Watch the ACT UP 39 Die-in @ Palantir Video
ACT UP 39 street action Video Transcript
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Speaker, Ryan: …misogynistic, white-supremacist founder, government profiteering, billionaire [Inaudible; Peter Thiel?]…
Die-in crowd: Shame!
Speaker, Ryan: The MAGA administration increased ICE’s budget by 10 billion dollars!
Die-in crowd: Shame!
Speaker, Ryan: ICE has a budget of 85 billion dollars!
Die-in crowd: Shame!
Speaker, Ryan: And Palantir has an $81 million contract with ICE!
Die-in crowd: Shame!
Speaker, Ryan: And Palantir has a 10 billion dollar contract with the United States Army!
Die-in crowd: Shame!
Speaker, Ryan: And as of today, it looks like it might have been canceled—on the day of our action. Palantir has a $4 million, three-year contract with New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation.
Die-in crowd: Shame!
Speaker, Ryan: For the last two years, Palantir has been inside our hospitals and healthcare clinics.
Die-in crowd: Shame!
Speaker, Ryan: To chase people down on this pavement!
Die-in crowd: Shame!
Speaker, Ryan: Palantir is a tool of the American oligarch. Palantir is a threat to American democracy. And we want Palantir out of New York!
Die-in crowd: Out of New York!
Speaker, Ryan: Alright, now what if I told you that your state pension dollars were invested in this company?
Die-in crowd: Boo! Shame!
Speaker, Ryan: Right now, we have state pension funds worth half a billion dollars of your money invested in this company. Do we want that?
Die-in crowd: No!
Speaker, Ryan: We shield this company to terrorize our immigrant families, our brothers and sisters, and murder Americans. Is that shameful, or not?
Die-in crowd: Shame!
Speaker, Ryan: Do we need more public officials and elected officials standing up for the state? Not on our watch! The State Comptroller has a 300 billion dollar pension fund, and not only did he invest in Palantir last year, he doubled his stake! When everyone knew they were terrorizing people with ICE. Let me ask you one more time: Do we need Palantir out of our pension fund?
Die-in crowd: Yes!
Speaker, Ryan: Do we need ICE out of New York?
Die-in crowd: Yes!
Chants: Palantir out of New York! Palantir out of New York! Palantir out of New York! Palestine will be free!
New Speaker: These are genocidal times. What is happening in Gaza is a genocide. This is inarguable. In fact, if you are disputing this in the year 2026, you are not welcome here. There is no justification, no normalization of genocide. We start with that.
Speaker: And we’ve learned that genocide is the crime of all crimes—the worst of the worst. Palantir begins with genocide. We know that genocide is not new and that the history of war is intertwined with the history of technology. So, I want you to think of Palantir as a weapons manufacturer. Because that’s what they are. They are a weapons manufacturer—a virtual weapons manufacturer in the modern age, 2026.
Speaker: The reliance on AI by Israel’s military is not new. In 2021, Israel’s military called “Operation Guardian of the Walls” the first artificial intelligence war. AI has been extensively used to turn Palestinians into “data bodies.” Much has been written about the testing of AI systems through the lens of Palestine as a laboratory that subjects Palestinians to experimental and deadly violence. A laboratory is where experiments take place to be dropped into the world at large.
Speaker: I just want to note that two days ago, the BDS movement declared a special target against Palantir. My first thought was, “Oh, what a coincidence!” But it’s not a coincidence. Under this imperialist structure, in the belly of the beast, there are no coincidences when it comes to fighting that structure. This is a convergence.
Speaker: The demands of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement are simple. They say: Globally, we must pressure governments and institutions—universities, hospitals, trade unions, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, religious institutions, and those who manage aid organizations—to end contracts and partnerships with Palantir and divest from the company. The Palestinian-led BDS movement calls for forming broad, intersectional coalitions to lead contract exclusion campaigns, peaceful disruptions, and other forms of pressure on institutions contracting with Palantir.
Speaker: So please follow the BDS movement. And just today, like Ryan said, we’ve already had a victory. Thank you.
Chants: Fight for AIDS and healthcare, not for ICE and warfare! Fight for AIDS and healthcare, not for ICE and warfare!
Introduction: Our last speaker, Josh, from ACT UP New York.
Speaker, Josh: We are united in our anger over the destruction that the HIV/AIDS pandemic has brought upon us. We are aware of the surveillance, torture, and killings happening not just by ICE, but by the broader carceral state. However, we must also be aware of the intersections among them—specifically between HIV/AIDS and ICE detention services. ICE detention serves as an arena of violence and disease. [Inaudible] conditions rife with sexual, verbal, psychological, and physical violence.
Die-in crowd: Shame!
Speaker, Josh: Encouraged to maim human beings, with over half of LGBTQ, HIV-positive detainees suffering while their therapies are deliberately withheld.
Die-in crowd: Shame!
Speaker Josh: The incentive for ICE profiteers such as Palantir—a company that surveils not just to mass incarcerate, but to degrade—makes suffering not just apathetic, but profitable. This is not a coincidence. When we talk about what happens in any type of incarceration, we must discuss the implications of the carceral state itself. It serves as a punitive response to social issues. By silencing marginalized groups, HIV-positive people, and immigrants, there is another incentive: to incapacitate them. This is what influential feminist bell hooks calls the “Imperialist White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy.”
Speaker, Josh: So the question is: How do we stop this? How do we create a world together without these chronic illnesses, without patients being discarded, in honor of the ones who have passed before us? We must imagine a world where money is properly allocated to healthcare, housing, and education. We must envision a world where humans are not discarded—a world where the collective goal is not to entrap people behind bars or with the disease of HIV/AIDS, but to liberate people from the pain and suffering they and many others before them have endured. We must translate our suffering into hope and come together to create a world that is not a utopia, but a reality. Most importantly, we must remember what Ruth Wilson Gilmore said: “Where life is precious, life is precious.”
Speaker, Ryan: The Palantirs are watching us right now. The drone is watching us right now. Rise up. Rise up. ACT UP, fight back, fight AIDS!
Hello!
I’m sending this to make sure that this organization knows about a general strike which will be happening across the US on May 1st.
https://maydaystrong.org/
I know it’s likely that you’re already aware of this, but I would hate to leave it up to chance!
I’d also recommend reaching out to any other organizations you’re connected with, in order to make sure that there’s as much awareness of this as possible (not just inside organizations, but on the streets as well).
Enjoy!
Simon