Protesting Palantir and the billionaire takeover

Hundreds of union members are anticipated to join a rally against Palantir and billionaires like Peter Thiel, whose surveillance tech fuels authoritarianism at taxpayers’ expense

SEATTLE, WA (August 14, 2025) — A handful of billionaires are taking over the U.S. government, bypassing public accountability, undermining democratic oversight, and embedding their technology — bankrolled by the taxes paid by working people. Perhaps no entity has been more effective in these goals than billionaire Peter Thiel’s Palantir, which is steadily using its wealth and technologies to erode democracy and entrench corporate control, threatening workers’ rights and essential freedoms. 

Once a little-known Silicon Valley firm, Palantir has become the go-to data company for the Trump administration, raking in nearly a billion dollars in contracts with agencies across the federal government in just the first half of this year, as reported by the New York Times. Palantir is essential to efforts to compile data on working people in the U.S., providing the government more tools to surveil it’s people. It’s tech is being used to power ICE raids and expand the militarization of police. And beyond direct contracts, Palantir’s tech is in use by other companies with government contracts, firmly planting Palantir at the center of the growing surveillance state weaponized against immigrants and all working people.

Thiel, Palantir’s billionaire co-founder, has a long history of funding anti-worker and hard-right politicians like Vice President J.D. Vance. His embrace of authoritarianism is a feature of his worldview, writing in 2009 that he “no longer believe[s] that freedom and democracy are compatible.”

Palantir and billionaires like Thiel are fueling militarized authoritarianism and undermining democracy. And working people are taking notice. Nationwide protests against Palantir kicked off in July, including a Seattle protest led by Jewish Voice for Peace, calling out Israel’s use of Palantir tech to surveil and target Palestinians in Gaza.

Protests will continue this Labor Day, as union members and working people will gather in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood to publicly call out Palantir, Thiel, and the use of tax dollars to fund authoritarian tech.

The Seattle rally is part of the AFL-CIO’s Workers’ Labor Day week of action with events across the U.S., uniting working people in actions calling for an economy, government, and country for workers, not billionaires.

TAKE A STAND: RSVP for the Workers Over Billionaires rally and community gathering on Monday, September 1 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., meeting at the Cascade Playground (333 Pontius Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109).