Stopping the Corporate Capture of Public Services in Sheffield and worldwide.

by Global Justice Sheffield

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 anti-democratic 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 anti-democratic 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 sub-group co-coordinator 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 Movement-building 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 UK-based 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.

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