljusticesheffield1/2429247
The public meeting will be preceded by our AGM, 6.15-7.00 pm.
Palantir is a US tech company that makes tools and software used for
surveillance and AI warfare. It is part of a growing global push by Big
Tech to profit by controlling public services. First they offer very
“affordable” data management systems, to win contracts and make us
dependent. Then they can inflate their prices and mine and sell our data to
support antidemocratic forces.
Despite its despicable record, the company has been given at least 35
UK public sector contracts, ranging from the NHS to policing and local
government. These not only help the company to whitewash its record and
boost its profits but also give it access to highly sensitive information.
Technical dependence on a company whose leadership has expressed antidemocratic
views and aligned with Trump’s American nationalist movement is
a strategic risk to UK democracy.
And with Palantir’s ambitions to dominate public services worldwide,
supported by Trump’s weaponisation of trade globally to bully countries to
favour US corporations, the people of the global South can expect to be
among Palantir’s future victims – with far less chance of protecting
themselves.
But we can fight back. NHS trusts are already resisting the rollout of
Palantir’s technology, and workers and campaigners are lobbying to remove it
across government departments. Ultimately we need safeguards to stop
companies with dangerous records on human rights from winning public sector
contracts.
And we don’t have to put up with Palantir in our NHS any longer.
Next February, a “break clause” comes up, allowing the UK to end the contract.
The government has to put it to Parliament by early December.
And we need maximum public pressure on them now to do that!
Rory Gibson is the South Yorkshire campaign subgroup
cocoordinator for Medact Sheffield
and for No Palantir in the NHS. Medact Sheffield organises to reverse health injustices, which
are driven by political, social, and economic forces. They have been organising with Health
Workers for a Free Palestine on Palantir’s NHS contract for the past year, lobbying politicians
and health leaders.
Daisy Pearson is a longtime climate and economic justice campaigner. Currently Movementbuilding
Manager at Global Justice Now, she works to grow and strengthen activist networks.
She now works across Palestine, trade justice, big tech and corporate power, organising against
Palantir’s role in UK public services.
Global Justice Sheffield is a grassroots group for Global Justice Now, a UKbased
campaign organisation for social and environmental justice. We work as part of a global movement to
challenge corporate power and create a more just and equal world. We mobilise people in the
UK for change, and act in solidarity with those fighting injustice, particularly in the global South.
